Empowering VET Teachers – Innovative & Enhanced CPD for Newly Qualified VET Teachers Working with Migrant Students Erasmus Project

Project Title

Empowering VET Teachers – Innovative & Enhanced CPD for Newly Qualified VET Teachers Working with Migrant Students

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: Inclusion – equity; Pedagogy and didactics; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

The project “Empowering VET Teachers – Innovative & Enhanced CPD for Newly Qualified VET Teachers Working with Migrant Students” (acronym e-VET) concerns VET education. In the EU, a high quality of VET has been recognized as one of the elements that support economic growth. At the same time, the rate of youth unemployment across EU is high: in 2019 17.7% for aged 15-19 and 14.0% for aged 15-24, what combined with 4.5 million people immigrating in 2018 to UE put pressure on the EU economies, and potentially could be eased by efficiently provided VET. In most countries participating in CPD it is required from teachers to develop competences needed to work in a multicultural environment. Therefore, the e-VET project focused on increasing the VET teachers’ effectiveness by developing their soft skills.
Project objectives were to:
1. Provide newly qualified VET teachers with an online diagnostic tool assessing their professional skills and identifying the areas of improvement ensuring further, relevant, based on their individual needs CPD.
2. Up-skill newly qualified VET teachers with soft skills methods and tools fostering inter-cultural communication and competences, increasing participation and learning performance of disadvantaged learners, and combating discrimination, racism, bullying.
3. Equip newly qualified VET teachers with digital guides on increasing social inclusion within the classroom environment with the use of training scenarios of interactive, project-based learning activities ready for immediate classroom implementation.

Outputs of the project are combined in one integrated product – developed in the project e-learning platform https://platform.e-vetproject.eu/ consisted of:
– an online diagnostic test assessing soft skills (Diagnostic Tool – DT), that enables teachers working with migrant students or in another multicultural environment to assess their professional skills in 5 key competences: ethics and professionalism, management of the multicultural environment, teamwork, communication, and critical thinking & problem-solving skills. Results of the diagnosis are in form of evaluation that helps to identify the areas which are still to be improved.
– MOOC incorporated into e-learning platform that equips teachers with digital guides on increasing social inclusion within the classroom environment by developing their competencies previously assessed with DT. Based on e-learning course text, presentations, videos, as well as online quizzes, and additional materials in 5 modules, teachers can develop in ethics and professionalism, management of the multicultural environment, teamwork, communication, and critical thinking & problem-solving skills. These modules are related to competences examined by DT to assure the homogeneity and complexity of the project results.
The e-learning platform https://platform.e-vetproject.eu/ provides both gamification elements (Badges, Quizzes), and reporting features for the users to be able to monitor their progress.
This e-learning platform and its content is available in 6 languages: English, Bulgarian, Greek, Italian, Polish, Spanish.

The main target group of E-VET project are therefore newly qualified VET teachers working in intercultural classes. During course of the project also other stakeholders like VET students, participants of vocational colleges, board of educations, teacher development centers, adult education centers, schools and trainers were involved and supported the project with their feedback during pilot testing and seminars. 140 participants were engaged in the testing of the Diagnostic Tool, 40 in the platform testing and 207 in the testing of the MOOC. In traditional and online seminars 229 people from different countries were involved. The participation of teachers of different ages and experiences, as well as from different culture allowed to create a product understandable as a language, to balance the difficulty of the questions and the fairness of the assessment. Although the outputs were prepared for newly qualified VET teachers working in intercultural classes, the platform may be useful to other groups like teachers and trainers of any sector.

The project has a European dimension. Offering a full cycle of initial assessment, training modules and three levels of assessment it allows the opportunity to increase teachers’ motivation to work with new knowledge and skills, to improve the effectiveness of teaching using what they have learned and to overcome previously insurmountable obstacles. The acquired knowledge will facilitate their work in a multicultural environment, preventing school dropouts and the social inclusion of migrant students, improving specific ICT skills for working with e-learning platforms and transferring them into schools, especially in pandemics and distance learning. Project results can be also used by teachers on different levels of education. Its online formula allows accessing all interested stakeholders.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 218003,42 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIWERSYTET LODZKI & Country: PL

Project Partners

• Asociación Valencia Inno Hub
• INEUROPA SRL
• M.K. INNOVATIONS LTD
• SDRUDZENIE ZNAM I MOGA
• STOWARZYSZENIE “EURO LIDER”
• HEARTHANDS SOLUTIONS LIMITED