The 2021 Skillman International Forum (SIF2021) was held from the 15th to 18th of November as a hybrid event. Participants were welcomed onsite in Bologna, Italy on the first day before switching over to Lisbon, Portugal for the remaining days. Participants who were unable to travel could attend the Forum online or watch the livestream on YouTube.
SIF2021 was organised by the SkillNet Alliance, which comprises Skillman.eu, the International Vocational Education and Training Association (IVETA), the Assembly of European Regions (AER), the European Network of Innovation for Inclusion (ENII), the European Training Foundation (ETF) and EAPRIL. It brought together many esteemed speakers and innovators in education from around the world for 4 days covering 3 themes: the Digital and Green Revolution; Microcredentials; and Sharing is Caring.
Warnborough, as a prime mover of IVETA in Europe, brought along 32 delegates from around Europe to Lisbon.
Day One
The Warnborough team arrives in Lisbon 
Joao Costa, Bemvinda Catarino, Dr Giovanni Crisoná and Luisa Dornellas welcome everyone to Lisbon 
Dr Urs and Dr Giovanni chair a session
Following an official welcome by the Mayor of Bologna, Skillman.eu introduced the themes and kicked off with a debate on the future of education. Warnborough Vice-President, Dr Julian Ng (as President-Elect of IVETA) threw down the gauntlet at educators explaining the important role TVET had across our education and industry sectors, highlighting the need for TVET to be seen as a viable educational pathway alongside higher education, rather than as a secondary option. He also presented on IVETA’s activities within the SkillNet Alliance.
New partners and collaborators pledging their support for the Alliance’s current and future initiatives included EduBiz and the World Open Brain International Academy (who formed part of the delegation Warnborough brought to Lisbon).
The day ended with Dr Julian and Dr Urs Hauenstein chairing a roundtable on ‘Navigating Diversity’ and ‘Effective Teaching and Learning’. The panel of speakers included Warnborough associates Saša Kregar (National Education Institute, Slovenia) who presented on ‘Adaptive Expertise’, Dr Vitaly Kopnov (Russian State Pedagogical University) who discussed transdisciplinarity in work-based learning, and Serumu Igberadja (IVETA Vice-President of East and West Africa) who argued for the need to close the skills gap in Nigeria.
Our Italian youth leaders from WOB 
Our lunch table with our delegates 
Key principals of the conference
Day Two
The theme for the day was ‘Sharing is Caring’, and true to that, many presentations focused on sharing knowledge, best practice and new methodologies. A mobility opportunity allowed SIF2021 delegates to visit ATEC Training Academy to see TVET in practice. Dr Urs Hauenstein co-presented a Self-Assessment Tool (SAT) for VET providers with Skillman CEO, Dr Giovanni Crisoná.
IVETA President Dr John Gaal hosted a roundtable webinar which showcased the oft-forgot issue of Mental Health in TVET, focusing on leveraging peer support.
Cosmina Pertiu and Rebecca Heredea are youth leaders 
Alex Trandafir flew in from Liverpool 
Ana Puiber and Oana Matei do their presentation 
Darius Illisie explains why youth leadership is important 
Marie Vedani-Plattner talks about a truly green campus in Italy 
Romanian celebrity, Mihaela Tatu, with Dr Urs and Dr Pamela Hatton
Dr Urs and Dr Julian hosted a Youth Leadership Workshop for our partner, Edubiz and our learning centre, World Open Brain International Academy (WOB) in the afternoon during a parallel session. The youth leaders made presentations and showcased why the youths are, indeed, our future.
Day Three
The theme of SIF Day 3 was Microcredentials. Dr Urs Hauenstein presented on Microcredential Evaluation 5.0 before leading a discussion from various bodies such as ENIC-NARIC, the European Training Foundation, and the EU Commission.
Idea generation workshop 
Idea generation workshop 
Idea generation workshop
Teodora Chifor, the CEO and founder of EduBiz in Romania spoke about reimagining education with new sustainable goals for learning from a youth perspective. That afternoon, Dr Urs ran a research workshop, followed by Dr Julian who ran an idea generation workshop for the youth leaders of both Edubiz and WOB.
That evening, one of our delegates, Dimitrija Angelkov from North Macedonia, won the SIF2021 video contest.
Day Four
The theme of the final day was “Digital and Green Revolution”. As to be expected, we had many excellent presentations about technology in education – everything from open-source software to virtual and augmented reality solutions for dangerous jobs. Dr Julian introduced Dr Haydee Malubay from the Philippines, who spoke about sustainability, and levelling up across nations.
Some delegates attended a parallel train-the-trainer workshop run by the Fit4FoF project before joining up in the main hall for the final plenaries.
Visit to ATEC 
Final dinner 
Final dinner 
Final dinner 
Final dinner 
Off-time at the famous Elevador de Santa Justa
The organisers in Lisbon (the Council of the Municipality and the Industrial Association of Portugal) hosted a fantastic goodbye dinner at the Jardim Mundial Restaurant inside the iconic Hotel Mundial. With excellent food and wine, conversation flowed, friendships and new connections were made.
