In this blog article, you will find the following information:
- VET toolkit team presence at relevant events across Europe
- New publications in the field of inclusion now available
- Recent changes in the team and recently published call for tender
- News from our ambassadors including new network members
News from Cedefop VET toolkit team
Plenary meeting of the European Sectoral Social Dialogue in Education, 14 December 2023, Brussels
At this event, Irene Psifidou, presented Cedefop’s plans for its upcoming European VET Teachers Survey (EVTS) with its aim of supporting teachers’ professional development in initial VET schools. The survey will be carried out between October 2025 and June 2026. To date, a total of 21 countries have confirmed their participation in Cedefop’s novel survey. Its findings will enable a better understanding of the factors driving teachers’ participation in continuous professional development (CPD) while it will also inform on how CPD can improve teachers’ knowledge and skills to promote inclusion. The overall aim of this survey is to provide evidence to strengthen the design of EU and national policies that can ensure high-quality and accessible CPD for initial VET teachers.
Webinar in the framework of the European Education Leadership Week organised by the European Trade Union Committee for Education (ETUCE), 12 February 2024
Dr. Irene Psifidou gave a presentation on the title “Overcoming staff shortages in VET by providing professional support to staff and management”. The presentation, followed by a discussion, addressed issues such as teacher shortages, the (un)attractiveness of the teaching profession and some of the struggles new VET teachers frequently experience when starting their job.
21st ReferNet annual plenary meeting, 28 February – 1 March 2024, Thessaloniki
During this annual event held at Cedefop, Irene Psifidou and Anthie Kyriakopoulou presented the newly published Cedefop/ReferNet (2023) Stemming the tide – tackling early leaving from VET in times of crises synthesis report which was produced on the basis of a survey carried out via Cedefop’s network ReferNet. Among other topics, this report shed light on the monitoring of early leaving across EU Member States, most frequent reasons for dropping out from VET and support measures for students, teachers, and trainers during school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Webinar on digital wellbeing of VET teachers and learners, 1 March 2024
Dr. Irene Psifidou, Cedefop expert, gave a presentation on the topic of VET teachers’ and learners’ wellbeing, a topic discussed in greater detail in Cedefop’s intervention approach. The presentation highlighted recent survey findings and emphasised the necessity of digital skills development for the wellbeing of both teachers and students.
Online meeting with national and international stakeholders “Catching-up Regions Initiative 5” organised by Slovakia, 23 April 2024
Anthie Kyriakopoulou, Cedefop Expert, gave a speech on “Inclusive vocational education and training within the section "Best practice examples - experiences from abroad in the field of inclusion and desegregation of pupils in secondary schools". The presentation addressed latest findings on tackling early leaving, based on Cedefop’s VET toolkit for tackling early leaving and the toolkit for empowering NEETs, as well as Cedefop’s timeline of VET policies in Europe.
International seminar on preventing early leaving in VET organised by the University of the Balearic Islands, 22-23 April 2024, Mallorca
This event was organised by University of the Balearic Islands to generate and share new knowledge on the characteristics of teaching styles and pedagogical practices, as well as their relationship with academic outcomes and drop-out prevention in vocational secondary education. Another aim was to identify and circulate success factors in secondary VET based on scientific evidence derived from national and European studies. Irene Psifidou gave a keynote speech drawing from Cedefop’s new findings on measuring and counteracting early leaving from VET as well as new findings about the key role teachers and trainers play in preventing early leaving from VET, and facilitated a Workshop on fostering digital inclusion.
Upcoming online event: Early leaving from VET in Spain (in Spanish)
Related to the event on 22-23 April 2024 in Mallorca, Dr. Francesca Salvá kindly invites interested parties to join the presentation of their project’s findings on early leaving from VET in Spain: diagnosis and proposals for improvement on 4 July 2024 at 12:00 CET. Should you wish to attend, you can do so following this link.
Online meeting on “the role of municipalities in supporting inclusive education in practice” organised by the European Commission’s working group pathways to school-success, 24 April 2024
Stefanie Ledermaier, who recently joined the VET toolkit team took part in this online meeting where a European view on the roles municipalities can play in supporting inclusive education was discussed. Good practice examples form three European cities were shared (from Helsinki, Vilnius and Zagreb), moving in the direction of a whole community approach, the importance of which Cedefop highlighted in the past. The focus of this webinar was how local governance structures can support, implement, and drive inclusivity in educational settings, ensuring that all students have access to and meaningfully participate in quality education. A video recording of the webinar is now available online.
Changes in the VET toolkit team and recently published call for tender
Since the beginning of this year, several changes took place in the VET toolkit team: Anthie Kyriakopoulou, VET toolkit administrator has been promoted to an expert post and changed department within Cedefop. As we say goodbye to Anthie, we wish her all the best for her new role and are looking forward to her future achievements at Cedefop! Christina Karkanti will replace Anthie and act as the new VET toolkit administrator. A new expert has equally joined the team, Stefanie Ledermaier, with extensive experience in the field of inclusion and labour market research.
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Christina Karkanti is an assistant in the Department for VET and Skills, offering administrative support and dealing with events organisation and contract management. She has experience of more than 14 years working in European agencies. |
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Stefanie Ledermaier joined Cedefop as an expert in March 2024. She has a background in labour market research, worked in two EU agencies previously and will, among other topics, be focussing on young people not in employment, education or training (NEETs). |
Recently published call for tender ‘Mapping digital skills in initial VET curricula using natural language processing (NLP) techniques’
The aim of this framework contract is to deliver a dataset and analysis that will enhance Cedefop’s and the wider research/policy community’s understanding of digital skills provision in initial vocational education and training (IVET) at ISCED level 3 in at least 6 EU-27 Member States across all available sectors/fields of study (i.e., vocational education and training sectors). This involves extracting textual information from national and/or regional initial VET (IVET) written curricula, using natural language processing (NLP) techniques and other relevant computational methods. The closing date is 27/09/2024 and you can find all necessary information here.
Latest resources uploaded on Cedefop's VET toolkit for tackling early leaving and Vet toolkit for empowering NEETS
New publications added to the resource section of the toolkit
Early leaving from vocational education and training (ELVET) in Germany
Based on Cedefop’s definition of ELVET, this publication discusses the concept and understanding of dropping out of VET before presenting the situation of early leaving from VET in Germany. It sheds light on the underlying factors for early leaving, focussing on systematic/structural issues, training conditions as well as personal factors. Furthermore, it focuses on preventive measures put in place in Germany including an overview of developments during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Exploring the impact of eTwinning in early childhood education and care and initial vocational education and training - Monitoring report 2022
The initiative behind this report from the European Education and Culture Executive Agency is the European School Education Platform, a meeting point for all school staff, researchers, policymakers and other stakeholders in the school education field. Within this framework, eTwinning, first launched in 2005, remains a key activity. This annual edition’s report explores the impact of eTwinning in early childhood education and care as well as in IVET. This report draws some interesting conclusions based on a survey drawing on more than 2000 responses from 40 countries.
A formative, whole-school approach to the assessment of social and emotional education in the EU - Analytical report
This report looks into the topic of social and emotional education (SEE), a key competence in lifelong learning. In view of diverse and fragmented approaches to SEE and its assessment in the Member States, this report aims to provide a more integrated framework for the formative and inclusive assessment of SEE across the EU. The report moreover aims to extend assessment to assess the contexts of the classroom and of the whole system of a school.
Figure 1: A framework of guiding principles for the formative assessment of learners in social and emotional education
Toolkit for assessing social and emotional skills at school 'Learning to be' project
“Learning to Be: Development of Practices and Methodologies for Assessing Social, Emotional and Health Skills within Education Systems” is an experimental project that brings together education authorities, teaching practitioners and researchers from 7 European countries: Finland, Italy Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal, Slovenia, and Spain. As the overview report highlights, between 2017 and 2020, the project team aimed to design and pilot in schools a set of methods that would help to assess the development of students’ social, emotional and health-related skills.
This publication is a result of meetings as well as a peer learning activity of the Working Group on Equality and Values in Education and Training. It explores aspects of gender equality in and through education, with a special focus on gender gaps in education, gender segregation and non-traditional education and career pathways. The report lists the most relevant EU-level initiatives combating gender segregation and highlights why this topic is worth exploring further.
Figure 2: Career gap between women and men in the EU
New good practices added in the toolkit
There has also been a number of good practices published on our toolkit’s website. These latest additions include:
Using this model, educational staff and students co-create as part of a community of practice. Experts (educators) and beginners (students) work side by side, learning together and developing knowledge and competence. Involved young people learn about themselves, how to excel, while the educational staff develop skills and understanding to socially include young people. The aim of this project is that the upscaling of the COSI.ed model to policy level will empower groups of disadvantaged young people all over Europe, radically increasing their educational success.
This Catalogue is the result of fieldwork carried out by Make it Happen partners, who contacted organisations involved in mobility projects and activities aimed at people with disabilities. Such organisations have a common goal: they are committed to making the experience of studying or working abroad accessible to all. Most of the best practices that are part of the Catalogue are projects funded by Erasmus+ programme aimed at promoting mobility of learners with disabilities. Additional information can be found on the Make it Happen website.
Next to these good practices, a new tool has also made its way to the toolkit
- Clash of Wizardry, E-MaGIC Erasmus+ project: The mathemagic game - Education in mathematics in game-based immersive contexts (E-MaGIC)
Originally created in 2019, this tool is a fast-paced game of magic duels in which players win by casting spells quickly and mastering the most powerful spells. Spells are activated by solving mathematical equations and the game rewards solving harder equations. Clash of Wizardry provides an easy way for teachers to try out an app-supported teaching approach that can be consulted in the Teachers’ Handbook, which also includes teaching support materials. Please find additional information on this tool on their website.
News from our toolkit's ambassadors
Our ambassador from Romania Larisa Ile, working for the Edu4Tourism Teachers and Mentors Association, shared an interesting summary of "the Transformative Power of the Erasmus+ Experience for VET students". Based on feedback their organisation receives after a mobility project of VET students is completed, Erasmus+ offers invaluable experiences to students, allowing them to expand their horizons, learn new languages and develop valuable interpersonal and professional skills. While the experience gained in the programme can open doors to international careers, the programme offered also fosters inclusion, diversity, friendship, trust, and self-discovery.
Our ambassador Francesca Salvá Mut from Spain shares a recently published article (accessible for registered users only; in case of interest, please reach out to us) which she co-authored. This article investigates the “Reasons for dropping out of intermediate vocational education and training in Spain: the influence of sociodemographic characteristics and academic background”. The study was carried out in Mallorca, the region with the highest levels of school dropout in Spain and an economy essentially centred on tourism. Monitoring a cohort of students who dropped out of VET for three years, the study finds that the most important reasons for dropping out are finding a job or wanting to find one, obtaining bad results and wanting to do other courses. The findings suggest that educational interventions aimed at reducing dropout should take into account the heterogeneity of student profiles and acknowledges the limitations of the quantitative perspective in analysing students’ reasons for dropping out.
Our ambassador Luca Calligaro from Italy drew our attention to a collection of resources centred around their nurturing well-being in VET “3-H project (Head, Heart, Hand). A key aspect of this project was its emphasis on equipping educators with methodologies to enhance the socio-emotional aspects of teaching, creating a welcoming and supportive environment for students from the onset of their VET journey. The project's core objectives included developing and disseminating best practices for fostering student well-being and motivating learners and integrating socio-emotional perspectives into their daily interactions with students. The project aimed to create a ripple effect, positively impacting students' learning experiences and overall well-being. A collection of good practice compendium based on this project can be found here. Their website furthermore offers guidelines on socio-emotional Education in VET.
Our ambassador Sotiria Tsalamani from Belgium shares a new online training course with the aim to end gender-based violence in VET (END GBV in VET). This project focuses on piloting a full-service office for students, trainers, schools administrative staff and parents to increase the capacity and awareness for disrupting gender-based violence in the VET sphere. Its primary aim is to empower a critical mass to champion change, particularly in VET. The course contents are currently undergoing piloting in Italy, Greece, Luxembourg, and other countries. Once finalised, the content will be uploaded to the project’s webpage. Another interesting project is the TeSTED project which focuses on creating mechanisms VET for the early detection and prevention of the dropouts due to socio-economic difficulties. It aims to transform VET providers into a safety net for at-risk learners by offering consultation, alternative pathways and securing their retention in, and graduation from, education and training. The TeSTED project has developed a psychometric questionnaire which will help teachers identify students which are a high risk of dropping out and the factors which are at play. In the future, their ambition is to develop a training curriculum to enhance the capacity of VET staff and a full-service intervention mechanism in the form of an office for students who need further support and guidance.
Our ambassador Fernando Marhuenda Fluixá from Spain shared a number of resources articles of potential relevance for this network (available in Spanish). A first report deals with recognising good VET practice for refugees; this report is also accompanied by a toolbox. Yet another article looks into the offer and demand for socio-educational services. Another set of reports investigate the topic of second-chance schools: One publication looks into second chance schools investigating what factors influence the expectations and transitions of this population to other educational environments and/or to work. Another publication carries out an organisational analysis of second-chance schools in Spain. Also the topic of personal and career guidance is analysed in the framework of second-chance schools. Lastly, a doctoral thesis investigates social inclusion programmes for young people in vulnerable situations in Portugal.
Our ambassador from Greece Dora Katsamori, draws our attention to a newly created questionnaire exploring teachers’ and trainers’ understanding and preconceptions of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its potential use in the field of education. This survey was developed by the National Centre for Scientific Research ‘Demokritos’ (NCSRD) and the European Wergeland Centre (EWC) as part of the activities of the ‘AIEdu’ project funded by the Civic Innovation Fund. The questionnaire is addressed to teachers/educators involved in both formal and non-formal education.
💯 Well done, keep up this valuable work!
Meet our new ambassadors
Below an overview of new ambassadors who joined the network – there are now more than 100 ambassadors in the network, what a remarkable milestone!
Alicia Ortiz Molina from Spain is a VET Administration and Management teacher as well as a basic Vocational Training Tutor. "We are all good at something, discovering it and promoting it is essential to describe the training itinerary."
Francesc Meseguer from Spain, Noima which runs projects in the areas of providing training and support for young immigrants, offering tailored professional development, preparing individuals for job placements and the prevention of school dropout.
“I’m excited to learn from all of you and share our experiences together”.
Martina Němcová from the Czech Republic works for the Careers Guidance Centre of the Zlín Region.
“I am a certified career counsellor, enthusiastic consultant on early school leaving prevention and intervention for primary and secondary schools; author of methods and tools for drop-outs prevention”.
Anastasia Karasaridou from Greece is a career counsellor and works for a vocational training centre providing training programmes for unemployed people. As a part of these programmes, they deal with those who dropped out of education.
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