Modernisation of VET through Collaboration with the Industry Erasmus Project

Project Title

Modernisation of VET through Collaboration with the Industry

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 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation; Teaching and learning of foreign languages

Project Summary

Introduction
There were two significant changes during the project implementation:

1. The project was originally not selected for support and put on the “waitlist”. Later it was accepted, but with a significantly reduced budget. For this reason, there was also a significant reduction of the outputs. Detailed description of the changes can be found in the appendix “MoVET_Změny_2017.pdf”. Changes made to the number of outputs are clearly summarized in a table contained in the appendix “Appendix 4 – Changes in partial outputs and activities.pdf”. With respect to the reduced budget and in accord with these amending documents, a contract was concluded with the grant provider.

2. During the coronavirus crisis, activities related to students’ trips abroad could not be performed, nor was it possible to hold the Final Meeting in person. Both types of activities were carried out in an alternative way. The cancellation of the original activities and setting of new (alternative) ones also induced a significant increase in workload.

Context/background of the project
The pre-project analysis revealed that professional education in technical areas:
a) Did not satisfactorily reflect real needs of the industry,
b) Did not have satisfactory contacts with the industry,
c) Did not satisfactorily react to the recent development in science and technology by inclusion of modern topics in the education,
d) Did not satisfactorily motivate the students,
e) Did not have satisfactory international collaboration.

The project goal was to reduce the above-listed constraints of professional education by developing a large number of results and their large-scale pitot testing.

Objectives
The fundamental aim of the project was to increase the quality of professional education at secondary schools, to establish its closer links with the industry and to increase the interest and motivation of students at secondary professional schools to study well.

Number and type/profile of participants
The participants (target groups) were students and teachers from secondary professional schools focusing on technical subjects. Over 1700 students and 55 teachers took part in the conducted educational activities. 61 students participated in the national internships; 39 students participated in the international ones (out of which, 8 in the only physical mobility and 31 in the virtual ones). Finally, 24 students (8 from each partner country) students took part in the international student teams competition. The total number of students involved in project activities significantly exceeded our commitment stipulated in the project application.

Description of activities and results
A detailed description of the activities can be found in the relevant sections of this Final Report. Just a summarizing information is provided here:
1. Sets of different types of electronic learning objects (in four languages)
2. ECVET learning units
3. Pedagogical materials for teachers
4. Large-scale pilot run for students
5. Pilot run for teachers
6. Series of internships in industrial companies
7. Motivating competition of international student teams
8. Further education of teachers from secondary schools (specialized lectures)
9. Extensive dissemination events (special workshops, publishing activities)
10. Specialized learning environment and supporting software
11. Methodologies and strategies

Longer-term benefits and impact
The developed educational materials are part of the learning portal (http://techpedia.eu), which is publicly accessible and administered by the project coordinator. Thanks to the fact that the portal also contains the results of other projects, it is a relatively wide library of educational resources (offering over 140 packages of materials), which is often used not only by the primary target groups, but also by other academic or professional public.

After the project conclusion, ECVET units and a number of methodologies and strategies will also remain available to the public. The long-term benefit for members of the project consortium is the newly acquired know-how.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 270816,8 Eur

Project Coordinator

CESKE VYSOKE UCENI TECHNICKE V PRAZE & Country: CZ

Project Partners

• Institut Esteve Terradas i Illa
• SLOVENSKA TECHNICKA UNIVERZITA V BRATISLAVE
• IDNEO TECHNOLOGIES SL
• UNIVERSITAT POLITECNICA DE CATALUNYA
• Vyssi odborna skola informacnich studii a Stredni skola elektrotechniky, multimedii a informatiky
• ZVAZ ELEKTROTECHNICKEHO PRIEMYSLU SLOVENSKEJ REPUBLIKY
• Stredna odborna skola informacnych technologii