Innovation in VET for Jobs and Employment

BACKGROUNDProject was build on the urgent need to introduce new models of innovation in VET and in all educational system, especially those that are connected with the achievement of the EU 2020 goals defined and declared in the Europe 2020 flagship initiative: An Agenda for New Skills and Jobs (ensure that people acquire the skills needed for further learning and the labour market through advanced and innovative VET) but also in ET2020 strategy, Opening Up Education policy and Erasmus+ horizontal and VET-specific priorities.REASON FOR THE PROPOSALThe proposal was in line with the above mentioned policies/strategies.The elements the proposal was based on are:- Introduce strong innovation in the VET system thanks to alternative and successful methodologies and approaches to the learning environment, in order to create a novel system aimed at job-oriented learning: the partners were aware of the lack of an effective system to transfer knowledge and provide learners of skills necessary for self-employment or employment.- The selected methodologies/approaches were: Entrepreneurship education, Work-Based Learning, Creative Problem Solving Methodology, Web 2.0 tools for VET, Gamification, Simulation and Digital storytelling, Open Educational Resources, ECVET implementation. The PROJECT PROPOSAL it was about innovation in VET and partners have explored innovation in VET in Europe and created several guidelines (interactive, practical and easy-to-use tips) about the ways to introduce a revolution in a job-oriented VET system.OUTPUTS/RESULTS The project achieved the following results:- GOOD PRACTICE examples about innovation in VET from across EU after research, explore and discover actions by all partners.- Promoted the development, testing and implementation of INNOVATIVE PRACTICES/ METHODOLOGIES in VET: Entrepreneurship education, Work-Based Learning, Creative Problem Solving Methodology, Web 2.0 tools for VET, Gamification, Simulation and Digital storytelling, Open Educational Resources, ECVET implementation.- Transferred the knowledge about the METHODOLOGIES through a large series of interactive GUIDES describing the methodologies, explaining in detail how to implement them in VET, introducing tips and providing a suggested quality management system, TRANSLATED into all partners’ National languages.- Created 2 WEBSITEs integrated with Wiki, Blog and Social Networks containing a DATABASE OF MATERIALS TRANSLATED into all partners’ National languages to promote and encourage extensive exploitation and dissemination- Stimulated ENTREPRENEURSHIP and WORK and JOB-ORIENTED LEARNING.- Disseminated the project outputs and results throughout EU with a database of OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES available through open licences thanks to intensive traditional and social media campaigns.- organised a series of MULTIPLIER EVENTS involving a large number of stakeholders (over 300 participants) to foster exploitation and dissemination of PROJECT Intellectual Outputs.IMPACTThe partnership brought together partners coming from 5 countries and their stakeholders, both academic and private, with the synergic power that reached a very large and diverse audience. The double-route to follow in the project was:- Transfer innovative methodologies and approaches for VET to any interested parties (schools, higher education system, VET providers, adult learners, Erasmus + projects etc.).- Recognise and validate the knowledge within partner staff thanks to ECVET system and a Memorandum of Understanding to validate a “Innovator in VET” profile.- Create a network of European stakeholders interested in the introduction of innovation in Educational system.