One of the core statement assumed by EU strategies and policies in VET is that “teaching and training are the heart of theknowledge society”. The DOCTAE Network moves along this key message by focusing on the fundamental role that trainersand teachers play in the modernisation and EU integration process of VET national systems. The professional developmentof vocational teachers and trainers remains a real challenge for most EU countries: therefore the need for a newprofessionalism, which must be oriented, among the others, towards the acquisition of new key competencies and of aEuropean dimension and awareness in their daily activities.According to these issues, the specific, concrete objectives of the project are:- Pooling of VET transnational, multi-stakeholder expertise to foster trainers changing role towards a well-qualified, mobileprofession, placed within the context of European lifelong learning.- Identification of needs and requirements, and development of practical approaches and tools for the establishment ofEuropean Training Antennas, capable to anticipate and manage European (and global) VET changing scenarios, to conveynew key competencies and European awareness in training activities, to promote transnational mobility and partnershipstowards VET stakeholders.- Promotion, exploitation and sustainability of DOCTAE Network outputs and project results throughout the Union, bygenerating multiplier effects such as: further collaborations among partners; transfer of the European Training Antennaprofile; enlargement of the network to other members, cooperation among VET and employment stakeholders, othernetworks, local and national decision-makers.The above objectives are pursued through the following activities:- Survey of up-to-date EU sources on quality of VET trainers’ competences and qualifications and transnational analysis oftrainers’ competencies needs.- Profiling of the European Training Antenna, consisting of a detailed job description and the provision of guidelines forcompetencies certification.- Development and testing of a multi-language training pathway (collected in the EuTA CD-ROM), including the 2 mainareas of new key competencies of trainers and European awareness.- Enhancement of dissemination, exploitation of results and sustainability of the Network outcomes.