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European Vocational Skills Week
News announcement19 December 2019Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion

I hope to continue using creativity, inclusive education and contemporary teaching methods in VET teaching.

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I am a Master of Economics and a university specialist in Human Resources and the Knowledge Society, from Ogulin, Croatia. I work as an economics teacher at the Bernardin Frankopan Grammar and Vocational School. As a teacher, I worked in a vocational school for ten years, teaching in the professions of salesman, economist and hotel and tourist technician. Before I started working as a teacher, I worked in the economics sector. Today in teaching, I connect theory and expertise in practice. Over the years, I have participated in many international projects, workshops and conferences. That is how I found out about European Vocational Skills Week. After speaking with the school principal, I decided to involve my school in this interesting project.

We got involved for the first time in 2016 and have been regularly participating in Skills Week since then. As we are a small school and funding is limited, our activities are symbolic. For the past four years, we have organised the School Trainee Company Fair, an exhibition and presentation of trainee companies, as well as a visit to professional organisations in the area, and a collaboration with the association Ekonom from Ogulin. We’ve also visited DM (drogerie markt d.o.o), Erste & Steiermärkische Bank d.d., the Croatian Bureau of Statistics and Rimac Automobili d.o.o.. Students are happy to be involved in Skills Week, and all activities are regularly recorded and published on the school's website.

When I started to take part in European Vocational Skills Week in 2016, I was concerned that it would not be interesting or useful and would be boring for the students. When I saw how many people and organisations were involved, however, and saw positive results and the interest of the students, I changed my mind. I would like to raise European Vocational Skills Week to a higher level, to provide students with better knowledge and skills for the job market. Working with students fulfils me and makes me happy. Every day, every hour is a new challenge. I am excited to bring new knowledge to students through practical examples, and I often use case studies when teaching statistics, banking and insurance, and other vocational subjects. Integrating real-world examples into teaching leads to better student learning. I am particularly pleased with the progress of student’s hour to hour after linking teaching content to the real world. My previous VET activities have included becoming a professor mentor, starting new eTwinning projects in 2020, establishing a professional association and an Erasmus+ project. I was named one of the 510 most successful teachers in Croatia in the 2018/2019 school year. VET also allowed me to participate in the Eurostat teacher workshop in Paris, ‘Statistics for the Classroom’, where I gained a lot of knowledge and learned about opportunities that I can pass on to students. I look forward to teaching new classes and new methods in statistics and other vocational subjects. I hope to continue using creativity, inclusive education and contemporary teaching methods in VET teaching.

Branko Rumenović, Teacher, Croatia

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