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Recognition of skills and qualifications:
This project will investigate, define, test, evaluate and validate a new innovative system for developing and sharing best practice learning within aquaculture VET, paying particular attention to enhanced access to workplace-based training within the Blue sector. It will be based upon offering transparency and recognition of skills and qualifications by measuring and documenting students acquired aquaculture experience. This will be done by inventing a number of open cases from the aquaculture sector, in combination with a new type of pre-tests that documents student’s pre-aquaculture knowledge and skills. The test will be designed to support staff that has dyslexia by applying multimedia material constructed by instructional designers. The open cases will be applied in a work-based training delivery system, to determine and demonstrate the benefits.

The proposed system solutions offer transparency of skills and qualifications in such a way that VET schools may offer adapted training solutions to their aquaculture VET students. In addition, fish farming companies will apply the transparency of skills to develop a new learning culture at the cages that is based up on developing best practices through team work between farms. The system solution proposes a new solution to investigate and recognize those student that have obtained aquaculture skills and qualifications to start on their theoretical education, leading to an exam that is part of national qualifications (NQs). This will let VET schools offer better adapted training and fish farms to don`t encourage their staff to start on theoretical courses before they have obtained a minimum of experience, to be documented by the project.

These methods and solutions may be used to track transparency and recognition of skills and qualifications in other horizontal VET programs. Thus, the proposed methods have a potential to be used far beyond VET in the marine fish farming sector, since the training principles are applicable for training in VET in general.

Development of high-quality skills and competences
Fish farming industry must, due to fast technological development, start offering more specialization. Equipment become more complex, expensive, larger, heavier, etc. thus requiring better training and expertise knowledge. This project supports development of high-quality skills and qualifications for staff at marine cages, by developing and establishing a horizontal best practice learning culture between fish farms, that apply carefully designed open cases. This will lead to more time- and cost-effective delivery of workplace-based learning consisting of a combination of e-learning and on-site flexible learning solutions. This project offers training of 20 aquaculture teachers that may apply new methods and tools to develop high-quality skills in the VET sectors.

Developing VET business partnerships aiming at promoting work-based learning
The project develops methods for sharing of best practice learning, which VET schools will apply to improve and enhance current fish farms business partnerships, while at the same time improving the partnership between the schools and the companies. This is obtained by determining the group and each individual learner existing knowledge, skills and experience. Subsequently, this allows VET schools to better target their teaching of the theoretical courses in existing aquaculture NQs in Norway, Iceland and the Faroes. This is culminating in establishing a proposed industry driven Aquaculture Forum that gives input to required industry qualifications and workplace training. This will address previously neglected workforce development issues, sustaining the momentum generated by partners and thereby contributing to the sustainable growth of marine fish farming by keeping the environmental perspective in focus though best practice learning methods in and between farms.

The proposed new methods will:

• support multiple teaching and learning styles, thus offering a solution to a heterogeneous staff group that include early school leavers and staff with other learning disabilities.
• apply videoconferencing of desktop-based video to enhance collaboration and cooperation between different farm sites. Modern farms have access to such equipment today.
• be used "on the fly" if for instance the staff at the marine cages want to discuss a challenge or a problem with staff at other farms, including farms owned by their competitors.
• provides teachers and VET schools with information about the real farming experiences obtained by the student group
• be used in distance teaching and on-site learning frameworks.

Thus, ASK proposes innovative, easy to use solutions (both tools and methods) and actions providing permeability across aquaculture education, by including new workplace-based training to be applied in courses leading to NQs in Norway, Iceland and the Faroes after completing the proposed dissemination activities and the short training course.