The need of enhancing international and multi-cultural competencies within VET educations is motivating Yrkesakademin i Österbotten to seek cooperation with other European VET providers. The strategy and vision of YA is to become a more attractive VET educator and employer by offering the opportunity to study and work from an international perspective. YA’s mission is to prepare the students and the staff, for a society and a region with close contacts across the cultural and national boundaries.
The annual goal of YA is a student mobility of 8% and a staff mobility of 15%. The main aims of this project are to motivate students to improve their professional and international competencies and strengthen their employability through mobility periods. Competencies should include foreign languages, cultural awareness and international cooperation between institutions should encourage new approaches to teaching and learning methods that support flexible training arrangement. ECVET fosters structured cooperation between VET colleges and institutions combined with mobility of students. For the students, mobility adds to human capital, as they access and develop their language skills and intercultural competencies. For the staff the mobilities will represent a gradual implementation of ECVET in their VET area. ECVET (The European Credit system for Vocational Education and Training) is a European method to support lifelong learning, the mobility of students and flexible learning pathways to achieve qualifications and competencies. In Finland the application of ECVET to VET is planned for 2013-2014. Previous mobility experiences have provided YA with valuable instructions, routines and documentation in order to assure quality of mobility periods as well as the recognition of learning outcomes (knowledge, skills and competence) acquired in another European country.
In the project MORE Competencies (Mobility and Recognition of European Competencies) YA will implement ECVET routines previous tested in the mobility project MORE Skills into the areas Social Services, Health and Sport, Tourism, Catering and Domestic Services and Technology, Communication and Transport. 28 students will undertake on-the-job learning periods of 4-6 weeks during spring 2014 and 2015 in Malta, Portugal, Turkey and UK. 8 teacher will participate in the mobility as accompanying teachers. Their task will be to discuss the assessment routines and criteria. Learning outcomes achieved abroad are taken into account, recognized and validated by YA. The teachers will get valuable experience of the ECVET assessment and recognition process. This way the assessment procedure and recognition of learning outcomes can be implemented within the above mentioned VET areas, according to ECVET routines. ECVET fosters structured cooperation between VET colleges and institutions combined with mobility of students. YA have in recent years developed their international relations.
There is a network of international contacts and projects tied to the various educational fields of the institution. The hosting partners of the project consist of 4 VET providers (EPAD, MCAST, Sisli Secondary Vocational/Technical School and Barnet & Southgate College) and 1 private enterprise (Care Malta). The variety of hosting partners and countries ensures that students can acquire key competencies, e.g. cultural awareness and language skills.
The students participating in MORE Competencies are representing EQF level 4 within vocational areas Social Services, Health and Sport, Tourism, Catering and Domestic Services and Technology, Communication and Transport, that traditionally are very customer oriented. The students from YA will undertake 4-6 weeks on-the-job learning periods through MORE Competencies. All mobilities will be arranged during spring 2014 and 2015. The priority is given to third year students in order to ensure a certain level of vocational knowledge and skills. Students apply for the mobilities by filling out a Europass CV document prepared for this purpose and the students are selected according to decided criteria (level of English language skills, vocational skills, study achievements etc). 8 teacher will participate in the mobility as accompanying teachers. Their task will be to discuss the assessment routines and criteria. Learning outcomes achieved abroad are taken into account, recognized and validated by YA. The teachers will get valuable experience of the ECVET assessment and recognition process. This way the assessment procedure and recognition of learning outcomes can be implemented within the above mentioned VET areas, according to ECVET routines.
The hosting organisations are
The hosting partners of the project consist of 4 VET providers and 1 private enterprise (Care Malta). The variety of hosting partners and countries ensures that students can acquire key competences, e.g. cultural awareness and language skills. The project language of MORE Competencies is English. This will give an European added value an enrich the cooperation between project partners. The ECVET documents (Learning Agreement, Memorandum of Understanding, Personal Transcript and KSC unit description) can be disseminated to the hosting partners of this project. The feedback and the evaluation will also be shared. Dissemination the interim and final report to project partners will also give them valuable insights in the implementation at YA and in Finland.