This year’s Forum on Vocational Excellence took place on 25th and 26th of September, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
It was jointly organised and hosted by:
- the Community of Practice on COVEs,
- Katapult, a Learning Network supporting the cooperation between the public/ private sector in vocational education and
- Tknika, Innovation and Research Centre promoting Basque Vocational Education and Training) in cooperation with the European Commission.
The event had a two-day duration and was attended by more than 100 representatives from different ongoing COVE projects and other Vocational Excellence initiatives all across Europe.
Secove Partners attending the event:
– Natassa Kazantzidou from IDEC S.A.
– George Priniotakis from University of West Attica
– Dimitris Kyriakos from IEK Aigaleo
– Anabel Menica from Politeknika Txorrieri
– Nuno & Paula Escudeiro from Politecnico do Porto
– Cristina Murillo from Cluster Gaia
– Federica Ruggiero from Ciofs-fp
Main goal
It is crucial to maintain our efforts on raising public awareness and encourage the cooperation between the public and private sector in vocational education from different countries. Through this initiative, various stakeholders, local partners and VET institutions can work together to provide an efficient environment, addressing current and future skill needs.
During the forum, various education and VET providers, government officials (from EU and partner countries), social companies and different European stakeholders gathered to share their knowledge and best practices, and take responsibility about the skills acquisition of the current workforce (green, digital, social and professional).
This event presents the perfect opportunity for VET centres and different stakeholders to collaborate and participate in this significant European strategy of establishing at least 100 networks of COVEs by 2027.
Day 1 | September 25th
Participants were informed about the Dutch VET system, by visiting sites of the Dutch public-private partnerships in VET, where different public/ private stakeholders are actively working towards creating more innovative educational networks.
Day 2 | September 26th
Because of the forum’s hybrid nature, different parts were dedicated for in-person and online participants.
On the 2nd day, the European Commissioner for jobs and social rights, along with other Dutch educational authorities started the event with an interactive talk about what has been working so far in Vocational Excellence initiatives, what can be improved and what actions must be taken to enhance and better the skills gap of the current workforce.
From then on a series of workshops took place until late afternoon, where participants from already-established and ongoing COVE initiatives had the opportunity to meet and exchange good practices from their respective countries and propose new possibilities for collaboration in their field.
