FPEmpresa and Dualiza launch a free training scheme for VET professionals
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FPEmpresa and Dualiza launch a free training scheme for VET professionals

FPEmpresa VET Schools Association and Dualiza (Bankia Foundation’s brand for Vocational Education and Training promotion) have launched an ambitious free training scheme for VET professionals. It is divided into three training initiatives and each one of these will fulfil a specific objective and will be aimed at a specific audience.

The first initiative of this scheme is a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) on Project Based Learning (PBL) to improve and update the professional competences of VET teachers. More than 2,000 teachers have participated in this training action, which started last April and will continue until the 17th of May. This MOOC has been created by VET teachers with wide experience in the field of PBL. It aims to improve teachers’ competences by designing and executing projects, facilitating reflection methods in teaching practices and boosting a network of VET teachers with similar interests. Furthermore, teachers who take part in this MOOC will learn more about the PBL methodology, through observation of case studies that have been successfully implemented in other places and will also learn teaching strategies related to the use of ICT and innovative evaluation methods.

The second training initiative, which started at the beginning of May, is aimed at the management teams of FPEmpresa’s associated centres and is focused on providing participants with practical tools that allow them to achieve greater self-knowledge and self-management and to improve team management. This second action is made up of five courses in which topics like resilience, leadership, conflict management or high-performance team management will be dealt with. The last course will take place in November this year. There will be a total of 200 places available, 40 places for each course.

According to FPEmpresa’s vice-president, José Luis Durán, “these five courses intend to fulfil the training needs that members of management teams face sometimes”. “Managing a team in an efficient and effective way requires specific tools and practical knowledge, that are not always close at hand. Therefore, we hope that participants find this training initiative useful”, he highlighted.

The third and last part of this training scheme will be focused on training VET teachers to use teaching tools that help them with conflict management inside the classroom. It is expected to begin next October.

DTAM project creates a new curriculum in digital transformation key to advanced manufacturing
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DTAM project creates a new curriculum in digital transformation key to advanced manufacturing

Digital Transformation in Advanced Manufacturing: An Integral Training Curriculum for EU technicians to deploy and manage digital tools in Smart Manufacturing or DTAM in short, is a three-year Sector Skills Alliances in VET project, cofunded by the Erasmus+ program of the EU.

The coordinator of the DTAM project is the associated centre of FPEmpresa VET Schools Association, Politeknika Ikastegia Txorierri, S. Coop., partnering with a total of 10 other organisations from 5 European countries. Politeknika Txorierri is a VET and HVET centre in the Spanish Basque Country. The school specializes in: Environmental Control & Education, Telecommunications and Information Technology, Robotics, Sales and Commercial Management, Mechanical Design, Mechanical Production and Machining.

The DTAM project comes in answer to an ever-increasing need for the upskilling and reskilling of technical workers and students in the EU to help improve their employability in a skills intensive fast evolving labour market i.e. advanced manufacturing (AM). According to Josu Orbe, general director of Politeknika Txorierri, DTAM will contribute to the mission of this centre to be a point of reference for companies and leaders in the comprehensive and continuous training of people, and in their adaptation to this ever-changing technological world. The project will also address other multiple needs which have recently became even more evident because of developments such as the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath. Among those needs are the (1) digital and technical skills mismatches in demand and supply of labour, (2) demand for sector-tailored industrial workers, (3) lack of recognized VET programs on the topic and a practical training through access to developed IoT (remote) labs and WBL and last but not least (4) the need for an updated training for low or under-skilled adult workers threatened by replacement or obsolescence due to technological advances.

Therefore, DTAM will deliver a new curriculum in digital transformation dedicated to the quality training of mid-high-level technicians in key enabling technologies for Advanced Manufacturing. The curriculum will help grow a workforce of technicians capable of understanding, installing, configuring, monitoring, analysing, transferring data and maintaining digital systems in advanced manufacturing environments so meeting a critical skills gap in EU Industry 4.0 and addressing partners’ regional RiS3s.

FPEmpresa joins the STEAM Alliance for women’s talent promoted by the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training
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FPEmpresa joins the STEAM Alliance for women’s talent promoted by the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training

FPEmpresa VET Schools Association is one of the more than 40 institutions that have joined the STEAM Alliance for women’s talent “Niñas en pie de ciencia” (Girls ready for science), promoted by the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training. The endorsement of this alliance takes place under the frame of FPEmpresa’s objective to collaborate with public administrations, from all the Spanish regions, in those initiatives that lead to a positive impact in the field of VET.

This initiative is aimed at strengthening STEAM professions (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths) among young girls. Its objective is to join efforts, foster synergies and promote projects that contribute to the design of an education system that removes gender stereotypes associated with certain professions; an education system that encourages women’s empowerment within STEAM professions from initial stages of education and that helps eliminating the gender gap in the access to these disciplines.

“Contributing to the reduction of the gender gap in the labour market is one of the objectives of FPEmpresa”, Luis García, president of FPEmpresa, highlights. He states that “technological and industrial maintenance courses are, generally speaking, less demanded by women” and he believes that these studies “usually represent more stable and high-quality job opportunities”.

The Alliance will have an annual plan of work, in which goals, agenda and resources will be detailed. Furthermore, this plan will allow to follow up all the promoted lines of action. Among other initiatives, it is expected to create a quality stamp for schools, to launch a call for projects on STEAM and to elaborate a Career Orientation Programme focused on STEAM professions, with gender perspective.

The STEAM Alliance for women’s talent “Niñas en pie de ciencia” (Girls ready for science) was presented publicly on the 11th of February 2021, coinciding with the International Day of Women and Girls in Science.

THE SCOOPCONSS’ PILOTING PROCESS BEGINS!
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THE SCOOPCONSS’ PILOTING PROCESS BEGINS!

TEACHERS, STUDENTS, PROJECT TUTORS AND SOCIAL COOPERATIVE REPRESENTATIVES ARE ALREADY GETTING TO WORK.

FEBRUARY, 3, 2021 – After holding the second transnational partners’ meeting (online) last January 19th and 20th, in the format of an internal Training the Trainers workshop with practical activities aimed at reaching the validation of the shared methodology and tools for implementing the next steps, the ScoopConSS partnership is now ready to begin the piloting process. This will be comprised of a 4-month period of online workshops and collaborative classroom work sessions among teachers, students, project tutors and social cooperative representatives.

However, before starting this stage, partners should perform an experimentation of the cooperative learning exercise with all teachers involved at national level, applying the same tools later with their groups of students. In this occasion, partners are also expected to show and explore the online MOODLE platform, providing teachers with access to it, so they could study the Open Educational Resources available and select a couple of them to carry out the same exercise with their pupils.

Afterwards, partners will cooperate with each teacher for schedule the organisation of the workshops for students, as well as schedule the online classroom sessions. The main goal is to provide a proper mentorship to both students and teachers in the simulation of a cooperative business project planning, as well as to monitor the ongoing process of each school in getting ready for the participation at the ScoopConSS contest.

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FPEmpresa participates along with other European institutions in the first peer learning activity of PRALINE project
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FPEmpresa participates along with other European institutions in the first peer learning activity of PRALINE project

FPEmpresa VET Schools Association, along with more than twenty European institutions from the field of education, took part in the first peer learning activity of PRALINE project (Promoting Adult Learning in Networks), that dealt with adult education and training.

This first session of workshops and lectures counted on the active participation from FPEmpresa and the Association of public VET centres from the Basque Country Ikaslan Bizkaia. FPEmpresa explained the structure of adult education in Spain as well as its main characteristics, and also presented the company Haizea Wind Group, represented by the HR Manager, José Colsa, as an example of good practices. More specifically, this company described its project aimed at creating a specific school for welding, in collaboration with Centro de Formación Somorrostro, with the purpose of training qualified staff for the companies within the holding company. As for Ikaslan Bizkaia, they highlighted some distinctive elements of the Basque education system with regard to adult education. Then it was the turn for The Finish Association for the Development and Vocational Education and Training AMKE to share with the attendees the latest reforms carried out in Finland and their impact on adult education. To conclude, a panel discussion, led by Marguerite Hogg from the Association of Colleges (AoC) in the UK, was held. During the debate, some specific issues related to the adult education sector were discussed. The whole session was moderated by Manfred Polzin, from MBO Raad, PRALINE’s coordinating institution from The Netherlands.

The general objective of this project is to strengthen the already existing transnational networks of adult education providers via mutual learning, peer counselling and capacity building.

PRALINE has been presented under the frame of the Erasmus+ programme, within Key Action 3: Support for policy reform, and under the specific subaction «Social inclusion and common values: the contribution in the field of education and training».