In the resolution of the 2021 call for grants in the field of Vocational Training education of the Erasmus Plus Program, the project «TECHVETLAB: A SOLUTION FOR POSTCOVID-19 LABOR MARKET THROUGH A TECHNICAL TRAINING OF VET STUDENTS WITH OBSTACLES» has been awarded by the Spanish National Agency – SEPIE.

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BRIEF SUMMARY

COVID-19 has had a major impact on the world economy and employment, creating a weakened European society that will have to implement new and significant initiatives to alleviate the social, economic, educational, and health consequences generated by the pandemic.

VET training (and especially VET medium cycles) might be the answer, but for this they will have to adapt to the post-COVID-19 reality, becoming more appealing and focused on the lines required to alleviate the economic consequences of the pandemic, and offering better alternatives to their students. They will have to especially focus their training on the technology sector, promoting the learning of transversal skills, favoring the digitization of active training, and above all, supporting the research capability of vocational training.

Those are the objectives of the TECHVETLAB project; created by a strategic network comprised of VET centers in segregated areas (with students with severe obstacles to employability) and technology companies from France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Greece, it aims to implement an innovative method of education in VET cycles that promotes cutting-edge research work in vocational training, facilitates employability in the technology sector for students with fewer opportunities, and helps leading companies to develop projects that will allow us to rebuild the EU after the pandemic.

TECHVETLAB intends to answer to the needs raised by European and international institutions to generate new VET graduates capable of not only adapting to the reality of the post-COVID-19 labor market, but also of being essential agents in the reconstruction of Europe after it, especially focusing on the students with most difficulties to achieve it -those with economic, social, and cultural barriers from segregated environments-, by offering an effective and impactful way to enhance the participation of VET education in research, breaking the prejudices and stereotypes that many sectors have.

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EUROPEAN PARTNERSHIP

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RESULTS OF THE PROJECT

As a result of this project, three high-quality results will be created:

1.- METHODOLOGICAL GUIDE TO TURN THE CLASSROOM INTO PART OF A COMPANY: FROM A CLASSROOM TO A RESEARCH LABORATORY
A guide that defines the BPI METHODOLOGY (BEING A PART OF IT), an innovative evolution of the PBL method (Project Based Learning) through which the VET classroom becomes a department (LAB) of the company directed by the teacher with the aim of being an active part in the development of the innovation projects of the participating companies. Through a global adaptation of classroom planning (from didactic programs, schedules, responsibilities, etc…), the implementation of virtual network work routines with the company and the use of digital tools that equate the classroom with the company, the students as a whole must develop critical parts within cutting-edge innovation projects. It is not so much that the classroom behaves as if it were the company, but that the classroom as a whole is integrated into the planning and responsibilities of the company, behaving as a whole as one more appendage of it. In this way the company (which will already have a management department, a research department, a production department…) will have one more department: the VET classroom itself.
Through this methodology, the student must know how to work as a team with the rest of his classmates, assume responsibilities and initiatives that lead to results, present development reports, learn the manufacturing and work processes of companies… in short, know what it means to work in a technology company.
On the other hand, it will allow the VET center to participate directly in the development of technological research, being partners in its results and enhancing the credibility of this educational stage.
The teacher will develop digital skills and will be able to improve their educational skills by incorporating the real times and processes of technology companies into their teaching.

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2.-The VET4TECH SEARCH SYSTEM. A software that integrates extensive databases that will include, on a European scale, all the VET centers that apply this learning system adapted to the needs of the technology sector, all the students who have completed and passed specific training for work in the technological research sector and companies in this sector interested in hiring VET students with fewer opportunities. A powerful tool with hundreds of possible options that make it easier for centers to find technology companies that allow them to overcome the labor and professional internship obstacles that VET students suffer both before and after the pandemic.

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3.- The TECHVETLAB EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE. A completely free and innovative software compatible with that used by technology companies to control operational and production processes but directly adapted to the characteristics and educational needs of VET. A result that will allow not only to coordinate networking between the classroom and the technology company, but also to transmit to the student business management methods and tools, develop scheduling skills, realistic time control, develop transversal skills and establish logical analysis. of consequences through diagrams of the student’s logic tree.
This tool can be used together with the BPI methodology or as an independent work simulator for classrooms that use the PBL method.

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And as a minor result:

• A GUIDE TO SUCCESSFUL CASES where the experiences carried out during the project will be shown in three VET classrooms that will participate in three leading projects of the participating companies, demonstrating the effectiveness of this system