ERASMUS+ Project Kicks Off in Serbia

The fortress in Petrovaradin along the Danube makes for an eye-catching sight in Novi Sad

From 3rd to 7th December, 2018, the University of Novi Sad hosted delegates from 12 academic institutions across Europe, Serbia and Russia for the kick-off meeting for the ERASMUS+ project going by the moniker “Pro-VET”.

Pro-VET is co-funded by the European Union (EU) and is a sub €1 million Euro project that aims to improve vocational, education and training (VET) teacher competencies and skills in Serbia and Russia. This will be done using best practice, experience and guidance from four EU nations (Finland, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands) over 3 years.

Graham Burns, from the University of Jyväskylä
Mirko Savić, from the University of Novi Sad
Eila Burns, from the University of Jyväskylä

Warnborough College Ireland is honoured to be working with 11 esteemed University partners on thisproject, and will be spearheading the development of the online learning platform that will form part of the professional development tools.

Urs Hauenstein and Julian Ng from Warnborough College Ireland
Andreas Saniter and Vivian Harberts from ITB, University of Bremen
Frank de Jong from Aeres University of Applied Sciences Wageningen (AHW)

In Novi Sad, participants gathered around to review and understand the project brief, managed by the Finnish lead partner, Jyväskylän University (JAMK). Warnborough College was represented by VP Dr Julian Ng and Professor Urs Hauenstein. It was a wonderful face-to-face reunion of sorts for Dr Ng with project partners Dr Sirpa Laitinen-Väänänen (Finland), Dr Frank de Jong (Netherlands) and Dr Vitaly Kopnov (Russia) as they were the original team from when the project was first broached 2.5 years ago!

Vitaly Kopnov from the Russian State Vocational Pedagogy University
Luzika Shibankova and Tatiana Tregubova from the Institute of Pedagogy, Psychology and Social Problems (ISSP)
Pavel Kratovich, from Tver State University

Aliya Myrsalieva from MIIGAIK, Russia
Račić Zjelko, from the Novi Sad School of Business
Sirpa Laitinen-Väänänen, from the University of Jyväskylä

The Kick Off meeting allowed each participating institution to introduce themselves formally to everyone, whilst the managing JAMK team led by Graham and Eila Burns spoke about the administrative and financial aspects. The Quality Assurance procedures, led by MIIGAIK (Russia), were discussed, and the first Technical Committee Meeting was held.

Delegates were invited to experience Serbian cuisine at a traditional restaurant, and friendships were formed over meals or exploration of the local sights.

Stefan Ninković of University of Novi Sad, and Miroslav Lutovać of VISER
The Russian participants quickly get stuck in on a task devised by Frank de Jong
Dr Julian introduces WCI to the participants of Pro-VET

Professor Hauenstein talked about the need to consider non-academic competencies while developing programmes for the teacher trainers. He made a huge impression on the group with his take on leadership, using the analogy of wolves. Dr Julian led a training workshop on how to build a learning platform, challenging the partners to think beyond the ordinary in terms of pedagogy (or is it andragogy?), resources and development.

A conference takes place
Chilling out in between workshops

The next face-to-face summit will take place in Finland in June 2019. In the meantime, all participants have plenty of objectives to achieve. We would like to take the opportunity to thank Mirko Savić (University of Novi Sad) and Nataša Papić-Blagojević (Novi Sad School of Business) and their teams for the wonderful hospitality, and the JAMK team for organising this gargantuan event.

Professional Development of Vocational Education Teachers with European Practices (Pro-VET, 2018-2021)

Reg.Number: 598698-EPP-1-2018-1-FI-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP

Duration: 2018-2021

Programme: CBHE ERASMUS+

Grant Holder: JAMK University of Applied Sciences (JAMK)

Aims

Pro-VET will introduce a systematic approach to continuous professional development on European VET policy and practice for VET teachers (in-service trainers, instructors, mentors etc.) and HE teachers engaged in VET teacher training in both school and work-based settings for Serbia and Russia by e-learning tools.

Pro-VET will provide 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 will help to build confidence in the industry on the development of the VET systems. Pro-VET will therefore address the challenges of the educational quality, relevance, delivery, and management of the VET systems following VET Pointers for policy development.

Objectives

To train the HE teachers of the two partner countries on using European VETinitiatives, best methods and pedagogical approaches and to capacitate them in creating development-oriented in-service training courses for VET teacher training.
To setup and equip national e-labs on the base of the 8 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 open online courses (VOOCs). 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.
To setup 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.
To ensure after effect 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.
To co-design roadmaps for VET development in line with European policy and practice in Russia and Serbia in a policy dialogue with National Ministries of Education.