2021: Code to Acces Labour Market
Project Promoter: Colegiul Economic Buzău
Project Code: 2021-EY-PCVET-0003
Partners: SC UNIVERSAL LE BIG SRL (RO) – Ekonomska i trgovačka škola, Dubrovnik (HR)
One of the problems faced by vocational and technical education is the practical training of students, which has not always been carried out at the desired standards. Among the most common problems we can enumerate:
- The curriculum content has not always been adapted to the requirements of the labor market;
- The CDs elaborated for practical training periods and technological laboratories have not always been developed with sustained involvement of economic agents;
- Lack of teaching materials;
- Non-standardized evaluation of students.
Through this project, we aimed to solve these problems to the greatest extent possible. Therefore, its general objective was: Improving the quality of practical training periods for better integration into the labor market of graduates.
Specific objectives:
- Improving the organization capacity of practical training periods;
- Developing the skills of evaluating students by teachers in cooperation with practice tutors;
- Developing materials and documents related to practical training periods.
The study visit took place at the partner school Ekonomska i trgovačka škola, Dubrovnik (Croatia) between November 28th and December 2nd, 2022. The participants in the study visit were 8 representatives from the Economic College (7 teachers + director) and 4 representatives from the economic agent Le Big. During the study visit, we carried out the following activities:
- Presentation of the two partner schools;
- Presentation of the curriculum, teaching materials, practice journals, and evaluation tools;
- Making comparisons regarding the presented materials;
- Attendance at practical training sessions at the partner school;
- Visits to economic agents (JYSK, MULLER, PEVEX) and discussions regarding the organization and evaluation of practical training periods;
- Daily discussions and feedback;
- Daily and final evaluation.
Following the visit, we developed the following final products: 8 CDs and learning agreements; 5 workbooks; a practice tutor guide; a comparative analysis of the progress regarding student satisfaction with practical training; professional development activities at the county level.
The results obtained following the study visit manifested in:
- Development of the organization skills of practical training periods by teachers and personnel of participating economic agents;
- Development of skills in developing instruments to ensure standardized evaluation of students by teachers and practice tutors;
- Improvement of the capacity to develop a quality CDL, in line with the labor market requirements within a school-economic agent partnership;
- Increase in institutional capacity to organize quality practical training periods;
- Improvement of managerial skills of the project management team;
- Improvement of English communication skills for participants in the study visit.
The added value of the project materialized in:
- Increased interest of economic agents in developing a long-term relationship with the school;
- Enhanced cooperation between teachers and practice tutors regarding efficient and uniform evaluation of students;
- Professional development of teaching staff and economic agents;
- A new approach to practical training periods facilitating student involvement and motivation;
- Increased prestige of the high school and partner company in the community.
