During the 12th and 13th of December HETEL Heziketa Teknikoko Elkartea hosted in Durango the meeting of partners of the Erasmus DIGISCHOOL project (AMSP-Asociace Malých A Stredních Proniku a Zivnostníku (CR), Institut INPRO (CR), RegioVision (DE), Ilmiolavoro (IT) and HETEL with the participation of UGLE VET School).

The DIGISCHOOL project aims to develop an educational platform, aimed at vocational training teachers, in which through innovative content, teachers can acquire new skills and increase their knowledge and use of digital tools in all their educational activity.

During the meeting, big progress was made in finalising the best practices identified (DIGI Cases) and the appropriate tools to be used by teachers (DIGI Toolbox), as well as in defining the characteristics that the platform and the contents of the micro-learning units should have (DIGI Hub).

Over the coming months, progress will be made in the creation of these micro-learning units and the training of teachers in relation to the selected tools, starting with a training activity to be held in the Basque Country at the end of January.

In-Di is an Eramus+ KA2 project aimed to work, from different perspectives, on how to support students´ wellbeing in vocational schools to keep them engaged and motivated with learning.

From May to mid-September, the project partners collected feedback from almost 1000 VET students in different EQF levels (but mostly level 3) to have an idea of their current wellbeing at school, how situations at home and in previous schools may have influenced them, and what they appreciate and what they miss in the schools they attend to at the moment. Although with some differences among countries (Germany, France, Italy, Czech Republic, Latvia and Basque Country), the main factors they point out as key for their well being are: exams and assignments calendar, the role of the teachers and the class atmosphere. Suggestions given on how to improve their situation are: more empathetic and available teachers, more sensible exams calendar and dedicated workshops on team building, time management or emotional management.

In the case of HETEL, the school involved in the project is Colegio Ángeles Custodios, in Bilbao, which hosted this meeting, involving students from VET EQF level 1 who gave a great presentation about what they do in class and offered the meeting participants delicious food prepared by them. This wonderful hosting definitely helped to our successful meeting!

Next time we will meet in Latvia to exchange on the strengths of each of our VET systems to support students and to identify possible actions to put in place in each country to keep accompanying our students in the best possible way.

Last week HETEL received 2 IT teachers from Da Vinci College  (Netherlands). As part of the visit, they went to our associated school, Maristak Durango, where the students of the specialization in cybersecurity and of the higher VET programme in administration of computer network systems presented them, in English, the various challenges they are facing in class.

We also visited Urduliz42, the programming campus part of Fundación Telefónica and supported by the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, and we exchanged ideas to collaborate on a project on cybersecurity in the industry.

The HETEL-Da Vinci collaboration is long overdue and it is always a pleasure to welcome you. Until next time! Abantean!

Last week HETEL Heziketa Teknikoko Elkartea hosted in Oteitza Lizeo Politeknikoa (Zarautz) the meeting of eVET4AI Erasmus project partners (ITKAM, Confindustria Veneto - SIAV, HETEL, ECOLE, Cooperation Bancaire pour L´Europe (BE), Qualifizierungszentrum Region Riesa GmbH (DE)).

The EVET4AI project aims to provide new digital tools to trainers active in mechanical training courses in the development of new digital skills and confidence in the use of new teaching methodologies.

During the meeting, we discussed about the 2 approaches followed by the project: Artificial Intelligence applied to training, focused on how artificial intelligence can improve training provision, follow up and guidance, and training for Artificial Intelligence, about which are the main technologies applied in the metalworking sector, how they are applied, the purpose and the competences necessary to do it.

In the next months, the first training materials will be available in the project platform, accessible in: https://evet4ai.eu/