Newsletter 9/2020

European Vocational Skills Week goes 100% Digital

The 2020 Week will be a fully digital event, bringing together a variety of VET stakeholders across the EU virtually, to share their expertise. More information will soon be made available on our website.

Save the date!

Visitors to the European Vocational Skills Week website are now greeted with our new save-the-date video. Have you seen it yet? We’ll also be sharing it via our social media channels to ensure the VET message is spread far and wide.

VET: Your Talent.
Your Journey.Your Choice.

2020 support resources available

To support event/activity organisers and ensure the message of VET and European Skills Week is shared far and wide in the most coherent way possible, we’ve created a series of resources. These include toolkits and factsheets about maximising media relations and social media, the campaign’s key messages, a style guide, leaflet templates and other marketing assets. You can consult and download these guidelines here.

We’re delighted to announce that 12 organisations have accepted the role of National Contact Point for the 2020 Week. They’ll be playing a crucial role in supporting local event/activity organisers and spreading the word about European Vocational Skills Week.

These contact points have three primary missions:

1
To amplify the campaign among national, regional or local VET stakeholders.

2
To amplify the media impact of the Ambassador appointed to represent their country.

3
To provide dedicated assistance to event/activity organisers in their country.

The 12 organisations who have taken on this challenge for the 2020 Week are:

Bulgaria: NAVET – National Agency for Vocational Education and Training
Croatia: Agency for VET and Adult Education (AVETAE)
Cyprus: Human Resource Development Authority of Cyprus (HRDA)
Czechia: National Pedagogical Institute of the Czech Republic (NPI ČR)
Germany: Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB)
Greece: AKMI S.A.
Hungary: IKK Innovative Training Support Center
Latvia: Ministry of Education and Science
Lithuania: Qualifications and Vocational Education and Training Development Centre
Netherlands: CINOP
Romania: National Centre for Vocational and Technical Education and Training Development (NCTVETD)
Slovakia: State Vocational Education Institute (Štátny inštitút odborného vzdelávania - ŠIOV)

A big “thank you” to all these organisations!
Read more about our 2020 National Contact Points’ activities and how they’re supporting the Week here.

Apply now for #CedefopPhotoAward 2020

The #CedefopPhotoAward 2020 deadline is approaching, so apply now. Teams of up to four VET learners in the EU, Norway and Iceland are invited to put together a creative photo story that shares their VET experience related to green or digital skills, accompanied by up to 100 words explaining their work. Find out more here and watch the video for inspiration. Applications must be submitted at the latest by 15 September, via this link. Prizes will be given.

This year we’re encouraging you to organise digital events/activities to promote VET – it could be a webinar, digital press campaign, online careers fair, Facebook Live, Instagram Live or another online gathering.Image

And of course, if it can be done safely and in line with local regulations, you’re welcome to organise face-to-face events as part of the Week. There are already 228 events registered across 28 countries, reaching almost 630 000 people.

Here are some examples:

CROATIA
Gamification in Vocational Training is a small online exhibition of work by vocational teachers Ivana Prezzi, Marija Istenić, Magda Barišić, Vanja Perković, Mirela Maričić and Ivana Čota in Split, Croatia. Game-based learning means the use of a game, or game elements, in teaching, to achieve specific educational outcomes. The approach, which uses well-known games such as Ludo, Risk or Monopoly, or more sophisticated digital tools or games, such as Escape Room, Maze Chase Labyrinth and QR codes, is a great way to motivate students. The teachers are creating a small exhibition of digital games that they use in their own classroom.

CYPRUS
In Larnaca, Cyprus, two trainers passionate about empowering people through skills will present an online seminar on personal and professional development and the importance of VET. The event will raise awareness about training and skills, promote professional skills, engage with a European and international network and encourage the sharing of best practice.

FRANCE
In Pau, France, a collective known as ‘Different and Skilled’ will highlight workers with disabilities and companies committed to integrating a diverse range of abilities into their workforce. The collective calls for recognition of the capacities of each person according to their own abilities, solidarity and benevolence. A ceremony will celebrate these values.

HUNGARY
In Budapest, Hungary, the Budapest Centre of Technical Vocational Training is hosting an event drawing attention to the importance of a technical career. The event will feature presentations from industry practitioners on the future of vocational training as well as highlight the vast opportunities a technical career has to offer.

Feeling inspired to organise your own event or activity? Registration is simple: just follow the instructions on this page. What’s more, we have created toolkits and handbooks containing all the tips you need to organise a successful VET activity. In the meantime, you can contact us with any questions at empl-vocational-skills-weekcecoforma [dot] com (empl-vocational-skills-week[at]cecoforma[dot]com.)

Don’t forget to share your VET story with others. On the Week website you can read the stories of how organisations and individuals are using VET to change their lives and influence their communities. How about these examples:

Valbona Lasku, a food safety project communication expert, was one of the mentors at the virtual Albanian Skills Week 2020. She presented the EU-funded Food Safety Project during a Skills for Safer Life webinar. “Although virtually held, the Albanian Skills Week successfully fulfilled its purpose of providing the young generation in general, and vocational education students in particular, with a new way of adapting to and embracing the future post-COVID-19 situation all over the world. The webinar aimed to identify some of the greatest issues in terms of food safety, occupational safety and mental health in Albania, which were discussed by experts in the relevant fields. Practical tips for all three areas were presented during the activity.”

Beatris Panas, from Romania saw her life transformed by VET and by winning the #CedefopPhotoAward 2019. After travelling to Thessaloniki to collect her prize, she realised she wanted to develop her passion for photography. “My VET journey began in high school in Sighetu-Marmatiei, Romania, on September 15, 2016,” she says. “I sat in the corner of a classroom, I was quiet, shy, only fourteen – still confused about the path that I chose. I had never studied business, I had no experience in making money, and the thought of running my own business was as ridiculous an idea as I could believe. Little did I know that I had just started the programme that would change my life!” You can read Beatris’s story here.

You can share your story with the VET community here.

Join the conversation

Let’s keep talking on social media. Use #EUVocationalSkills and #DiscoverYourTalent to follow the conversation online.