Exchanges of Practices in Education for Climate Targets Erasmus Project

Project Title

Exchanges of Practices in Education for Climate Targets

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 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Social/environmental responsibility of educational institutions; Environment and climate change

Project Summary

All European countries are committed to the objectives of the climate agreements and they all have set out their climate targets. These targets can only be reached by involving Education and more precisely Vocational Education and Training.
Portfolios, qualification structure, curricula, pedagogical and didactical approaches and last, but not least the cooperation with the labour market, it all needs to be designed for a future-proof and circular economy..
How can we design Education and Training in such a way that current and future professionals will obtain the required innovative knowledge and skills in order to realize the ambitions of the climate agreements or in other words how can we contribute as VET sector to the green ambitions of the new European Commission, where Climate change and its consequences are very high on the agenda. The need for action and tangible results were already defined at the climate summit in Paris (2015) and once again confirmed at the recent climate summit in Madrid.

The transition towards more sustainable energy sources, a circular economy and digitalisation has a large impact on the labour market and thus on Vocational Education and Training.
In order to realize the ambitious climate targets, it will be necessary to innovate and adapt VET on several levels: Technological innovation will result in considerable shifts in the type of work. People will lose their existing jobs and new jobs will emerge. All that requires new skills for the new generation, but also for the current working force, which is needed from an inclusive point of view, as well as from an economic point of view. The transition needs to be affordable for citizens in order to have the necessary public support and it requires not only technical changes, but also changes in attitude and behaviour of citizens.

Relevant emerging messages for this project proposal are:
• We need to develop programmes where the changing nature of work, the environmental issues (climate change), demographic changes, circular economy and ongoing technological changes need to be taken into account.
• We need to develop tailor made and digital provisions.
• We need to engage employers more than it is currently done.
• We need to work on the further Professionalization of teachers

All together a very challenging situation, where VET plays a crucial role, in initial VET programs, as well as in Adult Learning, as this is all about Lifelong Learning. The project EXPECT is a project without intellectual outcomes, but with the objective to exchange and to stocktake Good Practices in order to learn from each other, to report on the lessons learnt at several relevant stakeholders and to lay the foundation for a later and more comprehensive follow up project.

This project will try to find possible answers to the question of how VET can contribute to all these challenges. The partnership will investigate the state of affairs in the partner countries, the progress they are making towards the climate targets, the role that VET is playing in this process and the strategies and instruments that are being applied in the other countries. This will be done through 7 Peer Learning Activities (PLA’s), that will be held in all partner countries; Austria, Finland, Italy, Latvia, Netherlands, Spain and the UK. The kick off meeting and the final conference will be combined with the first and the last PLA.
The meetings (PLA’s) are the backbone of the project and meant to learn from each other. A standard reflection form will be used by all partners after every transnational meeting in order to come to an assessment of the Good Practices along the same lines. Partners will reflect on what they have seen in the other countries, whether and how the strategies or instruments are useful in their own situation and why not, if that is the case. Finally, the project will result in a portfolio of Good Practices and recommendations for a follow up project, that needs to contribute to a joint (European) approach in the future .

The added value of such a transnational partnership is that Good practices from different countries will be gathered. The well balanced partnership contains two (2) Associations of Colleges, a Chamber of Commerce, a Research Company and four (4) VET-colleges. This choice was based on the results of a desk study, as we wanted to have some good performing countries, some medium performing countries and some countries that still need to make a lot of progress to reach the climate targets. All this will turn the project in a real learning partnership. As the transition towards VET-systems with a strong focus on these sustainability goals is relatively new for all countries it offers also the opportunity to come to a more shared approach in Europe which will help to make programs easier to compare (transparancy), to facilitate exchanges and finally to contribute to a greener and sustainable Europe, supported by responsible citizens.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 119080 Eur

Project Coordinator

MBO RAAD & Country: NL

Project Partners

• 3S RESEARCH LABORATORY – FORSCHUNGSVEREIN
• ISTITUTO ISTRUZIONE SUPERIORE A.VOLTA
• Helsingin kaupunki
• POLITEKNIKA IKASTEGIA TXORIERRI S.COOP
• LATVIJAS TIRDZNIECIBAS UN RUPNIECIBAS KAMERA
• Association of Colleges
• STICHTING REGIONAAL ONDERWIJS CENTRUM ‘S HERTOGENBOSCH