Training delivery

Whilst there are some effective VET systems to support youth development, most notably in Norway and Sweden, mature entrants are not so well served. They currently lack structured in-company support during work based training activites and practice, including support from tutoring staff during learning and implementation of theory at companies that may be located far away from the VET providers. At the same time too many staff with strong practical skills face learning and writing disabillities, while other experience challenges related to the young school leavers. In some countries like Hungary, once in employment, formal VET pathways leading to the completion of a National Qualifications (NQs) in fabricatin are hard to access or not well supported. Approximately, for instance only 10% of the inspector workfoce in Norway and Sweden has got a NQ. Therefore, most of the workforce remains un-qualified and highly dependent on informal inhouse training (non-formal VET) provided by the companies themselves.

The project will help improving the fabrication VET system for staff working in fabrication industry. The new in-company team system will target this area, thus offering a system solution with standarized and harmonized methods for support during the theoretical training phases and in particular the work based training to be organized at companies that may be located in remotly geographical areas.

Prior to the course(s) the vocational education and training (VET) school establishes a school-industry partnership together with the companies. This includes a plan for the training needs. The training is delivered as problem based learning, where an external customer delivers a set of drawings and specifications to the class and asks them whether they can deliver a product based on the customers requirement. The training follows the industrial production process. Theoretical knowledge is immediately transferred into work-based learning.

BET challenge the fabrication industry to formulate their VET demands and specifications:

  • WORK-BASED LEARNING FOR VET: BET demonstrates how VET schools may set up, establish and deliver blended learning solutions that quickly respond on industry demands.
  • ACTIVE LEARNING: The training methods combine cases, modern teaching tools and interactive learning services that highlight, demonstrate and initiate discussions among the students.

How is it possible to develop VET supply to better offer training based up on industry demands? Such that students receive more efficient fabrication training. How to introduce new VET methods that are more time- and cost efficient? How should school-industry partnerships be. established?  BET is gooing to improve and streamline VET. The VET schools are the initiators for organizing a common meeting arena towards the industry. During the courses they will:

  • Apply e-Learning to communicate and deliver materials, tasks and define learning activities for the students.
  • Apply work-based learning to investigate and solve the tasks and activities done by the students.
  • Apply e-learning to communicate and deliver the materials from the student to the teacher, or from a student to the other students.

Learning is a social experience that requires interactions and interactivity between the students, and between the students and their teachers. The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has been a good opportunity to rethink our approach for providing VET within a blended learning educational framework mixing some onsite training in the class room with recognition of previous learning (knowledge and skills), professional e-learning system solutions, application of work-based training and frequent synchronous and asynchronous teacher training support by applying the video systems Zoom or Teams.

Moving some tasks to an online format, suggests that many training activities that have traditionally been synchronous and instructor-paced in a classroom, can be made asynchronous and self-paced. This helps supporting delivery of training that better reflects companies production schedule, without increasing training delivery costs.

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The European Commission's support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.