VOOCS for VET teacher professionalization: Lessons learned from the EU Erasmus+ Pro-VET project

The Pro-VET project

The EU Erasmus+ Pro-VET Project aimed to introduce a systematic approach to continuous professional development on European VET policy and practice for VET teachers (in-service trainers, instructors, mentors etc.) and Higher Education (HE) teachers engaged in VET teacher training in both school and work-based settings for Russia and Serbia by specifically using e-learning tools: VOOCs.

Pro-VET provided opportunities for HE/VET teachers for pedagogical skill development and increased work-life relevance and collaboration with proven European approaches and methodologies in VET. It helped to build confidence in the industry on the development of the VET systems. Pro-VET therefore addressed the challenges of the educational quality, relevance, delivery, and management of the VET systems following VET Pointers for policy development.

A VET Educator’s Training Network (VET-ETN) was formed around the eight partner institutes of Pro-VET in Russia and Serbia. VET-ETN actors engaged policy makers and other stakeholders in a policy dialogue on VET issues nationally and explored the potential of European practice to assist development of national and regional vocational sectors. Each institute within the network provided training and consultancy to their own stakeholder networks in VET sector to enhance quality of VET education and meet the requirements of industry stakeholders. The training materials and courses are made openly accessible via the e-learning platform of the VET-ETN that promotes dissemination of the European approaches in VET to Serbian and Russian speaking HE/VET teachers globally.

Project partners:

The specific objectives of Pro-VET were:

1. Training HE teachers of the two partner countries (Russia, Serbia) on using European VET initiatives, best methods and pedagogical approaches and to capacitate them in creating development-oriented in-service training courses for VET teacher training.

2. Setting up and equipping national e-labs on the base of the eight partner countries’ institutes for producing and disseminating content and courses on European VET policy, practice and methods in Russian, Serbian and English languages as Vocational / Massive Open Online Courses (V/MOOCs). The special content is to be introduced also in the existing Bachelor’s and Master’s Curricula of VET teachers study programmes of the partner institutes.

3. Setting up a VET Educator’s Training Network (VET-ETN) on the base of an open access e-learning platform, which serves also as an aggregator of partners’ websites and social networks around established national laboratories providing forums, training and communication on European VET policy, theory and practice for professional development of VET teachers and trainers in national languages.

4. Ensuring aftereffect sustainability of the VET-ETN and to consolidate their role in VET development nationally and build their networks with VET providers, industry, work-life and policy makers.

5. Co-designing roadmaps for VET development in line with European policy and practice in Russia and Serbia in a policy dialogue with National Ministries of Education.

Project activities and methodology

Pro-VET provoked policy learning through the introduction of mutually-agreed good practices in EU-member states and fruitful recommendations by the Commission. In this context, we mean examples of policies, measures, instruments and approaches for the development of VET systems that can serve as objects for policy learning in Serbia and Russia. Trainers and VET experts from Russia and Serbia benchmarked and assessed the European VET policies in Finland, Netherlands, Ireland and Germany with emphasis on e-pedagogy against policies in their own countries to get a comprehensive overview of what works and what does not. Using carefully selected pedagogical approaches, VET teacher and trainers became more engaged in the learning process; this concerns e-pedagogy development of a coherent e-learning strategy with collaborative and reflexive learning instruments, developmental work research, and knowledge building.

The scope for learning from apparent good practice can be defined and delimited by three main factors: 1) the transferability of the European approach; 2) the openness and adaptability of the receiving educational system; and 3) the effectiveness of the proposed or implemented measures on the labour market. In the preparation stage, policy dialogue, needs analysis surveys, data analysis, benchmarking, digital review and workshops between partner (Higher Education Institutes) HEIs and key VET stakeholders provided a framework to identify the transferable practices that can be adapted to the partner countries’ VET systems to develop and boost the local labour markets.

The Programme Country partners analysed and described the European policies, pedagogical approaches and practices that would add values to the Partner Countries VET sector based on joint agreements. Warnborough College Ireland (WCI) (P3) managed the digitalisation review process in Russia and Serbia that launched the activities for ICT capacity upgrading, as it provided necessary technical and needs analysis for the procurement and planning of the e-pedagogy approaches.

In the next phase, the capacity building steps enhanced the ICT capacity and trainers’ knowledge and understanding on European pedagogical practices and policies in VET. Teacher trainers from institutions in the VET Educator’s Training Network (VET-ETN) were exposed to European VET practices, policies and pedagogies via observations and training in program country institutions. They were capacitated to enable them to train others using best approaches in e-pedagogy for VET. The training in each country was based on expansive learning and the specific “change lab” methodology (Engeström, 2015). This approach was designed to encourage, develop and facilitate the pedagogic and content development for in-service training courses as well as digital learning environment could be created at VET providers in Serbia and Russia. Important contexts and activities in this respect were the ‘transnational meetings’ organised. These meetings were physical weeklong meetings respectively held in Novi Sad (Serbia), Jyväskylä (Finland), Tver (Russian Federation) and Wageningen (The Netherlands) until in 2020 the world was shook by COVID-19 and its consequent ban on international traveling. In spring and summer 2022 international traffic was resumed by two physical meetings in Bremen, Germany.

Trainers designed the 6 (3 in Russia and 3 on Serbia) in-service training courses that addressed local VET needs and attracted VET and HE institutions in Serbia and Russia to discuss, collaborate and implement European policy, theory and best practices in work-based learning, the European Credit System for Vocational Education and Training (ECVET), collaborative learning, various form of digital learning, qualification frameworks, validation of non-formal and informal learning, enhancement of horizontal and vertical mobility, etc. The course delivery was tested in three iterations necessary to go from intentional curricula to real ones; feedback was gathered from the target groups and the delivery was improved through a continuous quality assurance process. A work package on Quality Assurance provided a framework for evaluation and feedback collection from beneficiaries. A Quality Assurance Manual for in-service training courses was designed. The manual guided the evaluation process of the test-runs and adjusted the process when needed.

Each partner country institution equipped and took up a modern, interactive e-learning lab for course design and development, teacher training and as a showcase demonstration environment. Pro-VET finally provided several guiding instruments aiming to support other VET teacher trainers to develop similar VOOCs for VET teacher professionalization.

Prior to launching the test-runs and after each iteration, the teacher trainers together with the EU mentors and managers gathered online to joint evaluation meetings to share experiences and to agree on needed adjustments.

Several test-runs provided insights into course delivery and the VET sector’s development opportunities in the partner countries. This provided a strong basis for continuing the policy dialogue with national VET sector leaders and policy makers. After the test-runs (spring 2022) the Russian partners sadly had to leave the project as a result of the EU sanctions against the Russian Federation.

The process of policy learning, i.e. roadmap development entailed 3 phases: 1) Benchmarking in Europe, 2) Surveys and data collection and 3) Stakeholder networking events and policy dialogue.

Finally, the Serbian partners organised a national networking event to present and disseminate a national roadmap for VET development in Serbia. The event was held in Belgrade in fall ‘22 and showcased European VET policy and practice and promoted the in-service training courses and Pro-VET outcomes for policy dialogue with National Ministries.