The EROVET+ team started 2020 with an organised schedule of meetings and activities, and with an accurate planning of deadlines for the results of the on-going project “Filling the skills gap of European VET Learners”. The pandemic, though, forced the team to adapt to the new situation and to rethink all the planning done. Meetings turned into virtual sessions and the working methodology was reconsidered. Nevertheless, ambitions for the project did not diminish and a rescheduling was immediately done.
The last physical joint activity had taken took place in Crewe (UK) in February, where the team had had the opportunity to work on one of the results of the project “The managerial skills course”. Great hopes have been placed on the course, as it is expected that it will provide European learners with the necessary skills to manage teams and projects as well as to manage their own personal development, and willtherefore enable them to get access to better employment opportunities. The project partners are aware that European VET learners face a lack of training in this issue and it is anticipated that this course will cover a gap, which businesses increasingly require.
The next meeting was expected to take place in Thiene (Italy) in May, but it never saw the light. Instead, an online meeting was scheduled and from then onwards project partners continued their work with the same enthusiasm. Blogs were published every month in the EROVET website. Some of them dealing with issues related to the way the pandemic have changed our teaching and also how VET centres have contributed with their knowledge and resources to help fighting the virus. Others focussed on issues relevant to the network, such as lifelong learning and mobility opportunities throughout Europe.
In the last months of the year, a special effort has been devoted to the E2BM course (Entrepreneurial course) and to the EROVET Job Pool. The E2BM course is now quite ready and will be offered in 2021 by all the network partners. VET learners and graduates will have the opportunity to take an online test, which will be linked to a virtual learning space in the EROVET website, thus obtaining the EROVET Entrepreneurial certificate when successfully completing the course. As for the EROVET Job Pool, the good news is that the application is currently working and fulfils the partners’ expectations. The uploading of job offers has already started and companies seem to positively value this new service. Hopefully, the job pool will publicly see the light by the beginning of the new year and it is therefore expected that it will soon become a valuable resource for European VET graduates.
2021 will engage partners in the construction of the remaining project results: the EROVET Connect App and the Innovation Platform, among others. All in all, with the aim of providing the network members and the European VET community with the necessary services and resources to both help completing the training and increasing the employability of VET graduates.
