Systematizing Collaboration amongst Business and Educational institutions Erasmus Project

Project Title

Systematizing Collaboration amongst Business and Educational institutions

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: Energy and resources; Open and distance learning; Overcoming skills mismatches (basic/transversal)

Project Summary

SCOBE provides a Toolkit for systematizing the collaboration amongst the world of business and the world of VET; and validating it by the creation of a blended learning programme tailored to the real skills demanded in the renewable energy field.

The project directly addresses two European goals:

1. Facing the mismatching amongst educational programmes and skills demanded by the business sector.

2. Fostering the availability of a European workforce properly qualified to meet the job demands associated to renewable energies and the Strategy “Europe 2020”.

SCOBE goes a step further and other initiatives, it will not only create a LEARNING PROGRAMME that addresses real needs of businesses and provides specific training on those issues; but also, will achieve the establishment of a CONTINUOUS RELATIONSHIP amongst VET and business worlds, going beyond the project and its partners.

The SCOBE TOOLKIT includes:
• The ENGAGEMENT BOX: a set of materials and procedures to engage experts of the business world with the creation (or updating) of a new training programme.
• The BUSINESS OBSERVATORY, systematizing the identification of training needs according to latest trends in the labour market.
• SCOBE GUIDELINES for collaboratively designing and creating training curricula, materials and tools.
• THE COLLABORATIONS – STRENGTHENING PLAN, aimed at ensuring long term collaborations amongst VET centres and enterprises.

The LEARNING PROGRAMME have been created by validating the SCOBE Toolkit and will include: an online virtual campus; and offline job shadowing activities taking place in Zaragoza, Spain.

Project partners have decided to validate the Toolkit in a narrower sector instead of renewable energy in general, focusing in WIND ENERGY; As its expected job creation in EU is the most significant in the field of renewable energies (“Workers wanted: The EU wind energy sector skills gap” – European Wind Energy Technology Platform, 2013).

Following the guidelines of the 2011 report “Skills and Occupational Needs in Renewable Energy”, SCOBE will address two TARGET GROUPS:

A) New students of specialised courses designed to prepare them for work in renewable energy.
B) Adults already working in the renewable energy sector with an interest in filling gaps in their skills or in up-skilling them.

SCOBE has been designed with a collaborative approach that goes in line with ERASMUS + Strategic Partnership´s guidelines; at the same time that represents the spirit underpinning the project: bringing closer the business and the educational worlds.

SCOBE ´s OPERATIVE GOALS:
1. The development of a novel set of tools for ensuring long term and effective collaborations of VET centres and business: the SCOBE Toolkit.
2. The validation of the SCOBE Toolkit by collaboratively (business – VET) creating and implementing a training programme aimed at Wind Energy.
3. The development and implementation of a blended learning programme, focused on identified training needs on the wind energy field: curricula, learning contents and tools, e-learning platform, job shadowing activities.
4. The involvement of 90 trainees in the programme.

SCOBE´s impacts can be summarized as follows:
– Facilitating the collaboration of the business world and educational institutions.
– Establishing international collaborations amongst technical partners and trainees providers that will set an example that may inspire others (even at different training levels).
– Fostering the achievement of European goals (Europe 20-20-20) by promoting the supply of a properly qualified work force for the Renewable Energy sector.
– Supporting ICT – based teaching in VET by the creation of a blended learning programme.
– Providing a properly qualified workflow in partners´ regions as well as at national level and in other countries speaking one of the project languages.
– Providing an up-dated and multilingual VET programme focused on real learning needs in the field of Wind Energy that could be used by any VET institution interested.
– Providing a Toolkit for smoothing collaborations amongst VET institutions and enterprises of the renewable energy sector.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 169988 Eur

Project Coordinator

Vea Qualitas, S. L. & Country: ES

Project Partners

• SOLARTECH DEL-ALFOLDI FEJLESZTO ESTERMELO NONPROFIT KFT
• ACROSSLIMITS LTD
• MEDITERRANEAN AGRONOMIC INSTITUTE OF CHANIA
• Accentuate (North East) Limited
• GMI AERO SAS