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Staff and Students Working Together for Change
Staff and Students Working Together for Change
Start date: Sep 1, 2015,
End date: Aug 31, 2018
PROJECT
FINISHED
This project’s main focus is to enhance the quality of teaching and learning within the VET curriculum in order to improve the retention and achievements of young adults in the acquisition of vocational training, skills and key competencies. This is crucial to all partners as we are situated in geographical areas of the EU which suffer from high levels of youth unemployment and disengagement. It is also key to economic recovery and success in our regions to have a workforce that is skilled to higher levels that are relevant and useful in today’s highly technical and global society. We believe that excellence within the teaching profession can inspire learners to achieve and realise their full potential and to become independent, resourceful and active citizens within the local and wider communities. We have had successful collaborative projects in the past focusing on teaching and learning approaches, especially with regard to the use of IT. We feel we can build on these earlier experiences as well as drawing on the expertise each organisation possesses.
The project's objectives are
1. To enhance the quality of teaching and learning in VET curriculum,
2. To create a model of collaborative staff development, working with local, regional, national and international organisations. This will be done through working together to develop innovative methods of delivery ( e.g. an eGuide to Staff Development, TEDx talks, TeachMeets and research into the development of 'Apps' for learning resources on mobile devices.)
3. Enable the effective delivery and assessment of Key Competencies ( basic skills and transversal skills, digital skills and entrepreneurship skills) within the VET curriculum.
4. To establish a culture of learners who can work with teachers to develop and assess new learning resources to assist in teaching of Key Competencies.
5. To foster partnerships with local schools, employers and careers agencies in the delivery of project activities.
6. To make explicit the outcomes, activities and outputs of the project through effective dissemination.
This project will involve a range of people at varying points in its lifecycle. Each partner will have a core team of staff who have the relevant skills and expertise to lead this project and engage others in the various activities. We plan to involve approximately 140 students in the preparation and evaluation of resources as well as ensuring the learner voice is a key component of the outputs of this project.
We intend all teaching and support staff in our organisation will benefit from this project by either participating in multiplier events ( TeachMeets, and Conference) engaging in the development of teaching resources and having access to the final products of the project ( the eGuide, teaching and learning resources, the TEDx video and Student Blog) This could potentially reach over 800 members of staff.
We also intend to engage a wider audience at the multiplier events such as local schools, university partners, careers staff, employers, awarding bodies and parents
Mulitplier events, called TeachMeets, each year will disseminate the ideas and resources of the project and will address some of the themes contained within the eGuide, such as how to be inclusive within the classroom and within the organisation, coping with students with mental health needs, how to manage challenging behaviour.
We plan to host a conference in the third year which will cover a large number of topics addressed by this project, include a talk by an inspiring national figure and engage with a wide range of stakeholders.
As this project’s desired goal is to be transformative for our organisations, the methodology that will be used in this project will be consultative and inclusive. We aim to make all aware of the project and it’s objectives. The core team of each partner will engage in activities in each others’ countries as well as those in their own organisations. They will also engage with other groups of staff who wish to participate in both the creation and evaluation of resources and multiplier events, such as Teachmeets and the final conference. The project’s management team will also continually monitor and evaluate progress and ensure all activities are open and transparent. Students directly involved in the project activities will develop excellent critical and evaluation skills, as well as effective communication, digital and interpersonal skills. All students in all three institutions will benefit indirectly from improved learning opportunities in basic skills and key competences within their vocational programmes and from more effective, inspiring teaching. The development of on-line resources for the delivery of basic skills and key competences will enable the individual needs of students to be met more flexibly, building an effective personalised pathway for learners who cannot attend or learn in a more traditional mode.