Learning mobility is widely considered a key contributor to the enhancement of youth employability through the acquisition of knowledge, skills and attitudes that are not purely occupational but «fundamental to success in life», as stated by the EC.
Now, more than ever, new ways of working and more frequent changes in jobs call for a broader set of skills. Transversal skills are those relevant to find jobs and occupations in different fields from the present or past ones. (“Skills for the labour market” 2017).
Last December we started a prestigious Erasmus+KA202 project, called Skills Act 4 VET. The project will answer the following questions:
– How can transnational short-term work-based mobility experiences effectively ensure transversal skills activation among young participants?
– Which transversal skills can be effectively activated through transnational short-term work-based mobility experiences?
– How can schools and institutional actors be involved in learning mobility projects facilitating soft skills activation?
Direct target groups are VET students (aged 14-18) experiencing a short term mobility and their teachers preparing and supporting the overall implementation of the related activities. The project aims to directly involve over 2.000 students and 800 teachers altogether.
Objectives
The project Skills Act 4 VET will move towards the following specific objectives:
- To design a Transversal Skills Framework with a focus on transversal skills that students can reinforce and develop during short term work-based learning experiences abroad
- To develop and/or adapt tools, methods and resources for an effective training program for teachers promoting short term VET mobility projects. Teachers should be trained to promote students’ awareness of their personal growth and skills set;
- To define methodologies and tools to be widely used in European students’ short mobilities
Products
1.Skills Act 4 VET Identification Tool: the Identification Tool will be the result of an extensive exploratory research aimed at identifying the 5 most required or perceived as needed transversal skills by SMEs (host companies). Each identified transversal skill will be described by name, definition and indicators in the Skills Act 4 VET identification tool. In order to ensure a better understanding of the different skill characteristics, a set of micro-skill will be associated and described for each identified skill.
2. Skills Act 4 VET Work-based Tasks Map: The VET Work based tasks map will be a simple tool expected to enhance students’ awareness and activation of transversal skills while they are at work. This output will allow the:
– Definition of the relationship framework linking each of the identified transversal skills to the workbased learning activities and the learning situations experienced by students during their workplacement abroad;
– Elaboration of the description of a set of behavioural elements for each identified transversal skill: elements describing adequate level of skills activation, as well as element describing inadequate level of skills activitation.
3. Skills Act 4 VET Modular Training Programme for Teachers. One of the core outputs of the project will be the development and implementation of a structured course for teachers supporting students’ awareness of the transversal skills activation process. In the beginning, the course will be developed in English, then it will be translated into the other project partners’ languages and adapted to their needs. The training programme is addressed to any VET school or organisation promoting transnational workplacement experience for their students and is structured in three parts to be delivered:
– Before the mobility takes place (to effectively prepare the students to their learning experience and provide them with first elements they will be invited to work on)
– During the mobility (to guide the students through the use of the Skills Act 4 VET Tasks Map and the Self Assessment App and to monitor the progress of their learning journey)
– After the mobility completion (to allow them to assess the outcomes of their learning journey)
4. Skills Act 4 VET Assessment Methodology and App
It will be a self-assessment tool, designed as a complementary instrument of the Work-based Tasks Map, to explore the individual self perception and level of awareness around the targeted transversal skills.
It aims at helping students in considering their skills, knowledge and self-awareness and to be personally and fully involved in the process of growth and change that affects them during their learning experience abroad.
The app will assist students to recognize what they can do to become more effective in living and working. It will not just be a simple tool, it will be a real test, scientifically valid, that measures the achieved awareness and activation of the transversal skills.
The Partnership
The team members, coordinated by Tribeka, are: the organization Elidea psicologi associati, the Bulgarian Industrial Association BALGARSKA STOPANSKA, the Vocational High School of Electrotechnics and Electronics “M.V.Lomonosov, the small company MILITOS SYMVOULEUTIKI A.E., the R&DO company limited and the Italian Association of Teachers and Principals ADI (Associazione Docenti e Dirigenti Scolastici Italiani).
One key aspect of this consortium is the partners’ long-term expertise in the fields relevant for this project: learning mobility abroad for VET students and transversal competencies.
The project team can count on a significant expertise, which is needed to effectively carry out the project tasks. Thanks to the complementarity of their experiences and expertise, the partner organisations will be able to design effective training programmes and learning tools and to develop innovative methodologies easily transferrable to the Skills Act 4 VET target groups.
We are convinced that this project will provide a wide variety of useful tools and resources to support teachers involved in Short terms mobility projects. We invite you all to follow the activities of the consortium in our Social Pages, linkedin and web page.
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