Geothermal and Solar Skills in CVet education

The EU’s strategy for sustainable growth, Europe 2020, puts innovation and green growth at the heart of its blueprint for competitiveness. Indeed, it has set clear objectives in terms of energy sustainability, the 20-20-20 targets1. Moreover, according to the EU Directive 2010/31/EU on the Energy Performance Buildings, all new buildings by the year 2020 will have to be nearly zero energy buildings2. This leads to a whole new demand for environmental skills in the construction sector.

Following the involvement of ECTE in the funded project GSSkills, from the “Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion” programme, in which the skills gap for electricians and plumbers for geothermal and solar installations was clearly demonstrated and the needed skills were defined, ECTE has developed a Sector Skills Alliance (Lot 2), in order to capitalise on these previous findings in terms of skills needs and create a European offer of adapted and innovative continuous training. Related to previously identified skills needs, the project aims at:

  • on one hand designing, for Geothermal energy system installers, and for Solar energy system installers, two European core curricula (EQF level 4-5), divided in sets of learning outcomes, allowing an easy implementation of the ECVET procedure; two corresponding VET programmes, including innovative teaching methods, and including periods of work-based learning; two qualification standards for evaluation and certification based on the ISO 17024 and the ECVET recommendations,
  • and on the other hand at implementing, delivering, evaluating and certifying the above-described training.

The project consortium is composed of 15 partners from four countries, led by the Technical Educational Institute of Crete, each country including at least one VET provider and one sectoral organisation. This complementarity will ensure a strong collaboration between the labour market (sectoral organisations) and the education and training institutions. The role of the sectoral organisations will be of ensuring that the developed training is in total adequacy with the employers’ needs and supporting the implementation of the training for workers. The role of the VET providers will be to develop an adapted, attractive and innovative continuous VET programme, and to implement it for 200 adults in 4 countries. The EU umbrella organisation will promote the training in the other EU countries.

The programme will start in December 2016, has a three-year duration and is funded by the European Commission.

Practice placements of students in foot care services

It may appear straightforward and undramatic, but a simple Finger & Toe Nail cutting service can make a huge difference to people’s Health And Well Being.

Students from Klaipeda Vocational Training and Rehabilitation Centre, specialised in providing foot care services, were hosted in Rethymnon by the European Center in Training for Employment – ECTE. The students/ practitioners were placed in companies providing foot care services following a work-based learning program . Practitioners gained valuable working experience in:

  • cutting and filing toenails and keeping them at a comfortable length
  • smoothing and moisturising dry and rough skin
  • checking for cracks and breaks in the skin and inflammation such as blisters
  • looking for signs of infection like nail fungus or other obvious early problems, and seeking professional advice

The participants were awarded a Europass certificate and a certificate from ECTE, validating their learning experience. The program was financed by the European Commission under the Erasmus plus program.

Cultural program in environmental education for Vocational Colleges of Great Britain

Crete, is famous for having almost as many species and subspecies of plants (about 1750), as the whole Britain (1450), even if it is 35 times smaller. This diversity is not only reflected in the total number of species but also in the number of endemic species, which grow only in Crete and nowhere else in the world. In Crete, there are about 160 endemic species and subspecies, which mean that 9% of the plant species of Crete do not exist anywhere else in the world. Most plants of Crete aromatic herbs included are used as ingredients in cooking, in the preparation of teas, medicines. And traditionally also used in natural dyeing purposes.

Students from Vocation colleges of Great Britain having work-based learning activities in companies of Rethymnon had the chance to explore this amazing nature walking at Kourtaliotis gorge one of the most beautiful gorges of Crete. At the and of the day they enjoyed the sea at the beaches of South Crete.

Assuring Quality in Vocational Education and Training

Among other objectives, by 2020, an average of at least 40% of the younger generation should have tertiary education and the share of early leavers from education and training should be less than 10% (European Commission, 2010, p. 3).

But “increased investments into educational systems will not automatically increase their effectiveness and efficiency even if the quantitative targets are achieved. This is where the quality issue comes in: ‘This requires improving the quality of our education, strengthening our research performance, promoting innovation and knowledge transfer throughout the Union, making full use of information and communication technologies and ensuring that innovative ideas can be turned into new products and services that create growth, quality jobs and help address European and global societal challenges’ (European Commission, 2010, p. 9-10).

The Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Lithuania in order to balance the different levels of education institutions to learn (after the general and secondary schools) accession of flows, vocational education, and training system network institutions is essential to improve vocational training institutions and vocational training services image quality. Under this fact, vocational training institutions consisting the project consortium have been certified and received ISO quality management certificates.

In order to improve already existing QMS, delegates from vocational training institutes from Pavezenys region of Lithuania visited the European Center in Training for Employment – ECTE, to discuss and exchange experience about existing quality managing systems in Greece and Lithuania to ensure an integrated quality management system functioning in accordance with international quality standards of management with specific objectives to:

  • strengthen the administration employees vocational training institutions, QMS working groups, responsible for the functioning of an integrated quality management system and the specific skills;
  • to evaluate the quality management system efficiency indicators for measuring, on the basis of the EU partners’ experience.

The existing systems and procedures followed by the Technical University of Crete were analyzed by Professor Georgios Stavroulakis, president of quality assurance Unit and vice rector of the university. Dott. Maria Kalathaki, School Advisor for Science Teachers of Secondary Eduction in West Crete educational counselor in Sciences for the regional Directorate of Secondary education of Crete, presented the existing schemes and arguments about quality management systems in the public secondary education schools. In the private sector was referred by Mr. Theodoropoulos, Director of a private Vocation Training Institute (IEK), of Chania.

Finally, the situation in Greece, concerning accreditation and Certification ISO 9000ff, for VET was analyzed by Mr. Konstantinos Androulakis director of ECTE.

Mr. Androulakis presented the European Quality Assurance Reference Framework (EQAVET), which is a reference instrument designed to help EU countries promote and monitor the continuous improvement of their vocational education and training systems on the basis of commonly agreed references. It is a voluntary system to be used by public authorities and other bodies involved in quality assurance.