The future VET-teacher Erasmus Project

Project Title

The future VET-teacher

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 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Quality Assurance; Quality Improvement Institutions and/or methods (incl. school development)

Project Summary

Published data from the UNESCO institute for statistics (UIS) shows that if the current trend continues, 33 countries will not have enough teachers to provide quality education to all children by 2030. It was then EU education commissioner Androulla Vassiliou who in 2012 highlighted the first signs of a shortage of teachers in Europe. EU countries are beginning to note shortages of specialised teachers in a problem that looks set to get worse, the European Commission has warned. The problem comes from the ageing pool in the profession – over 30 percent of teachers in Germany, the UK, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium are currently approaching retirement age. Few work past 60 in a sector which favours early retirement. At the same time, graduates – especially in Portugal, Hungary and Belgium – are becoming less interested in working as teachers despite increases in salaries and still a great deal of public confidence in the teaching profession. The strange thing is that this finding is at odds with the teachers’ own perceptions: 81 % of teachers in the EU feel teaching is not valued in society. Teaching – a profession that dates back through the generations – seems to have lost some of its attractiveness at present. An ageing teacher population, severe teacher shortages, difficulties with retaining younger teachers and a significant gender imbalance in staffing at different levels of education are just some of the serious challenges facing the profession. In the EU, only 7 % of all teachers are under 30 years old, while around 36 % are 50 or older. Also, 72 % of the nearly 6 million people working as school teachers are women, thus confirming the perception that teaching is a ‘woman’s world’. An extensive 2014 survey revealed that over a third of teachers in the EU work in schools with a shortage of qualified staff, and nearly half of school directors report a shortage of teachers for special needs pupils. Perhaps more worryingly, 81 % of teachers in the EU feel teaching is not valued in society. For most EU countries, raising the status and attractiveness of the teaching profession is therefore an urgent necessity. Despite the seriousness of the challenge, only 11 EU countries have taken some policy measures to make teaching more attractive. Despite the seriousness of the challenge, we only see in a limited number of EU countries that governments at national and/or regional level are implementing policies to make education more attractive.

This project involves VET schools from Latvia, the UK, Finland and Belgium. A total of 4 peer evaluations will be carried out. Based on these peer evaluations we will make an inventory of our joint lessons learned and we will support each other in further optimizing each other’s practice by searching together for answers to each other’s learning questions and providing each other with some advice.
With this project we want to examine how within the different participating countries they are dealing with the increasing shortage of teachers in general and the shortage of teachers in VET in particular. We want to learn from each other and with each other what measures are taken at national, regonal and school level and the level of the teacher teams to deal with the shortage of teachers in order to be able to offer quality education on a permanent basis. In doing so, we also want to reflect on the way in which beginning teachers are supported in the first years of their careers and how this support takes further shape. Finally, we would also like to consider the intrinsic motivation of teachers and how you, as a manager, might have an impact on this. We want to do this by sharing examples of good practice with each other. We will use the methodology of peer review; we will focus on the shortage of teachers in general and the shortage of learning in VET in particular, together with the learning questions of the organization to be visited. After each peer review, a report will be written for the organisation being reviewed, in which we will identify each other’s strengths and the points for improvement. At the end we will provide answers to each other’s learning questions and formulate a few recommendations. The project partners will then each work with their own report within the quality functioning of their institution in order to further optimize their practice.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 110639 Eur

Project Coordinator

KATHOLIEK ONDERWIJS VLAANDEREN & Country: BE

Project Partners

• DN COLLEGES GROUP
• PROFESIONĀLĀS IZGLĪTĪBAS KOMPETENCES CENTRS “RĪGAS VALSTS TEHNIKUMS”
• VANTAAN KAUPUNKI
• Associazione Studio L&P (Learning & Progress)