The EU-funded project “Advancing Graduate Tracking and Alumni Relations in VET Schools – TRACKTION” focuses on strengthening the capacity of graduate tracking and fostering alumni relations in VET institutions.
Cometa Formazione (Italy)
The final report “Mapping of VET graduate tracking measures in EU Member States” by the European Commission (EC; 2017), points out that “the systematic review and renewal of Vocational Education and Training (VET) is crucial to ensuring its continued quality and labour-market relevance. A better understanding of the performance of VET graduates in the labour market is one of the key sources for assessing and improving the quality and labour market relevance of VET, alongside forecasts of skills supply and demand.”
The above mentioned contingencies are reflected in the EU-funded project “Advancing Graduate Tracking and Alumni Relations in VET Schools – TRACKTION”, that focuses on strengthening the capacity of graduate tracking and fostering alumni relations in VET institutions.
TRACKTION is a collective endeavour comprising 6 organisations from Spain (2), Estonia, Italy, Netherlands and the UK. In terms of expertise, the partnership shows a good balance including three VET Schools (Alfa-college, PKHK, Cometa Formazione/Oliver Twist School), two intermediary organisations bridging policy and practice at regional level (VALNALON and TKNIKA) and one research-focused organisation (Education & Employers Taskforce).
The project’s general objective is to improve VET schools’ understanding of “VET –to-work transition systems”. It foresees two main tangible Intellectual Outputs:
- A Tracking Protocol that simplifies data collection from Alumni (O1);
- A How-To-Guide “Building and Sustaining Successful Alumni Relations Programs in VET Schools” (O2).
Coming soon: a concise summary of the state of art of tracking and alumni initiatives in 9 VET schools in 4 European countries (Estonia, Italy, Netherlands and Spain). The descriptions will be supported by factual information on reasons, uses, methods and obstacles encountered. While the coverage area is constrained to the countries represented in the consortium, lessons learned and protocols have a strong transferability potential. It expects to attract attention in the European and national debates towards what’s considered key elements in Quality Assurance in VET Schools (EQAVET Toolkit).
