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The project, funded by the European Programme Erasmus+, starts on 1 October 2018 and ends on 30 September 2020.
The European Council in its informal meeting in January 2012 agreed that Member States should increase "substantially the number of apprenticeships and traineeships to ensure that they represent real opportunities for young people, in cooperation with social partners and where possible integrated into education programmes". Experience suggests that this form of education can meet the twin goals of improving individuals' employability and increasing economic competitiveness. Member States and social partners committed themselves in the Bruges Communiqué, the European agenda for cooperation in vocational education and training (VET), to the objective of including work-based learning (WBL) in all initial VET courses. As mentioned in the Rethinking Education Communication1 and the Youth Employment Package2, the value of VET – and notably of dual training systems - in facilitating youth employment is clearly acknowledged.
Τhis acknowledgment of the benefits of high quality WBL highlights the win-win situation for learners, employers, VET schools and society at large. WBL is a fundamental aspect of vocational training – it is directly linked to the mission of VET to help learners acquire knowledge, skills and competences which are essential in working life.
In-company WBL mentors implementing and organizing WBL in enterprises are in the front-line and at the core of quality WBL playing an important role to achieve a successful WBL procedure. In addition, according to the newly adopted "European Framework for Quality and Effective Apprenticeships" (October 2017), European Commission identifies 14 key criteria that Member States and stakeholders should use to develop quality and effective apprenticeships. Among the specific criteria, is made a concrete reference (3rd criterion) on the necessity to exist a specific procedure for teachers, trainers and in company mentors to "update their skills and competences in order to train apprentices according to the latest teaching and training methods and labour market needs".
The project, funded by the European Programme Erasmus+, starts on 1 October 2018 and ends on 30 September 2020.
The European Council in its informal meeting in January 2012 agreed that Member States should increase "substantially the number of apprenticeships and traineeships to ensure that they represent real opportunities for young people, in cooperation with social partners and where possible integrated into education programmes". Experience suggests that this form of education can meet the twin goals of improving individuals' employability and increasing economic competitiveness. Member States and social partners committed themselves in the Bruges Communiqué, the European agenda for cooperation in vocational education and training (VET), to the objective of including work-based learning (WBL) in all initial VET courses. As mentioned in the Rethinking Education Communication1 and the Youth Employment Package2, the value of VET – and notably of dual training systems - in facilitating youth employment is clearly acknowledged.
Τhis acknowledgment of the benefits of high quality WBL highlights the win-win situation for learners, employers, VET schools and society at large. WBL is a fundamental aspect of vocational training – it is directly linked to the mission of VET to help learners acquire knowledge, skills and competences which are essential in working life.
In-company WBL mentors implementing and organizing WBL in enterprises are in the front-line and at the core of quality WBL playing an important role to achieve a successful WBL procedure. In addition, according to the newly adopted "European Framework for Quality and Effective Apprenticeships" (October 2017), European Commission identifies 14 key criteria that Member States and stakeholders should use to develop quality and effective apprenticeships. Among the specific criteria, is made a concrete reference (3rd criterion) on the necessity to exist a specific procedure for teachers, trainers and in company mentors to "update their skills and competences in order to train apprentices according to the latest teaching and training methods and labour market needs".
And what about the methodology used?
The project will have a clear project management and implementation strategy with active communication via a virtual workspace with clear and working rules and procedures including a delivery plan listing in chronological order activities and events in a detailed timetable. The project activities are provided and include partner meetings, training courses planned in sequence of the project requirements. The partners have participated in several successful projects in the past and many of their projects were selected by the EU as ‘Best in Europe’ so the partners are well versed in effective and efficient EU project management.
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The #Mentor4WBL@EU Partners shall establish a project Steering Committee (SC) composed of one representative of each of them. The SC will be the ultimate decision-making body of the Consortium. The representatives to the SC will be of senior management level with the authority to commit their organisation to the decisions of the SC. Each partner will be entitled to send one voting representative to the SC. These representatives should be of senior management level with the authority to commit their organisation to the decisions of the SC. Each partner's representative on the SC will be responsible for the internal co-ordination of the project's activities in their institution. The SC will be chaired by the Project Contractor/Manager (PM).
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The SC will be the highest collective decision-making body of the project and it will decide on crucial matters.
There will be 5 transnational project meetings. Arrangements, planning and implementation of each of these transnational meetings will be facilitated via our virtual workspace. The purpose of the project meetings is to ensure the smooth running and effective management of the deadlines, budget and quality procedures.
- Kick-off meeting 11/2018 in Greece: Clarifying project aims, milestones, schedules and partner responsibilities; clarifying the project administrative procedures and administrative rules; review of project activities and calendar.
- Each Transnational project meeting will provide an agenda, a plan and review of project implementation and progress, with minutes of the meeting produced, project management and quality assurance questionnaires will also be filled in by all partners attending.
- The final Transnational project meeting and final conference will take place in 09/2020 at IME GSEVEE in Greece. The outcome of work by the partners will be presented to an international audience. Training and assessment issues will be discussed and feedback from the key stakeholders will be collected. Policy makers and foreign chambers of commerce will be invited to the conference to disseminate the final outputs. The partner meeting is dedicated to conclude the project and commence the final phase of the project, namely the post-funding period.
Administrative and Financial responsibilities: Partners will be provided with clear understanding of the EU funding rules. The project will have biannual financial and content reporting, and as when required to provide regular updates to the coordinator on their financial spend and time spend on the project.
Active Valorisation: IME GSEVEE and OAED have many years of experience in dissemination and exploitation to lead these activities in the project with support from the partners. IME GSEVEE will design and run the project website. IME GSEVEE together with OAED will establish the formal dissemination, exploitation and sustainability strategies and activities for the project during and after the funding period ends. It will involve the implementation of the highly successful valorisation plans used in previous and successful projects developed by partners previously. This work will involve dissemination and exploitation of the project website, materials, results and other activities.
There will be 5 transnational project meetings. Arrangements, planning and implementation of each of these transnational meetings will be facilitated via our virtual workspace. The purpose of the project meetings is to ensure the smooth running and effective management of the deadlines, budget and quality procedures.
- Kick-off meeting 11/2018 in Greece: Clarifying project aims, milestones, schedules and partner responsibilities; clarifying the project administrative procedures and administrative rules; review of project activities and calendar.
- Each Transnational project meeting will provide an agenda, a plan and review of project implementation and progress, with minutes of the meeting produced, project management and quality assurance questionnaires will also be filled in by all partners attending.
- The final Transnational project meeting and final conference will take place in 09/2020 at IME GSEVEE in Greece. The outcome of work by the partners will be presented to an international audience. Training and assessment issues will be discussed and feedback from the key stakeholders will be collected. Policy makers and foreign chambers of commerce will be invited to the conference to disseminate the final outputs. The partner meeting is dedicated to conclude the project and commence the final phase of the project, namely the post-funding period.
Administrative and Financial responsibilities: Partners will be provided with clear understanding of the EU funding rules. The project will have biannual financial and content reporting, and as when required to provide regular updates to the coordinator on their financial spend and time spend on the project.
Active Valorisation: IME GSEVEE and OAED have many years of experience in dissemination and exploitation to lead these activities in the project with support from the partners. IME GSEVEE will design and run the project website. IME GSEVEE together with OAED will establish the formal dissemination, exploitation and sustainability strategies and activities for the project during and after the funding period ends. It will involve the implementation of the highly successful valorisation plans used in previous and successful projects developed by partners previously. This work will involve dissemination and exploitation of the project website, materials, results and other activities.
How will project's results be evaluated?
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The project has specific intellectual outputs for each activity included in its workplan as described above. These outputs are defined in accordance with project scope, their accomplishment determine project's progress during its timetable. In other words, these outputs are milestones in the project's gant-chart and they will act as major progress points that must be reached to achieve success, they are the indicators of project's achievements.
Moreover, the project manager in cooperation with the Managerial Board, will set up specific managerial quantitative key performance indicators (e.g. % person days spent, % resources spent per output, etc) for monitoring continuously project progress. But the most important indicator for assessing project success will be a special action included in project's work plan: the evaluation of the pilot application of the training course developed during the project in real conditions. A specific evaluation procedure will be used for assessing training course acceptance and success for the project beneficiaries. The contribution from the expert committee will be also used to measure the quality of the project's results. Together with the thematic workshops, which will take place during the developments of the intellectual outputs will provide the necessary validation for the quality of the work produced. Questionnaire provided in the members of experts committee and discussions with our focus groups in the thematic workshops, which will involve stakeholders from transversal sectors will contribute the necessary indicators for measuring the quality of the project's results. |
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"There will be substantial impact on VET and WBL, since a strong professionalisation of in-company mentors and a comprehensive, complete and standardised training programme and assessment standards linked to ECVET will constitute an additional asset for in company trainers. Another short term impact for the partners will be the benefits from the exchanging of information required to build the outputs, which will enable an exchange of knowledge and good practices on a diverse range of subjects including, teaching and assessment methods, specifications development, computer based design development and testing. This will also impact the building of mutual trust among public and private entities transversally through the interactivity and networking in the virtual workspace where all relevant stakeholders from formal/non-formal VET providers, HE, social partners, chambers of commerce and certification bodies will form a community of practice and focus on peer learning". Application Form/ Call: 2018