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[Partner Search] Erasmus+ VET & Learning Mobility Grants

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Is your region or are organisations in your region looking to upscale exchanges and mobility schemes to foster upskilling, employability prospects and internationalisation?

The Public Service of Employment of Catalonia (SOC) is looking to establish reciprocity-based, long-term cooperation schemes, as well as explore other cooperation agreements, with the aim to send and host students and teachers carrying out a learning mobility experience.

SOC has been accredited by the Spanish Erasmus+ National Agency (SEPIE) as coordinator of an Erasmus+ VET consortium to promote mobility among teachers and students of professional employment courses ­– targeted at both unemployed and employed citizens.

Under this framework, SOC coordinates the ITER mobility project, a partnership of 28 Catalan VET centres which has been granted over 150 students’ mobility grants in the next years (under KA121 Erasmus+ VET calls) to carry out traineeship and job-shadowing experiences.

The ITER Mobility Project

The main objective of ITER mobility is to support participants on the mobility journey to ensure the growth of their employability by upskilling their personal and professional skills through a mobility experience abroad.

  • Student mobilities: three-months mobilities 
  • Teacher mobilities: 7 – 10 days 

At the moment, a call is now open for hosting partners to co-organise 115 mobilities by August 2023. You can find at this link the list of professional certificates which have been prioritised by the members of the consortium for the present call.

What we are looking for…

...reliable and enduring hosting partners for our Erasmus+ VET project to:

  • Host VET students in companies that offer quality traineeship  placements 
  • Organise job shadowing experiences for our VET teachers 
  • Support them finding accommodation 
  • Support finding or organising a language course, if required 
  • Project documents management support 
  • Emergency contact, if needed 

What we offer…

…a reciprocity-based cooperation scheme:

  • We are a reliable hosting partner with a strong company network in  Catalunya willing to host as many Erasmus+ students/teachers as we send you 
  • We give support finding accommodation to your Erasmus+  participants hosted in Catalunya 
  • We ensure all documents are taken into account 
  • Support and guidance along the mobility cycle 

If your region/organisation is interested in joining the ITER mobility project or discussing further cooperation options, please contact Anna Comacchio (AER Project and Policy Manager): 

[email protected]

(Deadline: 15 November 2022)

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Making TVET more attractive for Women!

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Technical vocational education and training provide concrete opportunities for inclusion by developing innovative curricula matching rapidly changing societal needs and fostering life-long learning opportunities. Yet, the sector has been for long time predominately male centred making the need to counter the gender-bias and gender-stereotypes in the sector a foremost priority for a renewed TVET system as urged by the European Parliament in the resolution of 17 December 2020 and promoted by the SKILLNET Alliance.

This is why the Assembly of European Regions in cooperation with its member regions and leading experts of the TVET sector organised a mutual-learning session aimed at sharing good practices for improving the attractiveness of technical vocational education and training for women. The event was part of a webinar series that AER organised in the framework of the Erasmus+ SKILLNET project.

Combating gender stereotypes

The session started with key insights from Alexia Fafara, Junior Policy and Campaigns Officer at the European Women’s Lobby, sharing concrete actions that the TVET system shall undertake in order to combat gender stereotypes and foster gender-inclusive TVET programmes. Among this:

  • Removing sexist content from textbooks
  • Setting up complaint mechanisms
  • Providing training on unconscious biases & equality issues

Additionally, existing tools and good practices were shared to inspire other practitioners and TVET providers in the development of similar programmes.

EU co-founded actions – The Gender+ project

Michael Miller, Project Officer at the The Opportunity Centre, presented the European project Gender+ founded by the Erasmus+ programme and implemented in partnership with six organisations from six European countries.

As part of the project, experts developed governance and benchmarking tools to improve gender inclusivity in vocational education and training:

  • Gender positive character: setting the minimum requirements for organisations in order to consider their provisions gender positive.
  • Gender footprint benchmarking tool: for VET practitioners to assess their current services and then track improvement. This is achieved through incentivised guidance and support which highlights how VET organisations can evidence and improve provisions to meet the Charter’s minimum requirements.
  • Gender champion skill profile for the development of a ‘Gender Champion’ role. Through this, the project demonstrates the value for VET organisations in dedicating permanent time and resource to gender issues.

Regional good practice from the Hampshire (GB) – Women in Construction

The final presentation of the event shield light on how regions can create life-changing opportunities for women through TVET programmes. Carolyn Jay Project Manager in the Skills, Partnerships and Strategy Team of the Hampshire County Council, presented the story of Natalie, who, thanks to the CSCS local re-training programme accomplished her professional aspiration starting her career in the construction sector.

As to the final remarks, experts highlighted the need to provide real incentives to ensure that more inclusive policies and TVET programmes are properly implemented. You can rewatch the full webinar on YouTube.

Available EU Funding Opportunities and Initiatives

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Lifelong learning: Practices and Opportunities

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On October  21st, the Assembly of European Regions in cooperation with Skillman Alliance, hosted the “Lifelong learning: Upskilling and Reskilling of 50+” webinar. This was the sixth webinar on EU funding opportunities that are being co-organized by AER within the Skillnet project framework (co-founded by the Erasmus+ Programme) in order to bring together experts in different fields linked to vocational education and training (VET) and establish relevant groups of collaboration for future EU project proposals.

The webinar presented examples of how regions address the need for reskilling and upskilling and provided insights on funding opportunities and EU programmes supporting life-long learning. 

Rapidly changing labour markets

In the context of rapidly changing labour markets, the upskilling and reskilling of adults has become a priority. Technological changes and digitalisation require new skills, while many regions in Europe are faced with both an ageing population and labour and skills shortages. 

Elena Romanini, Senior Project Manager at Skillman, emphasized that upskilling and reskilling of low skilled adults is one of the crucial challenges for policymakers and Education providers, underlined in the New European Skills Agenda. Ms Romanini shared recommendations for tackling mentioned issues: training teachers to deliver online courses, implementing micro-learning (holistic approach for skill-based learning and education which deals with relatively small learning units) and developing effective testing methods and certificates which will ensure that online training is valued in the labour market. 

Regional experiences on upskilling and reskilling

The webinar highlighted two regional examples on upskilling and reskilling from AER member regions.

Michael Heaney, Chief Executive Officer at Údarás na Gaeltachta, provided participants with valuable insights into the programmes they are running as a developing agency. 

  • Apprenticeship Scheme which allows people from the Gaeltacht regions, who are fluent in the Irish language, to apply for two different types of apprenticeships: – Trade Apprenticeships (Carpentry, Electrical etc.) – New Age Apprenticeships (Lab Technicians, Software Analysts etc.)
  • Graduate Development Scheme that allows a Gaeltacht graduate to gain experience with a Gaeltacht based company.
  • Tourism Management Scheme which supports a range of strategic tourism projects in the Gaeltacht regions.
  • Media Training & Skills Development scheme which aims is to support production companies to develop the skills and talent of their production staff.

Furthermore, people who are over 50 oftentimes are being discriminated against in terms of employment and there is a consistent association between ageing and reduced participation in learning. In this context, our third speaker, Ana Gale, Director of Uciliste Studium, highlighted the relevance of working on motivation as the key success factor for the enrolment in education programmes in the 50+ age group. It is for this reason, that Uciliste Studium always organizes motivational workshops before the beginning of any training. Ms. Gale also pointed out that upskilling and reskilling can be funded through European Social Fund, Interreg and Erasmus+ programmes.  

The only important skill of the 21st century

Speakers agreed that the only skill that will be important in the 21st century is the skill of learning new skills! Sharing personal stories is instrumental in generating motivation for upskilling and reskilling: it is not just the professional perspectives that are improved but also personal relations!

Share your story!

A whole new set of webinars on EU funding opportunities is currently being prepared. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you would like to share your experience during a webinar or have questions you would like to see addressed in a webinar!

As a follow-up of each SKILLNET webinar, a Partnerships in Focus bulletin is published. Previous bulletins can be found below:

1) Partnerships in Focus n1: Capacity Building in Higher Education  

2) Partnerships in Focus n2: Skills and Education Guarantee Pilot 

3) Partnerships in Focus n3: Knowledge Alliance in the Maritime Sector

4) Partnerships in Focus n4: Implementation of Innovative VET Policies through Transnational Cooperation

5) Partnerships in Focus 5n: Youth Policy Partnerships

EU Funding Opportunities:

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