COVET: Continuing Professional Development in Digital Education for VET

2020-1-CZ01-KA226-VET-094350

Erasmus+

2021 - 2023

Project Bio

Vocational education institutions are currently facing the challenge of seeking the innovative ways to conduct their teaching, training and mentoring - especially in light of
the recent technological, economic and social changes resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The European Framework for the Digital Competence of Educators (DigCompEdu, published in 2017) describes the digital competencies specific to the teaching profession, however
when it comes to online education delivery there are distinct competencies (not all of them necessarily digital) that are essential for quality online education delivery

A recent study of the European Commission, "Fight against COVID-19", has shown that education systems of the EU member states were unprepared for a crisis of this size. Although there is a vast number of online courses and learning modules available to the public, most of these resources are not specific to VET education. Ready-made VET specific material is generally underdeveloped or non-existent. In most cases, the resources focus exclusively on theoretical knowledge; there are some demonstrations in ad-hoc videos or step by step instructions to show the more practical skills linked to VET professions, but few fully developed VET training resources are readily available.

Two main areas in which VET digital education is lacking have been identified:
1. VET teachers need to upgrade their teaching skills to meet the requirements of online, digital or virtual training delivery.

While there are still plenty of similarities between teaching online and in the classroom, there are many areas that differ. The role of the teacher changes and also becomes that of a:

E-learning Designer
Technology Specialist
Content Coach
Social Director
Managing Correspondent

A blend of these different roles is necessary for a VET teacher to deliver engaging lessons.

2. VET teachers need to be equipped with new (digital) tools to design and develop their virtual training lessons. These digitals tools could include:

Learning Management Systems
Learning Experience Platforms
Video Training Tools
Microlearning Platforms
Mobile Tools
Project Management and Planning Tools
Content Creation Tools
Content Management Tools
Communication Tools

The COVET project intends to design a quality training program for VET teachers and trainers to help them meet current and future requirements on digital training delivery

Partnerships

The COVET project is made up of a team of partners with expertise in design and development of training activities and materials, teaching digital skills, IT training and quality assurance, and a variety of different educational environments such as schools, training centres and VET institutions.

The partners have extensive experience in projects in which teachers and educators are the main target group, both nationally and internationally.

All partners are strongly committed to local, regional and national educational organisations that focus on high-level learning in formal and non-formal learning environments, academic studies and research.

The project partners have been working together within the European projects framework (formerly LLP Program and Erasmus+) and are all part of an European network actively working on common interest points for developing and sharing knowledge across Europe.

The COVET consortium consists of large and small educational institutions from Northern, Central, Southern and Eastern Europe located in large and small towns and rural areas.

Coordinator: ProEduca, Czech Republic,
Partner 1: AdM, Italy,
Partner 2: A.S.I.E, Romania,
Partner 3: SBTC, Turkey,
Partner 4: TUS/LIT, Ireland,
Partner 5: CEBEM, Spain.
Partner 6: NRC, UK.

Among the partners there are 1 higher education institution, 2 VET schools, 3 NGOs and 1 SME which provide a diverse team of professional of different backgrounds and experiences.

Main Project Outputs

Digital training delivery in VET: CPD program for VET staff
Continuous professional development refers to the process of training and developing professional knowledge and skills through independent, participation-based and interactive learning.

This form of learning allows professionals to improve their capabilities with the help of the selected program.

Our CPD training program for professionals will reflect their current expectations as well as future ambitions.

As the trainers' needs develop, the knowledge and skills they require will also evolve.

This is where CPD will come to the teachers' rescue and help them steer their career in the right direction.

This training program will be built upon the results of a thorough analysis of VET teaching staff needs related to the online training delivery. As VET teachers are required to move towards teaching online, the virtual classrooms they use give different perspective on the trainers’ role as instructor.

The trainers have already discovered that to be effective in helping students learn successfully in a remote environment, online teaching requires the instructor to take on some different roles than those to which they were accustomed.

A move away from disseminating and toward facilitating means adopting and embracing new ways of doing things. We expect that the survey will confirm the shift towards adopting new roles as not just a teacher but also an online instructor.

We firmly believe that actively assuming these new roles will lead to a higher quality experience for both the instructor and students. Therefore, the training program will be built around the following new roles of the VET trainer and provide information, instruction, guidance and examples on online training delivery.