JOBIT – Innovative teaching methodologies and courseware for software development VET to reduce skills gap in IT Erasmus Project

Project Title

JOBIT – Innovative teaching methodologies and courseware for software development VET to reduce skills gap in IT

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 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Overcoming skills mismatches (basic/transversal)

Project Summary

Finding people with the right experience and skills continues to be a challenge across Europe. Skills mismatches and occupational shifts have worsened as jobs are opening up for technical professionals in Europe. It is a well-known fact that programmers are the most sought professionals in almost all European countries. Software development in a wider sense is becoming an integrated part of many different jobs in the modern society. Different sources declare thousands and tens of thousands developers needed in the labor market.
Until recent years in majority of European countries software development jobs have been regarded needing educational preparation on Master’s or minimum Bachelor’s level. Today there are many successful examples of teaching programming starting already in primary schools. Examples of successful software development curricula on EQF levels 3, 4 and 5 can be found in different European countries, but they are not common yet. Also the employers are sometimes still hesitating whether the vocational training provides the skills needed in labor market.

The partnership is composed by 3 members; all of them are active in ICT related training and education.
Partner 1 – BCS Koolitus is ICT training and consulting company established in 1993 in Estonia, offering a full training process, from assessment of needs, till measuring the training results. BCS has been the awarding body of the professional qualifications in the field of IT since 2010.
Partner 2 – CEIPES is a non-profit European organization with antennas in more than 8 European countries.
Partner 3 – EUC – European University Cyprus is a private university, member of Laureate International Universities, a worldwide network of Higher Education institutions founded in the United States.

The JobIT project focuses on meeting the needs of the employers with developing innovative and effective software development teaching methodologies for Vocational Education and Training on EQF levels 3-5.
For this the consortium took the following actions. To study the labor market needs and the views of employers a focused analysis is a first and an integral part of the project. The study analyses the numerous ICT labor market research studies carried out in the partner countries and other European countries and study the needs for EQF level 3-5 software developers in participating countries. One focus of the study was to disseminate the understanding that vocational schools are capable of preparing skilled to start take their first job as junior programmer.
Based on the study a conceptual framework was put together innovative integrated teaching methodology of the crucial subjects of software development. Crucial subjects are not just directly programming-related subjects, but also mathematics and social behavior related subjects tackling team-work, cooperation, project management etc. Good cooperation and close interaction with employers and real customers is crucial in developing the relevant methodology.
Thus the methodology strongly rely on engaging field working practicians in the teaching process, but also providing real-life tasks and mentoring during practice period. The innovative methods were collected into handbook as a set of principles for the VET teachers. Based on the research results the consortium worked out a package of learning materials for web programming subjects (PHP and Javascript, testing). The accordingly developed courseware is using innovative educational technologies (mainly Scrum in Education) and gives teachers also guidelines how to use software development tools.
The project also included a training component for VET school software development course teachers. The training were carried out in all three partner countries with the field specialists as lecturers. As a result of the training the participating VET teachers were confident in their knowledge and skills on teaching software development as having acquired the knowledge from specialists and straight from the companies during their practice. The VET schools now have guidelines (the handbook and web programming learning materials) to execute the innovative methodology for the crucial subjects of software development. After training and internship in companies, the VET teachers have better understanding of the employers needs and the field labor market. The European labor market will benefit from the skilled and competent VET graduates.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 206530 Eur

Project Coordinator

AS BCS Koolitus & Country: EE

Project Partners

• European University Cyprus
• CENTRO INTERNAZIONALE PER LA PROMOZIONE DELL’EDUCAZIONE E LO SVILUPPO ASSOCIAZIONE