Article by SEPR
We attended the 1st, an event dedicated to education institutions all around Europe about sustainability in internationalization! It was a great opportunity to present our CoVE project, MOSAIC, in this big international environment in Bologna/Italy!
During the 3rd day of UNISER Teacher Week, on 12th May, the Excelling in VET workshop was co-animated by Paolo Nardi from Cometa Formazione (and now Executive Director of EfVET), Pelin Ünlü from SEPR and Luca Lombardi from UNISER and it provided an overview of the Center of Vocational Excellence, a funding tool made available by the European Commission to develop innovation on a large scale, based on the upward convergence among practitioners in the VET field. Two CoVE projects were examined during this session, the project MOSAIC – Mastering job-Oriented Skills in Arts & crafts thanks to Inclusive Centres of vocational excellence (coordinated by SEPR) and the project GIVE – Governance for Inclusive Vocational Excellence (coordinated by Cometa Formazione).
Here comes the programme of the workshop:
– Introduction of COVEs as described in the Erasmus+ guide (Uniser). The presentation included information on: existing COVE starting from the Community of Practices (e.g. sectors/themes of the existing CoVEs; criteria of evaluation.
– Case studies. Two examples of CoVE from different perspectives: sectoral (MOSAIC) and transversal (GIVE). Presentations reflected the evaluation criteria; they were divided in:
- Idea (Topic & Goal);
- Project plan of activities (Design and implementation);
- who and why those partners (partnership and cooperation arrangements);
- Some examples of products (impact);
- lessons learnt.
– Q&A
First of all, Luca Lombardi from UNISER mentioned what a Center of Vocational Excellence (CoVE) is and why they were created?
CoVEs are platforms of local networks aimed at creating skills ecosystems for innovation, regional development, and social inclusion to respond to policy priorities supporting reforms in the VET sector, ensuring high-quality skills and competencies that lead to quality employment and career-long opportunities, meeting the needs of an innovative, inclusive and sustainable economy. They are the most ambitious projects in Erasmus+ and up to now.
A characteristic that differentiates CoVE projects is the partnership which requires:
- a minimum of 8 applicants (coordinator and full partners) from at least 4 EU Member States or third countries associated to the Programme
- at least 1 enterprise, industry, or sector representative organization
- at least 1 vocational education and training provider (at secondary and/or tertiary level)
If you are thinking on applying for CoVEs or if you would like to know more about the CoVe already approved, it is strongly suggested to have a look on Existing CoVEs on the Community of Practice Centres of Vocational Excellence (www.copcoves.eu).
During this session, participants had the opportunity to see two examples of CoVE projects approved:
Pelin Ünlü (SEPR), presented MOSAIC – Mastering job-Oriented Skills in Arts & crafts thanks to the Inclusive Centres of Vocational Excellence. This CoVE project aims to foster excellence in VET within the Arts & Crafts sector, ensuring high quality skills that lead to quality employment and career-long opportunities. She reported that one appreciated aspect from the application is about the variety partnership which includes countries from different areas of Europe and also from Armenia (with a well-known traditional industry) and Canada (important for a cutting-edge technology).
Later, Paolo Nardi from Cometa (and now Executive Director of EfVET) presented the CoVe GIVE project – Governance for Inclusive Vocational Excellence. This project was created as an alliance for VET providers, companies and research institutions for a unique approach to train teachers, managers and policy makers to foster a true inclusive vocational excellence to blossom the excellence that is in everyone. Indeed, he strongly believes that everyone is unique with different approaches and different assets which need to be valorized to make a real difference. Without inclusion, there’s no future. More information about it can be consulted on the project website.
In conclusion, CoVE projects are a great opportunity to make a difference at European level and all participants are strongly invited to extend their network in order to share ideas and find right partners to create new project applications.
