The second Transnational Conference of Eduwork.Net project “Internationalisation strategy of VET Centers”, was held on 10/11/2021 at the premises of the emblematic VET Center of Aghios Dimitrios. The Hybrid event was concluded with great success, attended by 125 online participants and 22 partners and 21 representatives of the Greek VET sector on site. The participants represented Vocational Education and Training Centers, SMEs, Education organisations and Universities. The official language of the conference was English (with parallel translation in Greek). The presentations were delivered by representatives of the partner organisations of Eduwork.Net and stakeholders.
See here for the full conference!
The Conference aimed at highlighting the determining contribution of VET to the development of a skilled workforce, critical to the competitiveness of EU, and also to the effective connection of the labour market to the vocational education through the apprenticeship. Both VET providers and SMEs have only to gain if they cooperate in apprenticeship and even more through their implementation in a European framework, like Erasmus +. Although there are numerous strategies, policies and programmes the EU offers them, most VET providers and SMEs are not well-informed and do not benefit from them.
The agenda of the Conference was designed in order to fill the gap in information and in exploitation of European supporting tools. The Conference aimed to support both VET organisations and SMEs in the creation of collaborative networks between VET and the labour market and in their internationalization strategy through the tools developed by the Eduwork.Net Project.
The Conference included 3 sections:
- Supporting tools and policies for the development of Internationalisation Strategy of VET Centers.
During the first session the Eduwork.Net VET Community, the virtual networking space, was presented to further facilitate the internationalization strategy of VET Centers and the European Project Support Offices were introduced. In addition the opportunities for transnational mobility projects for VET staff and students in the framework of ΚΑ1 Erasmus+ Programme were presented and the common goals of networking and collaboration between VET Providers and companies were highlighted.
2. Transnational mobility in the post-covid era.
During the second session the impact and the challenges of COVID-19 on transnational mobility were presented through a case study of IEK Aigaleo. Also the need for digitalisation of VET providers in the post-covid era was underlined.
3. Work Based Learning.
In the third section the outcomes of the Eduwork.Net project, i.e. the Tracking Mechanism for VET students in apprenticeships and results of the Survey in Partner Countries were presented. In order to acquire an integrated knowledge on WBL, innovative European approaches to WBL were also shared with the audience, like in- company WBL mentors as a new practice for interns and apprentices. In addition, the perspective and the benefits of the companies were shared as well as the role of digital and soft skills in WBL.
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