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We present the Growing Green project at Tknika Days

On March 21st, as part of the Tknika Days held at the iconic Miramar Palace in San Sebastian, we had the opportunity to present Growing Green, a project funded by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ program. The presentation was made to an international audience of nearly 100 representatives from Vocational Education and Training (VET) centers. Growing Green is a project that aims to promote innovative and sustainable VET while fostering entrepreneurial culture among European youth. It is an initiative by Ed-Consult and Erhvervsskolen Vestjylland from Denmark, HETEL and Salesianos Urnieta from the Basque Country, Il mio futuro, CIAPE, and Liceo Curie from Italy, and STEP Institute and GEPS from Slovenia. During our presentation, we shared the main outcomes of Growing Green: Compendium of Prototypes: We are compiling a collection of green business projects created by students, which will serve as a showcase of innovative ideas. Educational Manual: We have developed a manual specially designed to integrate circular economy principles into existing curricula. Educational Game: Along with the manual, we have created a game that facilitates practical learning of sustainability and circular economy concepts. Growing Green Competence Framework: We are developing a set of competencies for green entrepreneurship, designed to align with the European Qualifications Framework (EQF). Thanks to these results, we have observed a multifaceted impact: students are now capable of conceiving green business ideas from scratch and applying their learning to real-world situations, developing business prototypes that demonstrate a clear understanding of sustainable practices and commitment to environmental issues. Additionally, we’ve seen effective training of educators across various countries in the use of our resources, leading to a transformation of the classroom experience through the incorporation of sustainability and circular economy concepts. The reception of the Growing Green project among the attendees at Tknika Days was extremely positive. Representatives from VET centers showed great interest in our innovative approach to integrating sustainability into education. Many attendees expressed their enthusiasm for the project’s potential to transform vocational training and better prepare students for future challenges. In particular, the educational game and manual received praise for their practical and accessible approach. Several participants approached us after the presentation to explore possibilities for collaboration and to obtain more information on how they could implement aspects of Growing Green in their own centers. The overall reaction was that the project is not only timely but also essential for the future of vocational training in Europe.

Growing Green project: Developing sustainability competencies

The Erasmus Plus Growing Green project aims to identify and develop skills related to the circular economy and sustainability for their integration into the vocational training curriculum. The newsletter is now available to follow the progress of the project: https://hetel.eus/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Newsletter-n2-Growing-green.pdf

Launch of the ‘CIRCULAR VET’ Project to Promote Circular Economy in Vocational Training

The “CIRCULAR VET” project has officially begun with a kick-off meeting held on February 7th and 8th, 2024, at the Somorrostro Training Center in Muskiz, Basque Country. This event marked the beginning of collaborative work among the project partners to promote vocational training in the circular economy and prepare students for the demands of a sector increasingly focused on sustainability and circularity. The “CIRCULAR VET” project focuses on updating vocational training (VET) curricula with competencies linked to the transition from a linear to a circular business model in the metalworking sector. The project partners include, in addition to HETEL, the Somorrostro Training Center (Basque Country), ECOLE (Italy), Prios Kompetanse AS (Norway), the Institute of Entrepreneurship Development (iED) (Greece), and EVBB (Germany). The project will last 24 months, from December 2023 to November 2025, with a total budget of 250,000 euros. During the two-day kick-off meeting, the main objectives of the project were presented, including filling the gap in green skills in vocational training, updating VET curricula with a focus on the circular economy, and preparing the future workforce to work on reducing the carbon footprint. The activities to be developed in each work package, as well as the project schedule and the responsibilities of each partner, were discussed. A key aspect of the meeting was the collaboration of educational institutions to identify the needs of the industrial sector and adapt the training content accordingly. Interviews will be conducted with companies in the metalworking sector and surveys will be carried out with vocational training teachers, with the aim of identifying the skills needed to promote the circular economy in this field. The results of these investigations will serve as the basis for the creation of new training content and teaching materials, including MOOCs that will be available to all centers in the network. The meeting concluded with a general discussion session and the planning of the next steps, including the preparation of initial materials and the launch of the first research and training activities. The next in-person project meeting is scheduled for October in Milan, where the progress achieved will be reviewed.

HETEL drives the GeTinVET project to improve skills in the construction sector

HETEL has taken an important step forward in the GeTinVET project with the kick-off meeting held in Cologne, Germany. This project aims to define the transversal skills needed by workers in the construction and building maintenance sector, with the goal of fostering collaboration and improving sustainability in the field. The technical complexity of modern buildings requires specific skills that enable different trades to work more efficiently and in a more coordinated manner. GeTinVET involves the participation of several international partners, including: In addition, alongside HETEL, the Otxarkoaga Vocational Training Center also plays a key role. The initiative will conclude in June 2025 with a course at the Arnhem Summer School in the Netherlands, where the project results will be presented and the best practices developed will be shared.

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Growing Green: Innovation and Sustainability in Vocational Training

From September 25th to 28th, Ljubljana was the backdrop for a specialized educational event under the Erasmus+ Growing Green project. HETEL, along with other international partners, showcased groundbreaking tools such as a game based on Lego Serious Play, tailored to instill the principles of green entrepreneurship in VT students. Our representatives, teachers from Jesuitak Indautxu, together with our partners in the project Salesianos Urnieta and organizations from Slovenia, Italy, and Denmark, delving into materials such as manuals and the “Growing Green” game. Interaction and networking enriched the event, facilitating the sharing of ideas and methodologies. We are proud to be part of this initiative that seeks not only to educate in sustainability but also highlight the importance and profitability of green entrepreneurship in today’s Europe. Discover more about this project and its tools at www.growing-green.eu.

First version of the VR environment to train customer care skills

The Erasmus+ Project “Virtual Reality for Vocational Education” (VR4VET) is having this week a meeting hosted by ROC van Amsterdam (Nethelands), partner in the Project, to finetune the VR environment and the 4 domains created to develop customer care related skills for students in different VET sectors: retail, hospitality, consultancy and hair and beauty. The objective of the project, coordinated by Gradia College (Finland), is to provide VET teachers and students with an engaging and motivating way of learning, based on inmersive technologies, to develop and refine student´s ability to deal with customers, while increasing capacity of using new technologies for teaching and learning in vocational schools. The beta versión of the VR environment including the 4 domains and different scenarios defined will be available at the beginning of 2024, before a training evento to be hosted by Aarhus Technik (Denmark). HETEL is a partner in this project and has involved teachers from Egibide (Vitoria) and Sopeña Bilbao as part of the development team.

Training teachers in digital skills in Prague

The DigiSchool Erasmus+ project, a European initiative aimed at enhancing the digital skills of vocational education and training teachers, in which HETEL is involved as a partner, recently held its third Learning, Training and Teaching Activity (LTTA) in Prague. From June 20 to 22, 22 participants from Italy, Germany, Czech Republic and Euskadi gathered at the Institut Impro facilities to participate in this formative activity. The event also included the participation of attendees in the DisCo Microsoft conference, where the impact of artificial intelligence on education was discussed. This meeting offered teachers the opportunity to improve their knowledge of digital tools and share experiences with colleagues from all over Europe. Attendees were able to learn how to use various digital tools, creating specific content for their students. They were also presented with the documents generated within the DigiSchool project, which they could download and start using. Reactions to the LTTA in Prague have been very positive. Participants highlighted the value of the conferences and the opportunity to exchange experiences with colleagues from other countries as the most interesting aspects of the event. Looking ahead, the DigiSchool project is focused on finalizing the following outcomes: DigiTube and DigiHub. DigiTube will consist of micro-learning units in the form of short and attractive videos that offer step-by-step instructions on how to incorporate and use innovative digital tools to solve specific problems. DigiHub, for its part, will be a centralized online learning platform that will allow teachers to self-assess their knowledge of digital tools and access all the didactic material of the project. Once these outcomes are completed, a pilot will be carried out with 130 teachers from all over Europe before opening the results to the general public. This represents an exciting step towards achieving DigiSchool’s objectives: to equip educators with the necessary skills and knowledge to navigate the digital world and effectively impart this knowledge to their students.

Learning to embed international competences in VET curricula

This week in Helsinki we have had the opportunity to learn about the resources created by the Erasmus+ KA2 funded project, Build@Home, to embed internationalisation in training provision of vocational schools. Through the site www.buildathome.online, we have discovered different tools to foster the strategic thinking about why to care about internationalisation in vocational education, tools to create our own plan of approach to involve all staff (and students) in our schools and tools to implement our own internationalisation at home activities. Thanks to the exchange among participants from Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Italy and the Basque Country, HETEL´s team has come back inspired and greatly motivated to make internationalisation a reality for all of our students!

DUALEcosystem project meeting in Belfast

Aitor Ruiz from HETEL and Iratxe Lejarreta from Maristak Durango participated in the Erasmus plus Dual Ecosystem project meeting in Belfast. During the meeting, the partners from the Basque Country, Italy, Germany, and the United Kingdom shared the outcomes of the focus groups conducted with companies in the ICT sector, aiming to determine the qualification needs. The objective of this project is to exchange best practices in Dual training programs within the ICT sector among schools of different countries, with the aim of analysing the transferability of these examples.

Author: Leire