Description
This project is a quality enhancing cooperation among two vocational secondary schools, Andrassy and Borgund, and a training centre ICI. The project centres around the following three objectives: (1) gaining new knowledge, (2) sharing and transferring knowledge and (3) enhancing the quality of the teaching/learning process. Two job shadow activities and a teacher training are involved in the project. The roles of each partner (planning, carrying out and disseminating the project) have been defined in advance. The job shadows give the participants the opportunity to gain practical experience and knowledge in the educational environment of the cooperating organizations. The partners would like to get information on each other's vocational and academic education by visiting vocational and English lessons. They would also like to visit and observe the workplaces where students stay during their on-the-job training. For the sake of their own and their school's development, they will collect data on how students are evaluated, how on-the-job trainings are validated, and how the vocational training at the partner school fulfills the requirements and demands of the companies in the region. The project raises intercultural awareness and results in having more versatile teachers, innovative methods at both schools that the whole school and future workplaces benefit from. The gained knowledge will be recognised in the school’s educational program and in the participants´ qualification profile too.
Summary of project results
Our project was a quality enhancing cooperation among 2 vocational secondary schools (Andrassy and Borgund VGS) and a training centre (ICI). The major aims of the project were 1, gaining new knowledge 2, sharing and transferring knowledge 3, enhancing the quality of the teaching/learning process. These objectives were met through attending a course on cooperative learning, and job shadowing. The reason why we set the above listed aims was that both schools lacked new and creative ideas in their teaching process. As educators, we have to face an increasing number of socially incompetent students, whose social skills need improving. The cooperative learning method has helped us overcome this problem. Since the mobilities both schools have been using this revolutionary method successfully: 100% of language and science teachers have adopted the method and claimed to have reached a significant progress with students. We expect an increase in their final results, too. The job shadows have also given the participants the opportunity to gain practical experience, new ideas and motivation as well as an opportunity to build their personal network. The good practices have been adopted and used since the mobilities. As a result of the cooperation we also managed to fine-draw some aspects of the evaluation and validation of on-the-job trainings. Participants wrote reports, articles, shared their knowledge on many forums. They achieved more than planned: the leaders of the institutions signed a Memorandum of Understanding and also contacted the training places for students and agreed on future cooperation. The project raised intercultural awareness and resulted in having more versatile teachers, innovative methods at both schools that the whole school and future workplaces benefit from. The gained knowledge is recognised in the school’s educational program and in the participants´ qualification profile, too.
Summary of bilateral results
The idea of the cooperation emerged during a conference for ECVET experts in 2015 where both institutions were represented. Both parties were looking for partners to take inspiration form new impulses and teaching methods. Soon the basic idea was formed and partners started developing it via emails. There was no need for a preparatory visit. During the project work the collective of two institutions got to know each other well and gained first hand experiences of a different culture and teaching system. They organised meainingful and colourful programs: presentations, workshops, job shadows, visits to training places, and cultural programmes. Both parties worked hard for the success of the project and learned from each other in terms of organising, scheduling, teaching and evaluating. In order to obtain visiblity reports, articles and FB posts were written and a radio interview was prepared. The project was so successful that the heads of the institutions signed a Memorandum of Understanding in order to ensure our future cooperation and further strenghten bilateral relations. Currently we are working on another application as we are planning to continue the cooperation. The aim of our future project will be to highlight the importance of and develop a new evaluation criterion for soft skills.