Website: http://moodle.txorierri.net/moodle/

Coordinator: Politeknika Ikastegia Txorierri, S. Coop. Ltda.

Contact Details: ES/09/LLP-LdV/TOI/149075

Starting / Ending Date: It starts on 01.10.2009 and ends on 30.09.2011.

CATEL: Cultural Awareness in Vocational Training through E-Learning

Summary: Demographic changes and lower birth rates pose challenges for future labour market requirements in Europe. The need for qualified workers will increase, and more companies will require qualified immigrant workers. Multicultural societies will be a constant feature of the future.
Specific challenges arise for vocational training programmes. Key issues therefore are the skills, attitudes and knowledge of trainers and counsellors to recognize and understand the needs of immigrant students. Cultural Awareness in Vocational Training through Elearning,CATEL, will take the outcomes of two European projects, Orientation and CATIT which dealt with an intercultural approach to education of adults and technical students. The outcomes of these two projects will be transferred sectorially, geographically and methodologically.
CATIT and ORIENTATION were in-person courses, that is, they were based on the classroom setting. The teachers and trainers who took part in both courses found it difficult to comply with this requirement as they had lessons to deliver at their own centres. Their feedback on the evaluation of the courses highlighted the need for an adaptation of the programmes into an Elearning format. CATEL will blend both programmes into an Elearning training course in order to prepare teachers/trainers and counsellors to meet the training needs of immigrant students/trainees in the vocational field and so improve their integration.
The starting point for the programme will be a survey on elearning. This survey will provide a variety of information in order to create the most attractive elearning training course for CATEL beneficiaries. The training programme – and developed materials – will be piloted among technical and industrial teachers/trainers and counsellors.
The final result will be a training course for trainers and counsellors, so that they will be better equipped to help and support immigrant students to qualify in the fields that suffer from labour shortages.
The short-term impacts of the CATEL project will be improvement of the professional competence of teachers and trainers at vocational colleges and counsellors at Job Centres. The long-term impacts include improvement of the quality and effectiveness of vocational training for immigrant students. In addition to teachers and counsellors, immigrant students and employers suffering from labour shortages will also be beneficiaries of the improved quality of vocational training.