7th / final project meeting online

Although the infection numbers dropped during the summer, the last project meeting of EICON scheduled October 26 and 27 had to be held online again. Luckily, all project partners were able to participate, and the team worked on the finalisation of the project results. Important decisions have been taken, for instance to design the access to the results depending on the user roles (here: teacher, facilitator and manager). This has been implemented at the website that will stay online for the coming years. View the results for the different roles:

• Teacher in VET
• Facilitator in VET
• Manager in VET

6th project meeting online

Originally planned to take place in sunny Athens, the 6th project meeting was taking place virtually and ended successfully with lots of issues dealt with, and further results produced. Of course, all project participants were convinced from the outset that ICT has many potentials to promote inclusion and increase the inclusive capacity of VET institutions. The Corona crisis has now made this a reality. Instead of investing a lot of time and effort in persuasion, it is now possible to move more quickly into action. The project's checklists are a good starting point for this.

5th project meeting in Espoo, Finland

The current meeting focused on leadership as an essential element both to achieve inclusion, but also to exploit the benefits of technology to increase an organisation's inclusiveness. The Vocational College Live was hosting this meeting in its brand new premises in Espoo. During the meeting, also the final results of the first and second meeting were published on this website.

Preparations for the next meeting

While the last meeting was lucky to take place in warm weather in Portugal despite it was already late in October, the upcoming meeting in Espoo / Finland in February will be different for sure - so we need to prepare also with appropriate clothing. Content-wise, the next meeting will focus on leadership as an essential element both to achieve inclusion, but also to exploit the benefits of technology to increase an organisation's inclusiveness.

4th project meeting in Estoril, Portugal

We have just finished another successful project meeting that was organised by our partner CERCICA in Estoril, Portugal. The topic of this meeting was focusing on stakeholder involvement, collaboration and partnerships. Local experts from the Institute of Employment and Vocational Training (IEFP) as well as from the National Federation of Social Solidarity Cooperatives (FENACERCI) brought in relevant perspectives and enriched the discussions. Next to the intensive discussion the partners had an opportunity to enjoy the magnificent location and to learn about the history of the area.

We are up and running - start of the public consultation process

EICON has chosen a participatory approach to involve a wider audience in the creation of results. The project partners develop draft results on which a wider community can then comment, revise, or add points relevant from their point of view. The respective consultation platform went online now with the draft results of the first transnational project meeting, thematic focus "Pedagogy & teaching / learning approaches".

Productive Meeting in historic settings

The third transnational project meeting has been finished. Highly valuable presentations by the Directorate of Vocational Education, Unit C – Apprenticeship class and learning at the workplace on "The evolution of the apprenticeship class", by apprenticeship experts and headmasters from Unified Special Vocational High Schools (EN.E.E.GY.-L.) in Patras and Volos on “Inclusion of students with disability in apprenticeship classes with the help of ICT”, and of the European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education on "Vocational Education and Training: Policy and Practice in the field of Inclusive Education" made this meeting a huge success. Results of the meeting will be further elaborated and given into our public consultation process in the near future.

Almost in Athens! 3rd meeting under preparation...

The third transnational project meeting of EICOn will take place 11 - 13 June 2019 in Athens, Greece. The meeting will have a closer look at establishing and maintaining links to employment / labour market as relevant activities that contribute towards inclusive VET. The meeting is being organised and hosted by the Ministry of Education, Research and Religious Affairs.

Successful 2nd project meeting

With various highly interesting presentations and discussions at the SPSM premises in Gothenburg the second project meeting ran very successful, thanks to our hosts at SPSM. The discussions focused on the topics of technology and infrastructure. Presentations were given by Eva Selander from Folk high schools (Folkhögskola), Lina Bjarnegård Carlsson from Bräcke diakoni and Dr Martin Lackeus from Chalmers University of Technology.

Preparations for the 2nd project meeting

The preparations for the second transnational project meeting have already started. The meeting will take place 10 - 12 April 2019 in Gothenburg / Sweden, hosted by the partner SPSM.

1st Project Meeting

People with disabilities continue to be disproportionately excluded from the labour market Europe-wide. Vocational education and training (VET) plays a crucial role, as it acts as the joint between school education and the working world. How information and communication technologies (ICT) can be helpful in making VET more inclusive and therefore in better preparing learners for the labour market is the content of the ERASMUS+ project EICON. Project partners just met in Germany for the first of a series of several meetings to exchange good practice and to develop effective solutions.

All of the meetings will focus on specific topics and discuss how ICT can be supportive to raise an organisation’s inclusive capacity. This first meeting dealt with the pedagogy in VET organisations and with different teaching and learning approaches. Participants from six organisations from Finland, Sweden, Portugal, Greece and Germany exchanged effective practice and discussed first recommendations for teachers and managers of VET organisations.

Draft results will soon be shared publicly so that educators around Europe can add their experiences and successful examples. Through this consultation process the results will be consolidated and more likely to fit to the different settings of VET organisations across Europe.

Launch of the project website

EICON has launched it website to document project steps and results continuously. The website is designed mobile first and accessible so that it should work specifically well on mobile devices like smartphones.

Project start

The official start date of the ERASMUS+ Strategic Partnership in Vocational Education and Training 2018-1-DE02-KA202-005110

EICON’s main objective is to support organisations / institutions providing Vocational Education and Training (VET) to become more inclusive. In particular, the aim is to put the organisations as a whole in the focus, and not just education and training practice. Managers of these organisations / institutions are particularly in need for guidance on how to further develop their organizations, as they often have to work towards multiple aims simultaneously, i.e. inclusion usually is one among other aims. For different organizational areas der project will elaborate, if and how information and communication technology (ICT) can be used as a lever / amplifier to increase the overall organization’s inclusiveness. EICON is the acronym for ‘Enhancing inclusion capacity of educational organisations / institutions providing VET with information and communication technologies (ICT)’. The project runs from 1 November 2018 until 31 October 2020.

Six partners from Germany, Portugal, Greece, Sweden and Finland have joined forces to elaborate practice-oriented recommendations. Partners come from organisations that provide VET (Ammattiopisto Live (FI) and Cooperativa para a Educação e Reabilitação de Cidadãos Inadaptados de Cascais – CERCICA (PT)), that support organisations / institutions that provide VET (Specialpedagogiska skolmyndigheten – SPSM (SE) and the National Ministry of Education, Research and Religious Affairs (EL)), that provide technology for VET organisations and individuals (EPISTIMI GIA SENA ASTIKI MI KERDOSKOPIKI ETAIRIA (EL)) and that support organisations in complex change processes (Institut für Technologie und Arbeit – ITA (DE); project coordinator).