Making business education business proof for the 21st century Erasmus Project

Project Title

Making business education business proof for the 21st century

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: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Labour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemployment; Research and innovation

Project Summary

CONTEXT/BACKGROUND: The development of technology causes that the future society and labour market in Europe are changing very fast. Because of the globalization, employees of the future will work in a more diverse environment. Looking at these trends, 21st Century skills are gaining in importance. With the Skills Agenda (2016) the European Commission invites stakeholders to work together to: Improve the quality and relevance of skills formation – Make skills more visible and comparable – Improve skills intelligence and information. Critical thinking, entrepreneurship, problem solving or digital competences are just some of the competences enshrined. In the changing labour market, VET organisations need to have attention for the 21st century skills to prepare students for the future. Research shows the implementation of the 21st century skills in VET is not sufficient within the Business educational programmes. Occupations in the Business sector are changing (think of e-commerce/e-services) and organisations need to develop modern and future-oriented Business educational programmes. To be able to do this it is necessary to find out the real competence needs that companies sets to to future work.

OBJECTIVE: With the results of this project partners have the overall desire to improve the employability of VET students in the Business sector or as entrepreneurs in Europe. Therefore, the project has the objective to develop future-oriented and innovative modules for business educational VET programmes.

PARTICIPANTS: In this project 6 partners work together to achive the common objective of the project: 5 VET organisations and 1 company in the business sector. Partners have promised to stimulate the exchange of/between teachers who want to develop international education and teaching with others from abroad. Together they will stimulate the use of new technical development in learning and teaching. After research the partners concluded it is important to investigate the 21st century skills employees need in the Business sector so that future-oriented innovative modules can be developed in VET. Additionally, teachers of the VET organisations need skills (mainly digital and communication) and tools to design and teach the modules. The close collaboration between teachers, students and companies in this project is very unique.

ACTIVITIES AND RESULTS
European framework of 21st century skills for the business sector:
VET organisations, students and companies create a common understanding for which 21st skills employees of the future need in the Business sector. Beside that they will also create a common understanding for which 21st skills teachers in business educational VET programmes need to be able to prepare students successfully for their future. A European Framework with competences will be developed.

Blended learning modules and OER:
With the help of the mentioned framework, teachers and other professionals teachers are able to design future-oriented innovative modules. The modules will be based on blended learning and it will be possible to integrate them into the VET qualification standard, they will be available in a free open education resource (OER – e.g. Moodle).

Teacher training activities and programme:
With the help of the mentioned framework, teachers will be trained to develop their skills so that they will be able to design and teach the modules as a part of their programme. A custom made teacher training programme will be developed and executed.

METHODOLOGY
In this project the participants will work project-based, structured towards the formulated objectives and results. The project period will be divided in consecutive phases (preparation, exploration, training part 1, development, training part 2, testing and adjusting, evaluation and disseminatio). Every phase knows it’s own activities and results.

IMPACT AND LONGER TERM BENEFIT
The project will have a positive impact on the participating organisations and their teachers/professionals and VET students. The employability of VET students in the Business sector or as entrepreneurs in Europe will be improved. The results will have posItive impact on companies in the business sector and policy makers (ministries of educations) too. Companies will be supported in communicating their needs and describe and compare key competences and related skills, in the (future) work area and practical learning settings environments. They will be able to find future proof employers. The results will have an impact on national policy makers of the partner countries, integration of the framework and modules into the local qualification standards is a desired impact and will be explored.

Project Website

https://modules4business.eu

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 163342 Eur

Project Coordinator

ROC de Leijgraaf & Country: NL

Project Partners

• Careeria Oy
• Peterborough Regional College
• Střední odborná škola pro administrativu Evropské unie, Praha 9, Lipi 1911
• Berufsbildende Schulen Rotenburg – Europaschule
• LTW