We-R-Open: An educational approach for digital upskilling of Teaching, Managerial and Administrative staff of VET Schools

The Covid 19 pandemic has overthrown established practices in the world of education and in particular it has dictated the need to support qualitative and effective digitalisation of VET provision as well as to pursuit actions and programmes that both teaching and administrative staff need in their effort for upskilling their communication and digital competences to meet the new challenge.“We-R-Open: An educational approach for digital upskilling of Teaching, Managerial and Administrative staff of VET Schools” is an Erasmus+ KA2 Strategic partnership for VET, development of innovation.Partners are 4 VET organisations FORAVE from Portugal, IEK DELTA from Greece, DEFOIN from Spain and Emphasys from Cyprus, a training centre providing adult education - IDEC from Greece and the European Digital Learning Network (DLEARN).The central aim of this project is the digitalisation of VET institutions through providing the adequate learning resources to their staff. The project addresses the whole VET schools community, namely its target groups are- Teachers and educators of VET schools- Administrative staff of VET schools- Supporting and back-office staff of VET schools - VET Students and their parentsWe-R-Open will produce three two intellectual outputs:a) an innovative online toolkit for supporting Teaching staff to go digital in teaching and communication process and b) an e- learning course for the Managerial and Administrative of VET schools, that will support working remotely and communicating effectively on line. In addition the staff will acquire digital skills for designing and implementing virtual events such as Open Days and Career Days. Other important project outputs that will contribute to the achievement of project results and goals are: Six multiplier events in Lousado, Portugal, Piraeus, Greece, Athens, Greece, Madrid, Spain, Nicosia, Cyprus and Milan, Italy, in which a total of 95 persons with multiplier capacity will participate. Dissemination campaigns in the five project countries, using different channels, i.e. a project dedicated website, circulation of three newsletters to 4500 recipients, articles in online communities, presentations in conferences and events, promotion in social media Facebook and LinkedIn. .The project is innovative as:- it uses a holistic approach to upskilling of both teaching and administrative staff of VET institutions, taking into account the whole set of operations of a VET institution.- it is designed to meet the specific needs of VET institutions (practical training, labs, communication with companies for placements and apprenticeship, organisation of Open and Career Days and events) to be organised in a virtual way.- it aspires to prepare VET institutions’ staff to embrace digitalisation and to have a clear digital strategy for the future.Expected impact of We-R-Open includes:- The integration of digital tools will guarantee the continuity of the educational process and VET schools’ operation in cases of emergent situations, like COVID- 19 - VET schools will be able to organize professional, efficient, and effective virtual Career Days- VET students will engage in qualitative learning regardless of the potential lock-outs and they will continue receiving placements as apprentices, interns and employees in companies - Good practices and learning materials in the, presently limited, areas of “Communication, Smart Work and Virtual Events Organisation for staff of VET schools” will be enriched - VET institutions will upgrade their operation and quality of their services by exploiting and capitalizing the resources and methodologies introduced by the online toolkit and the training course. Response time to students’ queries will be narrowed. - VET teaching staff will have a handy and user friendly toolkit especially developed for them meeting their needs to organise practical training and labs digitally, providing them also with tangible examples They will have less stress, to cope with the demands of digital VET and they wiill feel a fresh interest for their job - Managerial and administrative staff of VET schools/institutions will acquire the necessary digital and communication skills to organise their school’s Communication, e- administration and Virtual Events such as Career and Open Days. They will cooperate better with the teaching staff.Results will be available in English, Portuguese, Greek, Spanish and Italian languages.