Personalized competence based learning paths for VET in Europe Erasmus Project

Project Title

Personalized competence based learning paths for VET in Europe

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Cooperation between educational institutions and business

Project Summary

The competence-based VET has been promoted in the 21st century EU by, among other things, the European ECVET and the European Qualifications Framework (EQF). The acquisition of the project was necessary to identify a different amount of acquired skills and the recognition in other EU countries to strengthen competence-based vocational training.

The project was coordinated from Finland and the partners came from Germany, Estonia, Sweden and Spain. The primary target group of the project was VET institutions and students in Europe. The project suffered major setbacks. The sudden death of the project manager and the Covid-19 epidemic caused work challenges and the cancellation of mobility caused massive reorganizations.

During the project, it was stated that competence-based concept is implemented differently and at different levels from the point of view of the Finnish perspective. Fe. in Finland and Estonia, competence-based is comprehended and understood as a broad concept that enables students to personalize their studies according to their own needs and abilities, studies are not time-bound. While in Germany and Spain, competence-based concept and personalization are only just coming to the debate. Its’ importance is seen as one development point of one’s own educational culture. Legislative issues and educational policy traditions in particular were seen as a challenge. In Finland, for example, the reform of VET was possible due to changes of entire legislation. This created the conditions for Finnish competence-based learning. Sweden expressed a desire to find new models for VET that will serve better the changing society. Germany’s dual model is strong and this type of education model can be challenging, but also the dual model could benefit from competence-based and personalization approach. The project involved an intensive discussion on the differences, strengths, weaknesses and opportunities of education systems, as well as barriers.

The aim of the project was to support the mobility of skilled labor in Europe and to strengthen national and European competitiveness, as well as to promote and make mobility more flexible. However, no funding was granted for student mobility in the project, so the objectives and experiences in this respect were not achieved. However, the material and tools produced during the project will further promote and facilitate mobility and the possibility of finding internships in partner cities. At the same time, the opportunities for companies to offer suitable internships in terms of students’ competence goals are also supported.

Development responsibilities and measures in product design and production were shared among the project partners. Germany was responsible for IO1, Estonia IO2, Finland IO3, Sweden and Spain IO4 product development. The partners supported the responsible actors during the project. More detailed content of the products was agreed at the project meetings. The products were piloted and tested in Sweden and Spain with students and teachers. The responsibility for the development of IO2 was transferred to REDU by joint decision and an ICT postgraduate student was hired for the project. Testing the products through student mobility was not possible even with non-project funding, as the pandemic prevented them. As a result, testing had to be carried out locally in Spain and at Swedish schools. The testing process was two-step. The feedback from the first test revealed shortcomings in usability. The test teams (students) did not find the site customer-friendly, so the site needed to be further developed. As the ICT student’s schedule and skill were not enough to develop the product, a web design service had to be purchased at this point. After this, the testing was repeated and the customer feedback was better in all respects. The Spanish partner was responsible for disseminating the results throughout the project. Due to the pandemic, physical meetings could not be organized, which reduced the content and forms of information (fragmentation of work, short online meetings). The original plan was to carry out an extensive seminar. Key stakeholders in the education sector, industry and cities and provinces. Due to the assembly restrictions imposed on Covid-19, it had to be reduced to a network meeting between the partners. The virtual implementation failed due to the lack of technical infrastructure available for the event.

The project produced four products (Intellectual Outputs): IO1 Coaching Program for Students; IO2 A digital platform that supports mobility, competence-based learning and personalization of studies, on which all outputs were compiled, e.g. guidance materials for students and teachers on mobility and a description of the mobility process (before-during-after). The aim was to collect information from companies in the partner regions to help students to find most suitable internship place from the point of students’ curricula. This helps also companies to recruit most suitable student for them. However, the collection of detailed information in some countries was prevented by country-specific issues. IO3 Coaching program for teachers and a guidance model that supports competence-based learning and personalization of studies (IO4). However, the products developed will promote mobility, improve its’ quality and support the competence-based learning and personalization of VET, depending on how it is possible to implement it on a country-by-country basis (e.g legislation).

Due to the inability to implement student mobility in the workplace, the project couldn’t provide experience information from workplace counselors or students on how the tools produced in the project work in practice and how the acquired skills are assessed from the perspective of curricula and different education systems.

All outputs will be available and in use after the end of the project. The partners have agreed to continue implementing mobility within the network. In these mobilities will be utilized and tested the tools produced in the project. Based on experiences and feedback the digital platform is constantly being updated, all partners are committed to updating their own section of the platform. REDU will be responsible for the maintenance costs of the platform after the end of the project, and the use of the digital platform and the content on it will be monitored. The platform will be deployed in all international mobilities and the partner network will be proactively expanded according to demand.

Project Website

https://pele-project.eu/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 168421,5 Eur

Project Coordinator

Rovaniemen koulutuskuntayhtymä REDU & Country: FI

Project Partners

• XARXA FORMACIÓ PROFESSIONAL
• TARTU LINN
• Anderstorpsgymnasiet
• Berufskolleg an der Lindenstraße
• INSTITUT ESCOLA DEL TREBALL DE BARCELONA