Since 2019 EFA La Malvesia– associated centre of FPEmpresa VET Schools Association – leads the Erasmus+ KA2 for VET project called “Upgrading Trainers in Dual Vocational System”.
When it comes to youth unemployment and job insecurity we can see that Europe is having some problems, being more highlighted in the south of Europe. In this scenario, the VET DUAL SYSTEM and specially the role of the trainer in the company are considered really significant resources to solve this tragic problem for the future of the European youth.
The VET students spend many hours working with their trainers in the companies. Therefore, they must be a real and effective influence for their trainees to guarantee the success of the internships. This will benefit then as they will enrich their soft and professional skills required by the Labour Market.
Although the willingness to collaborate is usually excellent, there is still a lack of professionalization of the competences of the trainers which would help to achieve a real experience of high quality.
Obviously, there are multiple reasons for these gaps, such as: the role of the trainer is not legally regulated in all European countries or, surprisingly, it is not considered as an educational agent. In addition, the access to updated and relevant information is complicated due to the lack of centralized access to it.
In the light of the questions mentioned above, the UPT2S project was launched in December 2019 in Spain and its main objective is the achieve the professionalization of the role of trainers in the Dual Training System. The transformation of a company’s employee into a pedagogical trainer who is a fix and real link between companies and educational institutions and which should be facilitated with the created resources/tools.
The project goal is to obtain three intellectual outputs:
- Implementation of an online course for trainers (25 hours).
- The creation of an Evaluation App to assess the different learning and skills levels acquired and monitoring the progress of the trainee in real time.
- A guideline based on the best practices focused on the role of the trainer.
Due to Covid-19, important activities had to be postponed. Needless to say, the partnership did not intend to give up their project . Therefore, they continued to move forward via on-line, showing their resilience and ability to adapt to the current situation.
Nonetheless, at the end of the month of September 2021, a group of 20 people from the project partner countries: Spain (EFA La Malvesia), Estonia (Järvamaa Kutsehariduskeskus), France (MFR de Bretagne), Croatia (Srednja Skola Bedekovcina), Germany (DEULA Nienburg) met in Nienburg to check how the project was going on, its development and to set new goals.
This training activity was based on an intensive testing of the pedagogical outcomes that the partnership had developed during this phase of the project carried out by invited international experts. These resources have been an Online Course for trainers involved in VET Dual System and an Evaluation and Communication APP that allows monitoring in real time the progress of the trainee in the company during their internship period.
It should be noted that the evaluation of the resources used were well received by the participants: VET teachers, Trainers, Educational and Labour Administration Representatives. These members analysed and tested their performance, highlighting the added value was added to the project. It was also mentioned that it can become a tool that can be used by the trainer in order to upgrade their professional skills and at the same improve the quality of evaluation and monitoring of the trainees.
The project partners are currently working on the development of the third objective: A guide of best practices in this field, which allows the trainer to become a real educational agent.
For more details on the project and its ongoing developments please visit: project website.
Facebook page @UPT2SProject
