We at ÖBB-Infrastruktur AG knew – the digital future is now! Digital technologies and possibilities improve our education and make us more independent and flexible. One of the most important points in the conversion of classroom teaching to digitalised teaching was the self-determined access of trainers and trainees to teaching materials and interaction with them. Digital learning enables a new form of collaborative learning and working in our apprenticeships. The cornerstone is good education and training, for more digital skills, digitally equipped and networked training centres, and an open culture of innovation.
We were able to realise a record intake of 643 apprentices within the time span of the COVID-19 pandemic starting with the year 2020, with our more than 120 years of training history. A learning management platform was set up for the apprentices, enabling trainers and apprentices to use it, and the support service was intensified. Our journey continues - Next Level Lehre. Read more...
7 304 APPRENTICES! SNCF, one of the world's leading passenger transport and freight logistics groups, is deeply committed to youth integration and the transmission of knowledge and skills. With its in-house Apprentice Training Centre and campuses, both of which provide training for railway professions, apprenticeship remains one of the Group's priorities. Being an apprentice at SNCF is a path to excellence and a way to find one’s vocation. The year 2021 was characterised by the health crisis.
As part of the French recovery plan, our Chairman and CEO Jean Pierre Farandou set the lofty goal of registering 7 000 work-study students. All our teams were fully committed to supporting this objective and, as a result, we enrolled 7 304 alternative education students.
Our guidelines for 2022 build on this momentum to:
- strengthen EU and international mobility projects and partnerships;
- enhance feminisation and inclusion in our sectors; and
- develop those professions for which training can be provided through apprenticeships. Read more...
Moorheilbad Harbach is a health and rehabilitation centre that also trains office clerks and hotel and restaurant specialists. The company was awarded ‘Top Employer 2022,’ is certified with ISO 9001 and QMS-Reha and sustainability plays a vital role. Since 1980, more than 320 apprentices have been trained. In addition to the dual training system, there is an extensive tailor-made professional and social training programme in which all apprentices take part. The company supports participation in apprentice competitions and special achievements are rewarded with bonuses or days off.
Apprentices can also do internships abroad; this commitment was recognised in 2019 with the EQAMOB Award for quality in apprentice mobility. A dedicated lifestyle programme helps apprentices on their way to a healthy lifestyle. During COVID-19, an app was developed to keep employees informed quickly and directly. Read more...
Our goal is to train tomorrow's professionals so we strive to maintain high standards in our apprenticeship training programme. As a result, we have been investing in our apprenticeship training programme for many years. Our programme includes weekly meetings, site visits, training plans and an app as well as a welcome day, recurring feedback talks, private tutoring, bonuses for good performance and apprentice social events. Furthermore, we try to broaden the horizons of our apprentices beyond their technical training.
We brought two unique groups together, apprentices and homeless people, with a corporate social responsibility (CSR) project in cooperation with Obdach Wien. After a workshop, our apprentices spent ‘action days’ in the facilities. The project achieved the envisaged socio-political and company training goals. The apprentices acquired social competences, questioned stereotypes and reduced fear of contact. Thus, in addition to the creativity and high degree of innovation of the project, sustainability with a significant social impact was also guaranteed. Read more...
EAfA awards – Apprentices
Apprentice: Mr Evangelos Pouftas
School: OAED EPAS SERRES VET Apprenticeship School
Company: Kotoula Pol. Anastasia
Country: Greece
My name is Evangelos Pouftas and I am currently working as an apprentice for Kotoula Anastasia P., a small accounting office located in Serres, Greece. I started my apprenticeship programme during the COVID-19 pandemic that has modified the work environment and the way businesses function.
When I started working, I had to quickly adjust to the new measures imposed by the COVID-19 health protocols and find solutions for problems caused by the pandemic. I am very proud that I was able to use innovative modern technologies to build a new database for the office’s clients. I also helped many clients, primarily companies, digitise most of their work and enter a new era of online services by setting up digital technologies in their workplaces to remain competitive even during lockdowns. Read more...
Company: IDEA - Alzira City Council
Country: Spain
‘Why not?’ was the first thing that came to mind when I was offered a three-month mobility position to put into practice the skills acquired during a year of training. After more than 15 years as an administrative accountant, I took a break to become a mother which, together with my age, left me in a weak position to return to the labour market.
Thanks to IDEA Alzira, I spent a fruitful year on a VET course about caregiving and mediation. Later, amid the COVID-19 crisis, I was given the opportunity to broaden my horizons and, out of 30 students from different employment workshops, only I participated in an Erasmus+ mobility project. For three months, I worked with socially excluded people at an Italian NGO. This helped me develop many professional and personal skills such as self-confidence, resilience and empathy and, what’s more, it enabled me to find a job back in Spain. Erasmus+ has changed my life. This experience was a turning point on my road to employability because life is about daring to try. Read more...
Virtual Dawn is empowering people around the world to create Virtual Reality content. These tools are being used in Unity Game engine and contain the codes and the contents that are used to create Virtual Dawn simulations and games. The people who work with Virtual Dawn get a chance to create a project they want as part of their workplace training. So far, this has been a very good way to give creative minds a nice way to get to know Virtual Dawn. If the "training" piece is good enough, it can be next Virtual Dawn software and the member of the team who started it, benefits from it significantly.
Virtual Dawn has been working on this method for over 12 months and will keep on doing this with future members of the team. Check out the link for the video one of our team members decided to create on how the game looks. Social Media
ZoraBots is a robotics company founded in 2011 by Fabrice Goffin and Tommy Deblieck. It’s the best educational and service robotics company in Europe, with four offices around the world. ZoraBots has an inbuilt integrated learning system that enhances teaching of STEM subjects and computer programming languages like Scratch for beginners, Python for intermediate, C++, JavaScript and the Robot Operating System for advanced users. The Zora system solution also enables students and employees to share knowledge globally, and to develop skills in machine interactions.
In addition, ZoraBots solutions are suitable for industry, not to replace human beings, but to enhance productivity and service delivery. Read more...
Investing in low-carbon infrastructure and promoting sustainability initiatives, AKMI has become a market leader with a presence throughout Greece (Athens, Piraeus, Thessaloniki, Crete, Larissa, Rhodes, Chalkida and Glyfada). AKMI’s learning experience has been offered for 50 years, now on 16 campuses with 32 000 m2 of facilities that feature modern learning and social spaces including fully equipped auditoriums, 340 award-winning high-tech laboratories, and dormitories with dining halls.
With 14 fields of study and 107 different specialties supported by 860 staff members, AKMI offers a dynamic professional start to 14 000 learners annually, fostered through strong links with companies that ensure a high potential for employment opportunities. In terms of internationalisation, AKMI is a member of the European Association of Institutes for Vocational Training (EVBB) and the European Training Foundation’s (ETF’s) Network of Excellence. It has links to 250+ partners in the EU, Africa and Asia, and participates in pilot staff and learner mobility projects between the EU and Africa, and the EU and the Western Balkans. Read more...
Our school building, the first sustainable green public building in Turkey, was built according to an integrated building design approach thanks to the project "Promoting energy efficiency in buildings in Turkey" funded by the United Nations Development Program and the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, General Directorate of Renewable Energy with the support of the Global Environment Fund. Our school employs protocols from solar and wind energy firms. To generate energy for the school, we have an underground heat pump (20 kilowatts, or kW), solar energy (93 kW) and wind energy stations (5kW).
The roof is covered by soil and endemic plants can be grown. Rain on the roof is collected with the help of an 80-tonne water tank and used for watering. There is a grey water system enabling shower water in the dormitory to be used in the bathrooms after purification. An ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) roof allows maximum light penetration during the day. Solar chimneys supply light for workshops and the gym. VET is supported with modern technology. Read more...
Country: United Kingdom
Professor Linda Clarke is Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of the Production of the Built Environment (ProBE), University of Westminster, London and expert to the European Construction Social Dialogue Working Group, Vocational Education and Training (VET) and Youth. She has extensive experience in comparative research on VET, employment, wage relations, equality and labour across Europe.
Her recent work, focussing on climate change, includes: the EC-funded project ‘Inclusive VET for Low Energy Construction (VET4LEC)’ covering 10 European countries; and integrating climate literacy into the construction trades in Europe. Her publications include: ‘Overcoming diverse approaches to vocational education and training to combat climate change: the case of low energy construction in Europe’ with Sahin-Dikmen M. and Winch C., Oxford Review of Education, 46/5, 2020; and ‘Knowledge, Skills and Competence in the European Labour Market: What’s in a Vocational Qualification?’ with Winch C. and Brockmann M., Routledge, 2011. Read more...
Country: The Netherlands
My name is Jules Pieters. I am professor emeritus of Applied Psychology at the University of Twente, The Netherlands. During my working life I was Chairman at the Department of Curriculum Design and Educational Innovation at the University of Twente/NL, Director of the Psychology Programme at the University of Twente/NL, and Head of the Teacher Development Research Unit of ELAN at the University of Twente/NL.
Together with my research teams, I have identified essential and empirically verified characteristics of sustainable curriculum innovation. I discussed the foundations of collaborative curriculum design, and elaborated its impact on student learning, teacher practices, teacher professional growth, and institutional change. I crossed various disciplines, from Psychology and Educational Science and Technology to Communication Science.
My main theoretical and empirical work is a key to the continuation and further evolution of instructional technology, curriculum design and educational innovation, and teacher training. My publications and contributions to research, teaching and learning, in initial and continuous vocational education and training, are highly acknowledged at the national and international level. Read more...
The Entrepreneurial School - TES, JA Europe award
Vocational Education Competence Centre Riga State Technical School
Country: Latvia
Riga State Technical School is a vocational education institution which offers vocational secondary education programmes as well as individual vocational education programmes. The school has 36 accredited vocational education programmes in technical engineering as well as vocational development and further training programmes, educating specialists for almost all sectors of the Latvian economy. Technical training includes adult education programmes. Experienced business teachers regularly share their knowledge and insights, and advise others on entrepreneurship education.
We have launched collaborative plans to develop the entrepreneurial capacity of teachers in different subjects. The school’s long-term plan is focused on systemic activities promoting entrepreneurship, moving towards the involvement of the widest possible number of students in activities and emphasising socially responsible and economically appropriate actions regardless of profession. Read more...
Laboratory of Special Vocational Education of Agios Dimitrios (EEEEK of Agios Dimitrios)
Country: Greece
The Laboratory of Special Vocational Education of Agios Dimitrios is a public secondary school for students with disabilities. The school promotes entrepreneurship education by preparing students to adapt to their future workplaces. For the last six years, we have been developing student entrepreneurship programmes in collaboration with Junior Achievement Greece (JA Greece) with significant distinctions, and have managed to transform a virtual business training programme into a social cooperative enterprise where the school graduates are employed.
During our graduate students’ internships, we organise their training in the mini start-ups that operate within the school such as the cafeteria for the staff, the school catering service and through our contribution to provision of food for the homeless in cooperation with the municipality of Agios Dimitrios. Through our practical educational activities, we aim to promote equal opportunities in education and employment and to establish strong links with the local and broader community. Read more...
European Social Fund Plus (ESF/ESF+) award
Project: J.O.B Vert (Jeunes Orientés Bio et métiers verts)
Organisation: La Bourrache
Managing Authority: BeFR - Agence Fonds social européen
Country: Belgium
We are La Bourrache, a Belgian not-for-profit organisation. In 2016, we started the J.O.B. Vert training programme. This programme aims to upskill or reskill unemployed people between 18 and 24 years old by teaching them the basics of organic farming and landscape gardening.
We work with young people with little or no qualifications whose life experience is one of rejection, perceived failure and often challenging family issues (violence, addiction, social and financial insecurity, etc). We give them a chance to meet, share their professional expectations and fears, and test themselves in a caring and supervised environment. Over several months, each trainee discovers green jobs by doing them alongside professionals who support them in the daily difficulties encountered. We inspire, emancipate, up/reskill youth within a small and personalised framework so that they’re able to take an active part in the green transition - and it’s working! Read more...
Managing Authorities: Piedmont Management and Control System Authority, Regional Operational Programme (ROP), European Social Fund (ESF) (Autorità di Gestione POR FSE Piemonte)
Country: Italy
Through this project, our association aims at promoting a culture of sustainability in the approach to food consumption, and to transfer this culture to the paths our young people take.
We wish to guide them towards an eco-friendly and ethical approach to consumption and towards more eco-friendly and sustainable agri-food processing. This approach builds on our mission to care for the earth’s bounty and to preserve and enhance raw materials, regions and cultures. The project includes plant cultivation using two aeroponic growing systems and the application of innovative processing techniques along the agri-food chain that allows our young students to acquire specific skills in plant production, sensory and qualitative analysis, primary and secondary processing, food preservation in drying cabinets and ovens, grinding of organic cereals with stone mills, cooking using multifunctional food processing benches, and transformation of organic waste. Read more...
Erasmus+, Innovative curricula for the green transition award
Project: Training for sustainable food systems development (T4F)
Organisation: FOR SOLIDARITY (POUR LA SOLIDARITE ASBL)
Country: Belgium
The project ‘Training for sustainable food systems development (T4F)' aimed at establishing a professional training programme based on green skills development in the food sector to increase the number of jobs supporting an ecological, sustainable and inclusive transition. The food industry has a significant impact on the environment: it is the sector with the highest water demand and food production results in the loss of many valuable resources that are transformed to waste.
The population is growing yet the purchasing power of many citizens is decreasing due to economic and social crises. In the context of a climate emergency that demands a successful ecological transition and smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, T4F aims to play a role by creating new jobs. T4F is more than a training course. During the project, we developed a self-study training manual, a user guide, testimonial videos and policy recommendations. The manual is still in use today, demonstrating the project’s success. Read more...
Country: Sweden
VETcert is raising the standard of veteran tree care throughout Europe. The VETcert project developed a certification scheme that has been implemented across Europe. It harmonises skills’ recognition in veteran tree management, increases transparency and, most importantly, raises the standards in veteran tree care. It developed new training resources and a common European minimum level of skills and knowledge for arboriculture, ecology and forestry professionals.
It also established a transparent and objective examination procedure to test knowledge and skills related to veteran tree management. VETcert had 10 partners from seven countries and the VETcert certification process has already certified professionals from Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Republic of Ireland, Spain, Sweden and the UK. By promoting better knowledge and providing guidance on the management of our most precious old trees and the species they support, the prospects of these treasures have been significantly improved. Read more...
Erasmus+, Learning opportunities for young people coming from disadvantaged backgrounds award
Project: CAPMOB 2.0
Organisation: GIP FCIP DE PARIS, Paris Academic Centre for Continuing Education (CAFOC)
Country: France, with participation of DE, IT, PT, UK
The experience of a European mobility project means leaving your country or city, maybe for the first time. Experiencing a work placement in Europe means developing your professional skills and exploring the job market at the European level. Experiencing life abroad means gaining maturity and self-confidence to drive development in your personal and professional lives.
The Erasmus+ CAPMOB 2.0 project offers students with limited opportunities the opportunity to gain professional experience in Europe, regardless of their level of training or professional field. It brings together 70 % of the public vocational training high schools in the ‘Académie de Paris’. A tutoring system has fostered local synergy among schools, creating a vast and reliable network of mobility actors. Four hundred and seventy-one students and 246 supervisors have already benefited from this programme, and CAPMOB has become a brand among the education community in Paris. Read more...
Project: Working for inclusion and equal opportunities for the most disadvantaged
Organisation: ALMI BILBAO SAL
Country: Spain, with participation of MT, PT
ALMI Bilbao Studies Centre is a vocational training centre that has been providing vocational training since 1939. Today, the centre is made up of around 350 students studying basic, intermediate, and higher-level vocational training and training for employment. Its staff is 100 % dedicated to supporting the centre’s philosophy and values: teamwork, respect and social commitment.
Our Erasmus+ project ‘Working for inclusion and equal opportunities for the most disadvantaged’ arose in the academic year 2019-2020 to address a need that had emerged over the last few years: finding and implementing activities that improve the behaviour of young people who come to the centre, in many cases as the last option they find to achieve personal and professional development. Thanks to Erasmus+, we have seen how internationalisation can become a motivational epicentre that inspires the most disadvantaged students to become enthusiastic about their studies. Read more...
Project: Developing professional competencies through the acquisition of work experience
Organisation: Toldi Miklós Vocational High School and College for the Food Industry (Toldi Miklós Élelmiszeripari Szakgimnázium, Szakközépiskola és Kollégium)
Country: Hungary with participation of DE
In our Erasmus+ project called ‘Developing professional competencies through the acquisition of work experience,’ our students participated in professional training provided by German companies. Our well-established two-decade-long partnership enabled us to include an increasing number of young people who were able to develop themselves personally and professionally in a foreign environment.
Our aim was to involve all professions at our school including gardening, baking and food engineering. During the 4-6 weeks of training, the learners improved their language, social and professional skills and finished better prepared to enter the labour market. This project, like our school in general, focused on equal opportunities. We included students in state care facilities, youth who had lost one or both parents, and some with special educational needs. It is of the utmost importance to us for this programme to strongly motivate these students and to prevent them from leaving school or dropping out. Read more...
#CedefopPhotoAward “Your green or digital skills story”
Project: ClimateMakeUp
Organisation: Ramón y Cajal Institute of Secondary Education (Instituto de educación secundaria Ramón y Cajal)
Country: Spain
Selfishness diminishes our capacity for empathy and obscures the true picture of what is happening around us. Only deeper understanding will enable us to take the first step toward positive change. We are a professional group in nature but made up of students. This project is our ode to the current situation of our planet. Plastics are a symbol of our pollution of the planet we call home, and its burning by deforestation another symbol of its devastation at the hand of humans.
We combine these tragedies to portray how our planet wails, explodes and finally falls. Let's not continue with our eyes closed. Read more...
Country: Greece
The Cyclades were nymphs that Poseidon, God of the Sea, transformed into islands and arranged in a circle. We are students of the Department of Applied Arts and Cyclades is our team’s name. Our 2022 project is inspired by the Aegean’s divine light and motivates us to clean, collect, create and change: ‘4Cs for the sea!’
We remove and reuse marine litter from our region's coastline. Using natural pigments and tools, we not only give our found objects a second chance at life, but also preserve ecological integrity. Read more...
‘The city of my dreams’ is an initiative in the city of Kukës that involves five schools and the local community. It aims at creating an ecological city that makes use of renewable energy sources and introduces nature-based solutions at the municipal level. In the context of the project, students are developing a guide with three solutions to real urban development problems in the community, from which one will be sent to the municipal office of urban planning and become part of the regulatory plans of the city.
The project enhances community awareness of the need to include sustainable development, environmental solutions and ecological principles in urban planning, and fills the gap in green education in public schools. It not only seeks to increase youth participation, but to have 50 % female participants. To raise awareness in the whole community, the project will be presented to other schools and used as a working model in cross-curricular projects. Social Media
The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia introduced the programme ‘Environmental and Agricultural Education in School,' which is being implemented nationwide to enhance environmental and agricultural awareness, green skills and knowledge in schools through the integration of these into subject matter, particularly at the elementary school level. In 2020, a textbook for primary school teachers was developed that presents eight topics that combine theoretical material, activities and complex assignments.
It also summarises the knowledge the students will acquire and what skills will be developed through the activities and assignments presented within the topic. A training process for teachers and curriculum experts is currently being implemented. So far, more than 2 500 teachers have been trained who are now successfully implementing environmental and agricultural activities and spreading the knowledge among their students and colleagues as well. Read more...