The ProVET project (Professional Development of Vocational Education Teachers) was Warnborough College Ireland’s first capacity-building Erasmus+ funded project. It began in November 2018 and was originally slated for 3 years, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced us to extend an extra year.
Comprising 12 higher education institutions, the partner countries were Finland, The Netherlands, Ireland and Germany, with project partners from Russia and Serbia. The aim was upskill over 450 VET teachers in both Russia and Serbia while creating a working VET network. WCI’s key role was to oversee the development and implementation of the Vocational Open Online Courses (VOOCs) by the Russian and Serbian partners. This included changing mindsets about online education, comparing pedagogy with andragogy, techniques for engaging with students online, and mentoring Russian and Serbian partners.
Transnational Project Meetings
The first transnational project meeting took place at the University of Novi Sad, Serbia where all partners met for the first time. Other meetings were held in Jyvaskyla (Finland), Tver (Russia), Wageningen (Netherlands) and twice in Bremen (Germany). Due to the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, the meetings in Dublin (Ireland) and Moscow (Russia) were cancelled. Many other meetings took place online.
Challenges
Of course, as in any group formation, there were challenges. These included navigating differences in culture, communication styles, ideology, pedagogy and technology. Some were easily resolved while others required a lot of patience and diplomacy. Learning happened on all sides, and the final result was a tight-knit group of partners who worked together to produce the stated deliverables.
The capacity-building nature of the project required the project partners in Russia and Serbia to first create e-laboratories of sufficient ability to create online courses. This meant the purchase of and upgrades in computer and video recording equipment and software. In the meantime, train-the-trainer courses helped to align European practices with those in Russia and Serbia, providing plenty of raucous discussions along the way.
Intellectual Outputs
In terms of intellectual outputs, 3 VOOCs were created in Serbia and 4 in Russia (WCI is proud to have provided the resources for one of these). Each VOOC underwent both alpha and beta testing before being officially launched. Multiple white papers were written, and the project was presented at conferences as far as Bulgaria and Armenia.
As of April 2022, Russian partners were excluded due to the Ukraine war, meaning that they were unable to complete their part of the project.
A national roadmap for VET development in Serbia was created. This was presented at the final conference in Belgrade in October 2022 by Dr Natasa Papic-Blagojevic of the Novi Sad School of Business (NSSB).
Above and Beyond
The VOOC created by the NSSB and the University of Novi Sad received formal accreditation from the Serbian Education Ministry in June 2022, and will now be listed as a credit-earning course. This, of course, shows the outstanding quality of the VOOC is recognised externally.
The ProVET project has been an outstanding success, despite the exclusion of the Russian partners towards the end. All partner institutions have learnt and improved in all ways. More importantly, a greater understanding and fellowship between the different institutions emerged leading the way to future collaboration. WCI was invited to present a lecture to the Faculty of Engineering at MIIGAiK in Russia in 2019, and we are now partnered with Aeres University of Applied Sciences on the INCLUSION2 project.
We are utterly grateful and honoured to have been part of this amazing project.
