Category: Italian news

Capacity Building of VET Staff

Post author By enneproject
Post date 10 November 2020
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The thematic discussion on the topic Capacity Building of VET STAFF was moderated by Ms Darina Petrunova and Mrs Vanya Neycheva from European Center for Quality, Bulgaria.
In total 5 good practices -2 from Bulgaria and 3 from Belgium were presented. The good practices were related to the improvement of VET staff skills through participation in international teaching activities and working meetings and structured VET trainings.

Good practice 1 – Vocational High School of Electrical Engineering, Galabovo, Bulgaria
In February 2020 the team of the school held a working meeting with teachers from the Edirne Vocational High School in Turkey. Some specifics of the Turkish educational system were also highlighted and the teachers exchanged different ideas and best practices of teaching methodologies and techniques in the field of Electrical engineering.
Good practice 2 – Diagnose Car – Connectief, Belgium
It is a collaboration between the private sector and the ministry of education. In this project, private companies give access to the schools to a variety of modern cars with network technology, diagnostic equipment and technical data. All participating teachers receive Train the trainer sessions depending on the cars.
Good practice 3 – RTC East-Flanders, Belgium
RTC main objective is to activate and reinforce cooperation between education, companies and other labor market actors by connecting schools and businesses, sharing technology infrastructure and equipment and competence enhancement of teachers and students.
Good practice 4 – CREATE project, Syntra West, Belgium
The project aimed to organize 6 mobilities placement for 20 Belgian teachers in Barcelos, Portugal in the summer of 2019. The focus at CRE-ATE is on ICT-supporting teaching and the train-the-trainer principle. The project goal is not only to provide teachers with ICT skills, but also to give them a practical approach by using coaching methodology.
Good practice 5 – FUTURE FOR US, Bulgaria
The project was implemented by the Vocational high School of Construction and Woodworking ” Nedyo Ranchev “Stara Zagora and the teachers conducted a training placement in Barcelona in 2019. The main aim was to stimulate the use of digital methods by studying and introducing innovative pedagogical approaches and setting up a mediation team at school to reduce aggressive events, conflict situations and the number of dropouts of school children.

The thematic room gathered in total of 33 participants – many VET teachers, project coordinators; 3 management representatives and other stakeholders. Representatives from Belgium, Italy, Bulgaria, Albania, Ukraine joined the discussion. According to the participants the most suitable types of staff, mobilities are structured VET training and job shadowing. Moreover, 22 participants responded and highlighted that the main obstacles they face for participating in VET staff mobility projects are the language barriers and insufficient opportunities.

To conclude it can be stated that the content presented during the event was engaging and beneficial for the participants and space for networking was provided.

Capacity Building VET Staff: Resources available

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Sustainable Development Goals

Post author By enneproject
Post date 9 November 2020
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ENNE Project coordinated an international online conference on November the 9^th named VET4FUTURE.

The conference introduced to the future of vocational education thanks to Mr. Luca Pirozzi Policy Officer for VET at EAECA (Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency of the European Commission)

The ZOOM event organized into 5 breakout rooms each of these dedicated to a specific thematic:

Recognition/validation of competences in WBL (Work Based Learning – national traineeships/transnational mobility/etc.)
Social Inclusion in VET (Disabilities, migrants, economic disadvantages, etc.)
Digital transformation / Distance Learning
Sustainability and contribution of VET to the achievement of UN Agenda 2030 SDGs
Capacity building of VET Staff

In the ZOOM breakout room dedicated to “Sustainability and contribution of VET to the achievement of UN agenda 2030 SDGs” the VET European schools members of the ENNE Network presented and shared their “best practices” in order to show how it is possible to boost ideas and collect contributions for the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nation.

Sandro Pertini Institute of Afragola (Naples, Italy) presented its motto: “Sustain sustainable school”. The institute established a “free plastic week” and arranged interactive exhibitions where students can experiment the condition of being costumers and citizens passing through production activities. An opportunity to raise awareness on reducing waste through prevention, reduction and recycling;
The Alfonso Casanova Institute of Napoli (Italy) – in order to encourage students in engagement in favor of disadvantaged people – planned the realization of packaging for removable dental prosthesis for prisoners. This allows the development of transversal skills;
The National High school in Finance and Business of Sophia (Bulgaria) dedicates a school area to those students who have ideas in terms of contributing to the achievement of the UN goals arranging drawers to collect the students’ views. Other activities concern the realization of usable objects or art creations using only trash or garbage items.
The Orfini Institute of Foligno (Perugia, Italy) promoted the involvement of VET-schools in the development of sustainable urban centers establishing VET education programs relevant to the development of sustainable urban centers. The activities also concern the enhancement of cooperation and entrepreneurship creative skills among students.

Sustainable Development Goals: Resouces Available

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Recognition and Validation of Competences in WBL

Post author By enneproject
Post date 6 November 2020
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To celebrate the formal establishment of the 5 VET networks, ENNE’s project partners have decided to organise an online Conference, during the European Vocational Skills Week, to foster a first meeting between their VET communities, where they could interact and work towards their common goal – the Enhancement of VET quality and attractiveness.

Arts & Skills was responsible for moderating the thematic session “Recognition and Validation of Competences in Work Based Learning”.

National or international WBL programs are targeted to bridge the gap between the learning environment and real work environment, and different WBL strategies provide career awareness, career exploration opportunities, career planning activities and help students attain competencies such as positive work attitudes and other employable skills.

The recognition and validation of competencies in WBL environments refer to the identification and appreciation of the skills and competencies that an individual acquires through a work-based learning experience.
Although, WBL experiences can have different forms ((apprenticeship, internship, service learning, school-based enterprise, or industry projects) they should be well planned, monitored and assessed properly to become relevant for

The European Credit System for Vocational Education and Training (ECVET) is one of the most relevant EU frameworks developed to help the VET community implementing high-quality WBL programs:

ECVET provides a framework for the assessment, validation and recognition of learning outcomes, alongside a series of common tools and instruments able to support quality in mobility.
ECVET promotes the integration of mobility into existing learning pathways.
ECVET contributes to the development of a common language for use by different VET stakeholders and promotes mutual trust within the wider VET community.
ECVET supports the valorisation of key competences (such as foreign language skills or intercultural competence) alongside those that are more technically – or vocationally – oriented.

The implementation of ECVET was referred during the best practices presented by six of our network members, from Portugal, Italy and Germany, who shared with the audience good practices implemented by their VET organizations and related to WBL experiences.

Ms. Sonia Barani, from the “Italienische Handelskammer für Deutschland”, Germany, presented the MeMeVET project (mechatronics and metallurgical VET for sectors’ industries) and its outcomes. The project, implemented in 5 countries (DE, IT, ES, BG, SK) aimed at tackling some of the main issues impeding free mobility of workers and VET learners of the sector in Europe. One of the main issues is related to the difficulty of having one’s competencies and know-how recognized in another EU country. Another one, concerns the gap between the training and learning offer of VET institutions and the real needs of the labour market.

Ms Joana Soares from EP Felgueiras, Portugal, shared with the participants their experience in VET-Business cooperation at local and regional level concerning Curriculum development; Matching supply and demand of technicians; Development of technological devices (e.g. Robots) for the local industry; Social Inclusion and Monitoring of trainees after the completion of the course.

Ms. Margherita Battaglini, from ITE SCARPELLINI – Foligno, Italy, offered an overview of their experience with the implementation of ECVET not only on Transnational, but also National WBL experiences.

Ms. Alessia Montanucci, from I.O. Salvatorelli Moneta Marsciano, Italy, presented a mobility experience developed in Malta in 2019, that involved 15 students from the 3rd and the 4th year of high school. The internships were held at local businesses: museums, shops, state agencies, cruises for tourists, etc. which she had the opportunity to accompany for the whole training period.

From Portugal, Mr. Edgar Costa, from Vocational School Bento Jesus Caraça, shared how they adapted mandatory WBL experiences that should have been developed in a real working context, to a successful simulated business context due to the confinement imposed by COVID 19.

Mr Ferenc Naacke from “Berufliches Schulzentrum für Wirtschaft in Dresden, Germany, presented the “Healthy Lifestyle” Project and the approach that allowed their organization to implement 70 internships abroad, in 8 different countries, for students from the Social Insurance Course, whose training focuses mainly on administrative work of social insurance clerks, but not on the background knowledge in advising insured people on the prevention of diseases.

This session showed us how diverse work-based learning strategies can be and how multiple approaches can be addressed by VET organizations to improve and enhance VET quality and attractiveness.

We hope we have brought some inspiration to our audience for further projects and cooperation among our VET Community.

Recognition and Validation of Competences in Work-Based Learning: Resources available

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Digital transformation and distance learning

Post author By enneproject
Post date 5 November 2020
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Digital transformation and distance learning have been a hot topic since the Covid-19 outbreak.
This was also clear during the inscriptions for this theme at VET4FUTURE.
We give you a brief overview of the good practices that were shared.

BLEFT is an EU project for the development of e-learning modules in forestry. In Saxony (Germany) the official LernSax was put into service during the lockdown. Students and teachers worked online and found each other on this well-equipped platform for lessons, meetings, etc.
In Portugal, the Escola profissional C.J. de Campanha should find a new way to publish student work in graphic media. For this they used a virtual exhibition. Italian Fondazione Lepido Rocco bundled a lot of good practices on the website from which we discovered a CLIL training and the Sherwood project.
Finally, we have introduced to google classroom thanks to the tourist vocational school Aleko Konstantinov from Bulgaria.

Digital transformation and distance learning: Resources available

Italian news

Humanist Technicians an all Italian vision on how to make Technical Education effective

Post author By enneproject
Post date 5 November 2020
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The Istituto Tecnico Economico “Scarpellini” of Foligno won the first prize in the competition “Commediando” established on the occasion of the Days that celebrate the Italian poet “Dante Alighieri”.

The students of the five schools located in Foligno had to realize a presentation based on the first Song of Hell written by Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, which was printed for the first time in Foligno.

The experimental short film represents the journey as a metaphor for life, combining various expressive languages such as music, images, choreography, and acting.

The message included in the project realized has been commented as a “magnificent work” from the Jury. The message is based on the courage to undertake an inner journey by destroying the cave surround us every day to conquer again our personal identity.

It was very important for students led by their teachers during this experience.

In Italy, humanistic vision is very important and it is the base for any other studies anyone wants to follow. Economic crisis, sustainability and social questions could be resolved by a humanist guideline and approach.

This is the first step to help individuals who have argumentative skills, to reflect, to confront and question themselves, to assume the point of view of the other, to develop innovative solutions with respect to the contexts in which our problems arise.

In a European comparison on Technical and Professional Education we are therefore here to highlight the Italian model, in which “culture” is not seen as an unnecessary investment.

As it has always been in our history, accompanied by undisputed geniuses such as Leonardo or Galileo, Humanism is the lifeblood to forge flexible, open, and creative minds that can also help companies and the economy.

Click and watch the video!

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Social Inclusion in VET

The first out of 20 principals of the European Pillar of Social Rights is devoted to education, training and life-long learning:

“Everyone has the right to quality and inclusive education, training and life-long learning in order to maintain and acquire skills that enable them to participate fully in society and manage successfully transitions in the labour market.”

(Source: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/priorities/deeper-and-fairer-economic-and-monetary-union/european-pillar-social-rights/european-pillar-social-rights-20-principles_en)

All around Europe, we can find numerous initiatives, projects and programmes supporting the inclusion of disadvantaged people in education and by this into work. They also show that the implementation of social inclusion in education and specifically in VET also depends on the structure of the educational system and relevant national policies in each country.
Following, we are going to introduce three good practices presented during the VET4FUTURE conference.

Individualised Education Plan
The Istituto Omnicomprensivo Giano dell’Umbria – Bastardo from Italy started working with Individualised Educational Plans (IEP) in 2019. It is a holistic approach to education enhancing the capabilities of the students, which do not only include academic, but also social competencies and life skills. The approach is carried throughout the whole cycle of education starting from primary school until secondary school including vocational education and training. Moreover, IEPs can be applied not only to disadvantaged but all students. Each student is assessed, individual goals are set and appropriate didactical measures and methods are chosen to achieve them. Based on the IEP Life Projects are developed for disadvantaged students encouraged by their achievements. In order for this approach to work, the social background and community around a student needs to be involved – the school, the family, relevant associations, social services as well as companies – with the goal to support each student in finding a suitable workplace.
Inclusive Internships
The keys to successful inclusion of people with disabilities at the workplace were presented by DomSpain Consulting from Spain. It is important to be aware of myths and preconceived ideas, involve the whole company, raise awareness among the staff and implement an effective communication strategy. Especially conscious and unconscious biases can be a challenge for inclusion. It needs to be taken into account that students taking part in an internship at a company have different special needs, which need to be addressed and solutions to be found. For persons with reduced mobility architectural barriers might need to be overcome. Different communication methods and technology can be used for persons with hearing or visual impairments. Companies should also think about the accessibility of their documents and their website. Persons with dyslexia or other learning disabilities will be grateful for easy-reading instructions. Therefore, a careful evaluation of the specific situation should take place in advance in order to meet the needs of the intern and guarantee a successful start of the internship.
SEN Students in Mobilities
An empowering step further can be the participation of students with special educational needs (SEN) in Erasmus+ projects and mobilities, like in the case of the Istituto d’istruzione superiore Ciuffelli-Einaudi, Todi in Italy. Throughout the project “Linking Business, Enterprise & Entrepreneurial Skills Internationally”, the students involved in the project activities also included SEN students in order to foster peer communication and cooperation. The students were able to take part in mobilities in the partner countries of the project.
The partnership focused on what the students can do and not what they cannot. Learning was facilitated through creative activities, which promote responsibility, teamwork, risk taking and problem solving. Furthermore, the activities were designed to correspond to the different learning styles of the students. Due to these activities and the possibility to take part in mobility among many other things the confidence of the SEN students increased and their communication skills improved.

Social inclusion in VET: Resources available

Italian news

From north to south: All the beauty Italy has to offer

Post author By enneproject
Post date 28 July 2020
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Let’s start our journey in the north of Italy in Montferrat’s area (Piedmont). There you will have the chance to discover the city of Asti, famous for its beautiful hills and located in the eastern part of Turin along the banks of the river Tanaro.

Together with Cuneo and Alessandria territories, it is located in the Langhe hilly area, which is famous for wines, spumante (sparkling wine), truffles and cheeses.

Among the most known wines and sparkling wines, there are Moscato d’Asti, Barbera red wine, Martini, Gancia and Riccadonna.

In September there are many events you can join: Asti’s Festival of Festivals takes place during the second Sunday of the month (a street food festival where you can taste the typical regional products), following there is the famous Palio di Asti, a medieval traditional Italian festival that culminates with a bareback horse race.

For more info: www.astiturismo.it/en

Ph: Piedmont

The journey continues on to the green heart of central Italy: Umbria. The region is famous for its villages and small towns but also for its slow pace. Even though the region has no sea coast, you will be still surrounded by nature and its cultural heritage sites while discovering the culinary tradition made of wines, truffles, lentils, potatoes and pork products.

There are several cities worth visiting: Foligno is known for the Giostra della Quintana, a knightly jousting tournament in June and September, Spello for its Infiorata flower Festival in June, Cannara and the Onion Festival. Come to Castelluccio and Norcia especially during the flowering to discover its marvellous plains and landscapes and Norcia’s pork butchery products; visit Todi and the church of Santa Maria della Consolazione and much more: Perugia, Gubbio, Marsciano, Gualdo Cattaneo, Bastardo, Assisi, Spoleto, Orvieto Nocera Umbra, and, last but not least, visit the Trasimeno Lake.

For more information, visit www.umbriatourism.it

Ph: Umbria

Our journey ends into the south, first of all in Naples and its amazing squares, history and food as pizza for example. In front of the Campania Region you can visit the famous islands of Capri and Ischia and waiting for amazing landscapes along the beaches.

For more information: www.visitnaples.eu

Ph: Naples

The other region you should see is Sicily, famous for its beautiful beaches and amazing food such as granita, arancini, croissants with ice cream. Furthermore, all over the island, you may find Arab, Greek and Spanish traces dating back to previous dominations.

The must-see cities include Catania – the Saint Agata event – and its old town at the foot of Etna volcano, Taormina facing out toward the Mediterranean Sea, Agrigento and its Valley of Temples, Syracuse, Palermo. Do not forget to visit Sicily’s smaller islands, known as the jewels of the Mediterranean sea that still preserve its unique art, culture and food and wine traditions.

For more info: http://www.visitsicily.info/en/

Ph: Sicily

Italian news

Young Journalists for Europe Project

Post author By enneproject
Post date 30 June 2020
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The “Young Journalists for Europe” Project is an initiative promoted by the Umbria Region, in collaboration with the “Italian Centre for Higher Studies for training and updating in radio and television journalism”.
The initiative was financed by the European Social Fund (ESF) 2014-2020, Regional Operational Programme – POR.

Thanks to the European funds it was possible to organize a real campaign-event that involved the students of ITE Scarpellini – and 5 other Institutes of the Region – in 40 hours of training as well as participation in events of dissemination and return of the results of the project.
The training hours included an introduction to television journalism, the acquisition of mobile journalism techniques, information on television and online journalism, the acquisition of diction and proxemics techniques and digital filming and editing.
To put into practice what they learned during the training, students were called to operate in first
person and interview, as “budding“ journalists, heads of associations, families, teachers, students, operators, or make reports on their experiences. The topics discussed were family mediation, integration, disability and work, education and opportunities for the future. In addition to the skills acquired in the field of communication and digital techniques, it was also relevant and significant the emotional involvement that the young people experienced in coming into contact and having to document the personal stories of the interviewees on sensitive issues.

Interviews and reportages were documented through audio-video clips that at the end of May were published on YouTube by the Umbria Region, which holds the intellectual property of these products (links to videos are attached).
The “Young Journalists for Europe” project was selected by European Commission experts to participate in the 18th European Week of Regions and Cities (#EURegionsWeek), in the largest annual Brussels-based event dedicated to regional policies.

The project promoted by the Umbria region was selected among over 600 applications from all over Europe.
From 12th to 15th October thousands of people will gather in the Belgian city to participate in the event and within the event there will be a space dedicated to the presentation of the products made by the six Umbrian schools that participated in the project. 1 student per school will be a spokesperson for what has been achieved.

Video links:

Italian news

Presentation of the ENNE VET Network in Italy

Post author By enneproject
Post date 30 June 2020
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The Italian National Network is one of the 5 VET National Networks have joined by ENNE. The European Project is focused on VET – Vocal Education and Training – in Europe. It aims to improve VET quality and attractiveness, with a specific focus on mobility opportunities.

The 12 schools that helped create this network are located in different areas of Italy (north, centre and south), they are High Vocational Schools specialized in different sectors ranging from industrial mechanics, to tourism, graphics, communication and hotel industry.

Many schools are also currently involved in European Projects including mobility or other similar experiences at both national and international level.

Part of the mission of the ENNE Project is to expand its network in each country involved in the project, namely: Italy, Portugal, Belgium, Bulgaria and Portugal. The 12 schools that are already involved in the Italian network can benefit from a dedicated webpage with contact information, a short description and a focus on their current activities and projects.

The Italian schools involved are from different regions of Italy. They have different backgrounds and characteristics, but they share the same mission: promoting VET and all its opportunities for students and teachers.

Find out more about the schools:

Being part of a European project means expanding the vision to an international level, by creating a new sustainable cooperation in the VET system, increasing the number of mobility opportunities and better prepare learners to enter the job market

Italian news

Online Education: New challenges in crisis situation

Post author By enneproject
Post date 6 April 2020
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Online Education, the experience of Upper Secondary Technical Vocational Institute ” F. Scarpellini” situated in Foligno (Italy).
The need of making use of distance learning, as a consequence of the school closure due to the current health emergency for the Coronavirus, caught us unprepared, disorientated, frightened, without any detailed and univocal set of instructions from the Ministry of Public Education. In such situation, the responsibility often lies with the School Manager.

According to MIUR estimates, 82% of the Italian Schools have experienced online learning for the very first time.

We all started working hard and everyone, even the less experienced, took up the challenge and took action to continue to provide students with the educational activities, being aware that online learning does not have the same strong educational value of the face-to-face activities.

By online learning we mean a set of training activities that is delivered via the internet to students using their home computers or other device (e.g. tablets, smartphones, audiovisual equipment).

Online learning (also known as FAD) is characterized by:

interactivity, i.e. the need to involve the learner, generally through learning by doing approach;
dynamism, i.e. the learner’s need to acquire new specific skills;
modularity, i.e. the possibility of organizing the contents of a course according to the training objectives and learner’s needs.

Having said that, it is clear that FAD involves abandoning traditional lesson, leaving the curriculum aside, creating new training contents and evaluating students’ performances using new and different types of criteria. We now focus on Learning Units and not by lesson hours. It is necessary to avoid long written essays and replace them with videos or diagrams, maps. We should plan the activities independently from the teaching hours required for the national curriculum.

In short, a revolution that involves a difficult and fast remodulation. But no one has backed out, all of us, teachers and students, School Manager and all the School Staff is committed to face the emergency and keep working and changing.

The preparation of our future generations has always been one of the most important challenges of our country and certainly, this experience is going to change education forever, integrating digital content and multimedia approach with traditional methods.