EfVET Roundtables: a great way to disseminate the Early School Workers project results

Following the EfVET Conference held online on 28 October 2021, ENAC – Ente Nazionale Canossiano participated with great enthusiasm to the annual event organised by EfVET, which was held on 26 November 2021 in Berlin. In particular, Luca Calligaro, EU Project Manager at ENAC, actively participated in the workshops in the INCLUSIVE EXCELLENCE session from which a lot of ideas emerged from the exchange with the two workshop moderators Paolo Nardi (Cometa Formazione, Italy), and Alfredo Garmendia (San Viator, Spain), who are also partners in the project GIVE (Governance for Inclusive Vocational Excellence).

In addition to that, at the occasion of the Roundtables, the Early School Workers project has been presented. The Early School Workers project supports the renewal of the vocational training system in Europe with the ultimate aim of tackling the problem of Early School Leavers and increasing the employability of young people in society.

The difficult times we are living in the aftermath of COVID-19 have had a huge impact on schools and our teachers and students. Following the COVID-19 pandemic and the closure of education and training institutions around the world, several initiatives have been launched to ensure continuity of learning and teaching during this period. The post-COVID-19 epidemic brought about an entrepreneurial spirit of renewal focused on new ways of studying and working virtually.

Within vocational education, many teachers are working hard to develop innovative solutions to support their students during these uncertain times. In addition, across Europe professionals and policy makers are moving as fast as possible to implement distance learning.

It’s inevitable in this situation to consider the Intellectual Output 3 foreseen by the project: “Curriculum design and development and guidelines”. In fact, it is developed both as a completion of the previous two Outputs available already on the website at www.earlyschoolworkers.eu/intellectual-outputs/, and as a proposal for the transition of the project into the pandemic phase and a more general reflection on the future developments of school and vocational training.

The IO3 will also be available soon on the ESW website.

The project coordinator Luca Calligaro, after introducing the project and its aim, presented its results summarising the IOs foreseen, and exchanged with other EfVET members on similar thematics.

Critical Review on the UTC and Concept model (guidelines)

The first Intellectual Output consists of a report on the University Technical Colleges – UTCs and the model of transferability to the Italian, Spanish and German context. Specifically, the results of the analysis of the English school model are presented.

Methodological framework and common tools for developing new curriculum

Based on what emerged from the UTC Report and following the Model of transferability of English schools in the three new countries, the partnership designed a methodological framework and created tools useful for the creation of new training paths (curriculum). This tool will allow to combine the national standards of Italy, Spain and Germany with the innovative elements of the UTCs.

Design and development of curricula and Guidelines

The methodological framework will be the starting point for the creation of the new 6 curriculum created by the user partners in their own countries. The STEM disciplines (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), typical of UTC, leave space, in this new curriculum, to different sectors (Commercial services, transports and logistics; Constructions; Agri-food; Graphics, etc).

Final evaluation report

Throughout the project, the partners will be asked to monitor and evaluate the application of the model. The final report will underline the following aspects:

• the overall project results, from the “pure” model to the adaptation to the Italian, Spanish and German contexts;
• Interim Evaluations from the teacher’s and student’s point of view;
• Comparative analysis of the results achieved in Italy, Spain and Germany, highlighting similarities and differences.