EfVET President Prof James Calleja participates in the European Conference on developments in vocational training

The Commission supports the French Ministry of Education to reform the implementation framework of the French Centres of Excellence (Campus des Métiers) to eventually increase their quality and effectiveness. At this aim the Commission is contributing to the joint reflection stirred by the Ministry of Education with the campus representatives and relevant stakeholders by providing an in-depth analysis of different campus models and the associated challenges, organising focus groups to discuss relevant international practices and providing concrete recommendations.

This conference was hosted by the French Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, with the funding and active support of the Directorate – General for Structural Reform Support of the European Commission under the Présidence Française du Conseil de l’UE. Due to health circumstances, the event was held by videoconference.

This event had three main objectives:

• Sharing the key-learnings from the French experience with Campus des Métiers et des Qualifications
• Mobilise European companies and industries around the ongoing “Pact for Skills” program
• Lead the way for future European Centres of Vocational Excellence (CoVEs)

On February 3rd afternoon, stakeholders for the 6 following Pact for Skills took part in specific workshops: Aerospace and Defence; Automotive; Textiles; Tourism; Renewable – Offshore; Shipbuilding.

On February 4th morning, European actors from the VET sector presented their innovations throughout the 5 thematic workshops focusing on learners’ mobility schemes, joint qualification programs, partnerships with SMEs, etc.

In the framework of such Thematic workshops, EfVET President Prof James Calleja participated as a chair in the one titled Working with small and medium-sized enterprises discussing on the followings:

• What examples of collaboration with SMEs already exist?
• Working with SMEs is different to collaboration with large businesses, how can the CoVEs encourage SMEs to become more involved?

The main workshop discussion was about exploring the various examples of collaboration that already exist with SMEs and identifying the main differences between working with SMEs and large businesses. The other speakers in this workshop were Bostjan Ozimek from Slovenia, Cyriel Mentink from the Netherlands and Maria Margarida Segard from Portugal, who shared their experience on innovation and student education.

The workshop was held online with 25 active participants. The most critical salient points that emerged from the workshop were about the importance of innovation in a real-life learning environment to primarily up-skill or re-skill employees. Talking to employers has become a much needed prerequisite. Another important point was about connecting the use of innovation with student education, whilst increasing the need for live projects are paramount for students to get first-hand experiences. SMEs need a community for development (CFD), the availability of facilities, awareness and promotion of assignments, strengthening young professionals and a platform for sharing experiences of experienced professionals. Working, learning and sharing knowledge of innovation go hand-in-hand. Nowadays, SMEs must increasingly invest in digitisation.

This conference was an opportunity to forge strategic European partnerships. It intended to interact with VET providers, companies, industry, or sector representative organisations, national/regional, qualification authorities, research institutions, innovation agencies, and regional development authorities.

Such a project started in 2020 by the French Ministry of Education will include a piloting of the recommendations that would lead to a final proposal to reform the implementation framework of the campus des métiers model, including the excellence label. This will eventually contribute to a higher involvement of the business community in the campuses as well as an increased quality, labour market relevance and attractiveness of VET.

For more information please visit the Reform Support page of the European Commission at this link.