INSTRUCTION – upskilling school teachers for education-work transition Erasmus Project

Project Title

INSTRUCTION – upskilling school teachers for education-work transition

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 school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Labour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemployment; Cooperation between educational institutions and business; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

CONTEXT
In Jan 2019, 3.375 million (14.9%) young persons under 25 were unemployed in the EU28. The relevance of new approaches in the school system is of paramount importance: many projects have been carried out linked to WBL. In Italy, e.g., the law 107/2015 introduced the school-job alternation as compulsory for all students in the last three years of high school. Notwithstanding the importance given to WBL by policy-makers, it is not a solution per se, but it requires specific conditions to be effective. To train students to “learn how to learn, constantly”, requires key actors (companies, educators, teachers and students) to have a strong commitment.
The application of the school-work transition scheme in EU (NetWBL 2017,CESIE 2017), in Italy, is facing two main challenges (MIUR 2018): 1) difficulties in securing a high quality of the internship/stage through an effective match between students (training) and company (work) needs; 2) school teachers skills gap in a) the design of WBL paths b) in the engagement of students.

OBJECTIVES
The INSTRUCTION project aims at adapting an innovative tutoring model with the objectives to:
1.Facilitate students’ transition between education and the world of work;
2.Strengthen the link between schools and companies (matching);
3.Define an innovative tutoring model to empower students and facilitate the matching;
4.Update school teacher skills to support the school-work transition of students;
5.Promote the development of effective policies for school-work transition;
6.Provide relevant research contents to the debate on the improvement of the education-work transition.

PARTICIPANTS
-20 teachers from partner schools directly involved in the project activities
-3 Cometa tutors directly involved in the project
-5 school manger
-15 teachers in partner countries
-100 students + their families
-2 experts on teachers training
-6 researchers involved in realization of a scientific publication

ACTIVITIES
The project implementation last 24 months. The overall project activities are organized as follows:
-4 transversal activities: Project management, Monitoring and Risk Assessment, Dissemination and communication, Quality assurance and evaluation;
-21 activities, which create 4 Intellectual Outputs (New Tutoring Model, Teachers training, Recommendations for policy makers and Scientific publication);
-1 short-term joint staff training event;
-5 Transnational Meetings;
-7 Multiplier events.

METHODOLOGY
The methodology of the project is based on the approach of design-testing-implementing. This method guarantees a high transferability of the project outputs (new designed tutoring model and teachers training) to other educational sectors and school contexts, because the outputs are created, piloted, fine-tuned and then implemented by 5 different schools situated in 5 different European countries.

EXPECTED RESULTS
1.Definition of an innovative tutoring model for the transition from education to employment; The model will strengthen the link between students and companies.
2.Update and enhancement of teachers competences who facilitate the transition of students: 20 teachers (4 from each partner school) are directly involved in the short-term joint staff meeting and in the piloting phase. Furthermore, at least 100 teachers will participate in focus groups in order to give a feedback on the designed model and teachers training. The result of the second intellectual output will be e train-the-trainers course on tutoring with the aim to update skills and competences of school staff.
3.Direct involvement of 5 schools in the project activities. Each partner school involves 3 other schools in their country in order to reach at least 20 schools in Europe.
4.Involvement of approximately 100 students during the pilot phase.
5.Promotion of the development of effective policies for school-work transition: relevant institutions (i.e. in Italy RL) will be directly involved.
6.Provision of a scientific publication on the school-work transition: internal experts as well as 6-8 external researchers will be involved.

EXPECTED IMPACT
-Improvement of the attractiveness and performance of the school system in relation with the transition from education to work;
-Alignment of the WBL paths to the market needs;
-Update of school staff skills and competences on the school-work transition;
-Enhancement of public policies on school-work transition;
-Provision of relevant research contents to the debate on the improvement of WBL and the education-work transition.

LONG TERM BENEFITS
The main long term benefit is the enhancement of the transition between education and the world of work and the improvement of the link between students and companies (matching) by designing and piloting an innovative tutoring model. The project products will support individuals in acquiring and developing basic skills and key competences and support educators in strengthening the profiles of teaching professions.

Project Website

https://instruction-project.eu/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 284365 Eur

Project Coordinator

COMETA FORMAZIONE SOCIETA COOPERATIVA SOCIALE & Country: IT

Project Partners

• HELLENIC OPEN UNIVERSITY
• ISTITUTI ISTRUZIONE SECONDARIA SUPERIORE G. MARCONI
• Colegiul National Nicolae Titulescu
• 2 EPAL AGRINIOU
• Escola Técnica de Imagem e Comunicação Aplicada
• Vilniaus r. Rukainiu gimnazija