VITALity for the Future Erasmus Project

Project Title

VITALity for the Future

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: Overcoming skills mismatches (basic/transversal); New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Health and wellbeing

Project Summary

VITALity for the Future aims to change the way vocational education in the health care sector regards personal well-being and positive health at a personal level, a professional level, from a teacher’s perspective and at a systemic level. In most European countries the population is ageing rapidly. There is unprecedented pressure on health services and community provision and on the supply of a well-qualified workforce. A paradigm shift from curative to preventative care is essential and this can only be achieved if healthcare staff have the knowledge to employ prevention skills, technology as part of care delivery, multidisciplinary working, and the skills to encourage and enable people to increasingly take control of their own care.
The project will develop flexible learning materials to prepare new and present staff in the vitality sector for a new approach to healthy ageing, to be catalysts of change and to make working in this sector more attractive to young people. Through research in the 5 partner countries, learning materials will be developed based on the knowledge and competences this approach requires for young people in VET and staff in continuous training. The research and the learning materials will highlight best practice in positive health initiatives that are relevant to VET organisations.
Four organisations in the VITALity partnership are VET providers in the vitality sector and deliver both initial and continuous VET courses.
ROC Midden Nederland is a large provider of VET with 20000 students and 1700 employees offering over 300 different qualifications.
BFI – Institute for vocational advancement is an Upper Austrian VET institution that is a market leader in re-entry into the job market and second chance education.
AEVA is a large VET provider in Portugal, with a strong emphasis on work-based learning, offers a programme in Hygiene, Health, Safety and Security in the Workplace and Environment Care.
SAMPO in Finland has a wide range of apprenticeship training programmes and qualifications in social services, health and sport, including a practical nurse programme.
The partnership is also complemented by four specialist organisations.
The Institute for Positive Health (iPH) in Utrecht is the driving force behind the Positive Health movement. The institute aims to stimulate, strengthen and accelerate the movement that has arisen around Positive Health.
kent + mcgill is a consultancy that specialises in providing research, strategic development, quality management and evaluation expertise in the field of European further and higher education.
Centrul Pentru Promovarea Invatarii Permanente (CPIP) is a Romanian NGO that works in the area of Lifelong Learning and is committed to mainstreaming the principle of equal opportunities. CPIP’s main objective is to promote the lifelong learning through all relevant stakeholders.
SRCV is the Romanian Society of Vascular Surgery, a professional organization that represents vascular surgeons as a professional body.
The project is structured into 5 Intellectual Outputs. Following desk and field research, a research report detailing the state of play in positive health for VET and the skills needs for the future will be developed (IO1). This will lead to the project producing learning materials specifically for health sector students (IO2); modular materials for citizenship education (IO3); training workshop materials for the professional development of teachers(IO4); and examples of crossover profiles and initiatives(IO5).
Learning materials will involve close collaboration with the world of work through the networks of local stakeholders and associate partner. These new learning materials on positive health, including one designed for citizenship education will be blended and flexible so that they can be implemented in different vocational education systems and working situations throughout the vitality sector.
Short-term impact will be evidenced in partners’ VET programmes, on healthcare students and staff and through partner networks on local provision. Multiplier meetings in the mid-term will carry strong well-researched messages and tested materials to a wider regional audience. In the long term regional and national providers will have access to high quality learning materials they can adapt and update and influence vocational qualifications. The VITALity project will showcase its products at the Utrecht Health Hub’s Five Year Conference in 2022.
In short, this project will prepare the present and future workforce in the vitality sector for a holistic approach to positive health and well-being; make young people in VET aware of the importance of positive health and their role in promoting its ideals and benefits; assist teachers in delivering a new positive health curriculum; and initiate future vitality developments in the VET health and social care sector.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 280428 Eur

Project Coordinator

STICHTING ROC MIDDEN NEDERLAND & Country: NL

Project Partners

• Stichting Christelijk Regionaal Opleidingen Centrum Noord- en Oost Nederland
• Etelä-Karjalan koulutuskuntayhtymä
• Societatea Romana de Chirurgie Vasculara
• kent and mcgill limited
• Institute for Positive Health
• CENTRUL PENTRU PROMOVAREA INVATARII PERMANENTE TIMISOARA ASOCIATIA
• AEVA – ASSOCIACAO PARA A EDUCACAO E VALORIZACAO DA REGIAO DE AVEIRO