ECVET Skills Platform
European education and training systems continue to fall short in providing the right skills for employability and are not working adequately with businesses or employers to bring the learning experience closer to the reality of the working environment. These skills mismatches are a growing concern for the European industry's competitiveness (Industrial Policy Communication Update COM, 2012, p:582 ). By 2020, 20% more jobs will require higher-level skills. Education needs to drive up both standards and levels of achievement to match this demand, as well as encourage the transversal skills needed to ensure young people are able to be entrepreneurial and adapt to the increasingly inevitable changes in the labor market during their career. The scope and pace of reforms need to be scaled up so high-quality skills can support both growth and jobs (EU Commission Rethinking Education: Investing in skills for better socio-economic outcomes, 2012, p:2). Skills mismatch refers to a discrepancy between the demand and supply of skills in the labor market. In other words, a situation in which the skills sought by employers are different from the skills offered by job-seekers or workers. In order to achieve excellence in VET, curricula must be systematically renewed, delivery must be constantly modernized and businesses, especially SMEs, must be actively involved. VET must be able to react to the demand for advanced vocational skills, tailored to the regional economic context.
Within this context given, this project aims to develop a platform through which vocational education systems and the labor market, especially the SMEs, communicate interactively, while one side voting for/valuing the skills they need and the other side, that's the vocational systems answers by updating the current curriculum. Also, the training content developed on skills analysis and mapping through the ECVET Skills Platform is considered to serve the quality of vocational education and training systems, giving the experts responsible for teaching technical skills the mission of teaching also the personal and conceptual skills.
The target group of the project is vocational education and training institutions, teachers/trainers in VET, SMEs, employers, decision-makers, non-governmental organizations, and trainees. It aims at creating a channel among the members of the target group to keep them updated about the needs and requirements of the firms and the provided skills at educational institutions.
During the project, the first step will be to identify the qualifications of CNC Machining according to EQF as Level 4. Then, secondly, defining the expectations of the firms will be taken together with the opinions of technical teachers. In this context, ideas and expectations from firms and individuals in decision-making positions in the labor market will be gathered and a list of the necessary skills required will be established. Then, with the ECVET Skills platform that will be installed on the internet, a ranking of importance will be listed by firms. This is the most innovative part of the project. Following this, the training curriculum in vocational high schools for CNC Machine will be renewed and/or developed in order to ensure the most needed top ten skills. Trainers will be trained on this platform and will be informed about how they should implement their education. Then, these trainers will apply the top ten skill-building training curricula on the qualification list from the digital platform. The students and teachers will be able to access the videos and teaching materials on the platform and assess their own learning with the rubric provided. Therefore, they will have higher self-esteem in terms of qualifications and the market can be more satisfied with hiring more qualified employers. On the other hand, the top ten skill lists created by firms; and all teaching materials and videos created in a dynamic fashion can be downloaded openly to all individuals in order to ensure that the created platform reaches a wider population. Thus, as students, teachers, and trainers easily access this information, the widespread impact of the platform will be increased.
Establishing a vocational education and training curriculum and extensive content by using an online web portal to develop a system for skills and qualifications that are supposed to be based on the needs of the labor markets is the innovative wall of the project. One of the pioneering innovative elements will be enabling countries to obtain the skill ranking of CNC machining. The proposed web portal can be seen as one of the most key innovations of the project since it will be accessible by all related stakeholders.
Date: 14 September 2019 - 15 March 2021
Project Partners:
1. Governement of Istanbul, Turkey
2. Istanbul Technical University, Turkey
3. Istanbul Chamber of Industry, Turkey
4. Yakacik Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School, Turkey
5. Bildungswerk der Sächsischen Wirtschaft gGmbH – SBW, Germany
6. Anaptixiako Kentro Thessalias, Greece
7. Euromasc AS, Norway
8. Instituto Para El Fomento Del Desarrollo Y La Formacion Sl, Spain
9. Wiener Institut Fur Arbeitsmarkt- und Bildungsforschung, Austria