VENHANS Peer Learning Review “Fostering Excellence in VET: Best Practices” presented GIVE
EfVET organised an online Peer Learning Review (PLR) session in the scope of VET European Networking Enhancement (VENHANS) project titled “Fostering Excellence in VET: Best Practices”.
Held on June 29, 2022, this PLR gathered 30 participants coming from 13 different European Union’s (EU) and non-EU countries, representing Vocational Education and Training (VET) providers and public and private EU entities and institutions.
The main purpose of this PRL, consisting of a plenary and three discussion sessions, was to showcase best practices from multiple VET players active in Centers of Vocational Excellence (CoVEs) across Europe, while framing the context of how Excellence in VET may influence systemic development, raise the quality and innovation of VET provision and impact local or regional skills eco-systems.
The Plenary Session started with a presentation of the aim and the main purposes of the VENHANS project by Giulia Meschino, Director of EVTA – European Vocational Training Association and VENHANS project coordinator, and a short presentation of EfVET by Susana Nogueira, EfVET Policy & Project Officer.
After the initial presentations, four different CoVEs projects and one project focused on vocational excellence were presented by their respective coordinators. One of these was the GIVE project.
GIVE (Vocational Excellence Governance for Inclusiveness) project was presented next by its coordinator Paolo Nardi from Cometa Formazione (IT). GIVE presentation focused on the possibility of joining VET excellence and inclusiveness as a crucial challenge for the future. The baseline for GIVE activities are the several inclusive VET excellence models that are already being implemented by a number of VET centers in Europe, which are addressing integral human development (that include professional, transversal and coping skills), as a more substantial VET excellence. Thus, GIVE aims to work on the specific capabilities of people and empower them through training, activities and support using management and leadership approaches so they are able to cope with the challenges of the XXI century.
After all CoVEs projects presentations, the breakout rooms started. The discussion Room 1: Impact of VET excellence on social inclusion was moderated by Paolo Nardi from Cometa Formazione (Italy)
The purpose of this Discussion Room was to have a debate focused on the topic of VET Excellence on social inclusion. Paolo Nardi divided the discussion into three areas. The first one was about identifying an inclusive excellent practice in the Pedagogical domain. One of the participants pointed out that when we are talking about inclusive excellence it is relevant to know in which point students are when the best practice begins. Furthermore, it is also crucial to give students some real practical cases rather than theoretical ones, due to the fact that those tasks will be more inclusive than the theoretical ones.
Additionally, it was mentioned that in order to improve in good practices, there is the need to invest in innovation and to have a research and development center. In this way, VET providers would be more developed than the ones who do not invest in innovation and development. Moreover, sharing good practices with other stakeholders could be enriching for everybody because one could learn from other experiences and implement them in their own schools.
Another important point addressed was how all of these practices could be shared. One of the participants stated that there are many platforms in which best practices are shared, so he made the suggestion of reducing the number of platforms or connecting them so as to have a more united network. In addition, as a good beginning, it would be nice to start with a webinar to share best practices and then when schools have more resources, they could attend other kind of seminars of conferences like the Thematic Teams of EfVET.
