Final conference

On Tuesday the 26^th of November 2019, the final conference of the VET_GPS – Guiding tools for Professional Skills development in VET was held under the title “Talent of the future trainees’ professional skills development” and was organized by EfVET in Brussels.

The main goal of this conference was to introduce the four main products of VET_GPS project and the process of the implementation done with the support and on the VET schools, involving counsellors, trainers and trainees.

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The “Talent of the future trainees’ professional skills development”, which was among one of the more than 1,675 events organised in the context of the European Vocational Skills Week, was organised by EfVET and gathered 31 participants outside the partnership, discussing about soft skills.

The conference was opened by Leif Haar (EfVET), who welcomed all participants and started with Andreia Monteiro, the project coordinator from Mentortec, who offered an overview of the project and how the main target audience was reached. The most challenging was to reach SMEs as the VET-Business cooperation remains as one of the biggest challenges of the project as Monteiro explained. The main resources introduced are already available on the project website (access here) and integrates the following tools and materials:

• Guide for the integration of the Soft Skills in VET offer
• Toolkit for Professional Guidance and Coaching
• Programme for Professional Development of Trainers/Tutors
• Quality Framework and Platform for the Cooperation in the VET System

Klaus Linde-Leimer, (Blickpunkt Identität) explained the theory and key-concepts behind the methodology to structure the online tool for the self-assessment of trainees’ soft skills, followed by Andreia Monteiro (Mentortec) who introduced the training of VET professionals structured and implemented within the project. The first session of the conference closed with Andrea Anzanello (Pixel Firenze) who presented the VET-Business Quality Framework developed by the partnership.

The second session was dedicated to the presentation of different good practices at the European and regional level from EVTA, EARLALL and the Lifelong Learning Platform. The afternoon session closed with two European presentations, first from Anna Barbieri (European Commission, DG EMPL), who offered an overview of what the European Commission has accomplished in the last term and the challenges ahead such as the follow-up of the European Pillar of Social Rights, the new Skills Agenda, the approval of the next Erasmus+ programme or the European Education Area.

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Documents of the conference:

• Agenda of the VET_GPS Final Conference
• Soft skills in VET system: the VET_GPS approach, Andreia Monteiro (Mentortec); Klaus Linde-Leimer & Susanne Linde (Blickpunkt Identitat) and Andrea Anzanello (Pixel)
• Presentation of the Solity – VET Social Utility Monitor, Giulia Meschino (EVTA)
• New strategies of skills development on a Regional level, Luis Miranda (EARLALL)
• The Skills Agenda for Europe, Anna Barbieri (European Commission, DG EMPL)
• 21st-Century Learning Environments and validation of transversal skills, Andrew Todd (Lifelong Learning Platform)