Life on –line: Developing life and employability competences through mobility
Summary
The Life On-line project aims to develop a new E-Learning programme on employability and entrepreneurship to include design curricula and learning materials built upon existing good practice. This programme will be piloted with a target GPS of teachers, trainers and young people. E-learning as a methodology is relatively under-utilized but is seen as an innovative medium to prepare young people for the world of work. Therefore this project seeks to close this gap by harnessing digital technologies to deliver employability and entrepreneurship skills and will encourage young people to broaden their employment prospects. The project will contribute to the Bruges Communique strategic objectives of enhancing the attractiveness and relevance of VET to meet labour market demands.
The objectives
- To improve the effectiveness of work or study placements in another country by developing and testing an employability/entrepreneurship course unit of on-line learning resources for use before, during and after mobility.
- To build on good practice from previous project outcomes, which will help to improve employability competences: LIFE 2, EMPLOY, and ECVET4 Practitioners.
- To involve employers throughout the project to ensure that materials developed are kept in line with the employer needs and help to ensure that learners are work ready.
- To follow ECVET principles and use Europass tools to ensure that learning outcomes are acknowledged and transferable across the EU.
- To maximise impact by further use of the employability/entrepreneurship unit in mobility’s organised by VET and Higher Education institutions.
Project Overview
VET and HE institutions that currently organise mobility for study or work experience with employers, feel that the mobility experience can be improved if participants were better prepared for work. In the UK only 5.5% of students studied 2 or more foreign languages at ISCED level 3 compared to 59.6% across the EU (Eurostats 2010). The skills mismatch described in Europe 2020 was confirmed in the LIFE 2 and EMPLOY projects’ research, which showed that employers were struggling to find young recruits who were work ready and had the right ‘soft’ skills required e.g. positive attitude, problem solving and communication. There is also an increasing demand for international skills suited to the global economy such as language and intercultural understanding. Therefore, working closely with businesses is crucial to ensure the relevance of the project to needs and requirements. This project builds on the partners’ experience in Lifelong Learning Programmes, to meet the needs identified in the previous section. The project will apply good practice from the LIFE 2 and EMPLOY projects to future mobility’s in line with the new Erasmus + objectives of boosting skills and employability and improve employability opportunities for young people. These previous projects focused on embedding life, employability competence and development within vocational learning. This project seeks to enhance employability skills further by developing and testing selected materials and making them freely available online so that they can be used to improve the mobility experience.
Coordinator: Bridgwater & Taunton College
Contact Details: Mr. Jonathan Harding – hardingjo@bridgwater.ac.uk
Partners:
1. Politeknika Ikastegia Txorierri S.COOP, Spain
2. CEBANC, Spain
3. HAAGA-HELIA OY AB, Finland
4. Srednja sola za gostinstvo in turizem Maribor, Slovenia
5. Zavod za turizem Maribor-Pohorje, Slovenia
6. EfVET, Belgium
7. Somerset Chamber of Commerce, United Kingdom
8. Helsinki Business College Oy, Finland
Funding Agency: 2015-1-UK01-KA202-013619
Duration: 01.09.2015-01.09.2018
Website: www.lifeonline.education
Project materials
Life On-Line Flyer
Newsletter Nr.1
Life Online Leaflet – Basque
Life Online Leaflet – Spanish