Project Summary
To survive in a rapidly changing world, everyone already needs a wide range of knowledge and skills which to continue developing throughout their lives. This is a key message of the New Skills Agenda for Europe. Without the right skills, many find themselves in low-quality jobs, unemployed or under-qualified for the new generation of job opportunities. Without basic digital literacy and digital skills, everyday life can now be a challenge.
The Covid-19 pandemic has created new economic and social realities in European countries, and outlined the need for special efforts to promote digitalisation: many low-income households do not have access to computers and broadband access in the EU, varying considerably depending on household income ( Eurostat 2019); more than 1 in 5 young people in the EU fail to achieve a basic level of digital skills; a 2018 OECD survey shows that less than 40% of teachers feel ready to use digital technologies in teaching, with large differences within the EU; the COVID-19 crisis has led to an unprecedented transition to online learning and the use of digital technologies.
At the same time, an EU public consultation on digitalisation showed that: almost 60% of respondents had not used distance and online learning before the crisis; 95% believe that the COVID-19 crisis has made irreversible the way technology is used in education and training; respondents state that online learning resources and content need to be more relevant, interactive and easy to use; over 60% believe that they have improved their digital skills during the crisis, and over 50% of respondents want to do more.
This determines the need for structured tools for informed decision-making and logical development of digital skills throughout the vocational education and training (VET) sector.
The main goal of the project is to address the key digital challenges posed by Covid-19 - digital transformation and intelligent use of digital tools in VET. The specific objectives of the project are:
- Adapting a model of competence framework in the field of digital skills - defining levels of knowledge and skills from the European Framework for the Digital Competence of Educators (DigCompEdu) and DigCompOrg
Framework (for organizations), which will allow the effective development of training organizations and the teaching staff.
- Creating tools for recognition and validation of acquired knowledge and skills through innovative digital open badges.
- Create resources to train teachers on how to use adapted frameworks in their work and how to assess their digital deficits and needs, and those of the organizations in which they teach.
The key target groups are identified according to the levels of competence offered by the project and the specific knowledge / skills required for each of them:
- Representatives of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and organizations that provide training services within VET;
- Teachers, facilitators engaged in vocational education and training.
Given the pan-European importance and digitalization of the education sector, the transnational implementation of the project will contribute to the improvement of the learning processes, the qualification of the teaching staff and the quality of the training programs.
The implementation of the project will result in:
- Adapted model of DigCompEdu and DigCompOrg Framework in support of teachers and organizations in the field of vocational education and training;
- Open Digital VET Badge in support of the recognition and validation of the acquired digital skills;
- Self-Paced Online Open Course (SPOOC) - to teach teachers how to use adapted frameworks in their work.
Link to project card:
https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/projects/eplus-project-details/#project/2020-1-BG01-KA226-VET-095210
