From a rookie to an expert – International paths for VET staff Erasmus Project

Project Title

From a rookie to an expert – International paths for VET staff

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 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Open and distance learning; Quality Improvement Institutions and/or methods (incl. school development); Recognition (non-formal and informal learning/credits)

Project Summary

Background:
Multicultural working life and international labour market continues to put pressure on the
development of international cooperation between training providers. The change caused by the
multiculturalisation of society and its impact on skills requirements must be taken into account,
among other things in curriculum development and teaching content.

Partners face the same challenge; how to involve more teachers and staff into internationalisation. It
is important that internationalisation does not rely only on the commitment of few individuals but on all
staff members. Only in this way the culture of internationalisation can be embedded at institutional
level. Besides, the world of work requires increasingly international skills and competences and
teachers themselves must have these skills to be able to encourage and guide students to
internationalisation. Teachers may think they do not have necessary language skills, but international
skills are far more and can be developed as other skills, too.

We also wanted to promote the visibility of internationalisation and to enhance the strategic approach linking internationalisation more closely with the organisational strategy.

Objectives:
Our objectives were
– to increase the ownership of internationalisation activities within the organisation and engage more
teachers and staff members in such activities. Engaging more teachers in internationals activities is
crucial to increase the attention to the European context, develop new curriculum planning
process and new curriculum models and help to widen cultural understanding among students.
– to develop and recognize the skills and competences required in the global world and promote
internationalisation of education from “a rookie to an expert”.
– to promote staff development in terms of internationalisation skills such as more knowledge about
the EU, better understanding of other VET systems, language and managerial skills and updating the
skills needed to work in a multi-cultural environment
– to promote the link between international activities and the strategy and development of the
organisation and staff professional development.

We wanted to encourage VET staff to participate in internationalisation and to develop internationalisation paths to link internationalisation as a part of staff professional development and strategies of VET providers.

Implementation:
We worked on four intellectual outputs during the project. One of the partners was leading the work and we organised subgroups especially when working on the training module. We monitored the work in monthly coordinators meetings online and in transnational project meetings.

We organised three transnational project meetings face-to-face and four online. Most of the work was done in smaller groups between the transnational project meetings.

Besides, we organised one learning, teaching and training activity for staff members from all
partner organisations to test the model of international path, training module and open badges in Helsinki in October 2021. Based on the feedback we developed the products.

We had a variety of dissemination activities and we organised five multiplier events either online or face-to-face in each participating country.

Evaluation and dissemination were ongoing activities in REX VET. After every transnational project meeting and after the LTT activity we sent a questionnaire to all participants to get feedback from the event. Besides, we made a self-evaluation among coordinators after the first year and had a monitoring visit by Finnish National Agency. We had final evaluation in Verona in March 22.

Impact:
The concrete outputs of REX VET are:
1. Mapping the international skills of the staff in partner organizations.
2. Personal development path model in international skills for staff in VET
3. Training package to support the skills development
4. Digital learning badges to document and recognize the learning and skills gained in
internationalization
All products are in English.

Other results are:
-the international skills and competence of the teachers and other staff participating in the project are improved
– the link between the organization’s strategy and international activities is strengthened
– wider possibilities for co-operation and joint development among partners
– more visibility for international activities in partner organisations
– the quality of internationalization and international processes in the participating organisation is improved
-the idea and model of international path for VET staff as a part of professional development is more recognized and enhanced in partner countries

Project Website

https://luovi.fi/en/international-activities/rex-vet-from-a-rookie-to-an-expert/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 165290 Eur

Project Coordinator

Hengitysliitto ry/Ammattiopisto Luovi & Country: FI

Project Partners

• Centro San Viator
• Kuressaare Ametikool
• Live-säätiö sr
• ENAC ENTE NAZIONALE CANOSSIANO
• Stichting Christelijk Regionaal Opleidingen Centrum Noord- en Oost Nederland