The fourth VET-EAR RoadMap transnational project meeting took place at Charlottenlund Upper Secondary School in Trondheim, Norway. All the partners from Finland, Sweden, Norway, France, Italy, North Macedonia, and Spain were participating.
During the two project meeting days the participants continued the work with the various results of the project which is to be finished in October 2023. We had two long working-days and prepared the last changes and additions to our guide, the homepage, the canvas, templates and the concept of The Apprenticeship Day.
Charlottenlund Upper Secondary School (CVS) is the largest upper secondary school in the region of Trøndelag (in the middle of Norway). We have about 1200 students and 230 employees. CVS has both vocational and general studies – about 50% of each. The vocational part offers studies in Building and Construction, Mechanics, Travell and services, security, Textile, Hairdressing, Flower decoration, Interior and Handicraft, design and innovation and ICT. Our vocational students are two years in school and then two years as paid apprentices in companies. The final certification is conducted by the region and the companies. After four years they are skilled workers and can apply for a job. Vocational studies are getting more popular, and we hope through our VET-EAR RoadMap project to increase the attractivity to vocational studies. We need more skilled workers in different fields in the coming years both in Europe as well as in Norway. Education, knowledge, and friendship through Erasmus+ programs will be an important contribution for at better Europe for all of us. We hope VET-EAR RoadMap also will contribute to this!
Below follows a short summary of how far the process with each different project result came during the project meeting in Norway.
Result 1: The work with the guide is completed can soon be found in its final version on the website. Here you can find the apprenticeship system of the participating countries and you will be able to read you to what to do if you want to apply for an international apprentice period (until 3 months) in one of the participating countries. This is a large document of 80 pages, but with a lot of information for students, employers, and teachers.
Result 2: The work with the VET-EAR RoadMap website (vet-ear.eu) will soon be completed.
Result 3: The Canvases (visual strategic documents of the parties and roadmap of international apprenticeships) has been ready for a while and will soon to be found on the website.
Result 4: Templates such as an apprenticeship agreement and a record of learning outcomes are also completed and can soon be found on the website.
Result 5: The apprenticeship day. The North-Macedonia partner presented a plan for preparation, implementation, evaluation and following up of an Apprenticeship Day event. Some of the partners had completed the day, as some partners will have it in October/ November. The plans were gone through and adapted to local conditions. This result will be presented later during the fall on the website as a roadmap with generally suggestion of how to arrange an Apprentice Day event.
Result 6: The last result “Mapping of Apprenticeship” has already been published on the website as the result of a survey among 171 companies from project partners own networks, about experiences and thoughts on apprenticeships, and in particular international ones. There can also be found visual infographics per partner country that highlights some of the results of the survey.
Some of the partners will also arrange dissemination events in the form of a Multiplier Event to present the results of project. The last plans for these events were discussed and adjusted In Trondheim.
What we are left with after our last physical meeting is a lot of new knowledge, a satisfaction that we have managed to implement this project together despite our differences, that we managed to agree on the results and that we through the project has gained a valuable common trust and friendship. We started the project in December 2021 with many questions and will complete in November 2023 as a team with what we consider a good outcome according to our Erasmus +application for The VET-EAR RoadMap project.
