Events

THEMES AND GOALS

The seminar’s main focus is in the Future Skills. The themes presented and discussed during the seminar cover the needs and ways of skills development and how to achieve VET Excellence especially through the Skills Competitions.

The goals for the seminar are in line with the goals of skills competitions and skills training, mainly to:

1)      Offer opportunities to develop individual learning paths that improve learning results

2)      Develop vocational competencies to meet changing job market demands

3)      Increase participants’ employability, entrepreneurship and placement in further studies

4)      Offer a chance for mutual learning and encourage individuals, companies and educational institutions toward continuous learning

5)      Raise awareness of VET and the opportunities within it as well as
improve its attractiveness

The above-mentioned goals are approached in addition to future perspective though the following main parts of the programme:

•          Utilization of VET excellence in project work and projects
•          Various elements of teamwork and peer training as a way to gain excellence
•         Individual learning path enabling to become a Top Performer
•         Example from Finland: Vocational Qualification Unit “Working as Top Expert” gained through the Skills Competition as part of the VET Excellence

-          Practical examples and cases from the team leaders and competitors how all this is shows in practice and how it supports each student to develop existing skills and acquire new ones, stress management, believing in oneself and resulting to skills excellence and better employability.

During the interactive sessions and the workshops, the topic of VET Excellence will be discussed from many different perspectives.

-          in individual coaching (finding the best possible potential of each competitor)

-          in teamwork

-          in competitive training for Skills competitions

-          as mental training as part of preparation for performance (courage, exceeding oneself, pride)

-          in the training of team leaders

-          in inclusive excellence

The seminar includes two visits:

1^st seminar day the participants will be introduced to the Learning Environments of Omnia supporting individual learning pathways and aiming to excellence in skills development.

2^nd seminar day offers the participants an opportunity to a guided visit to the National Skills Competition Taitaja2023 https://taitaja2023.fi/en/

The seminar also includes a session dedicated for networking and facilitated planning of future cooperation in the context of the Erasmus+ programme. The seminar aims to support creating new networks and projects.

The seminar is co-created by the Finnish National Agency for Education EDUFI, Skills Finland and Omnia, the Joint authority of Education in Espoo Region. Omnia operates as a strong partner in international networks and has unparalleled connections around the world. Omnia has been appointed as a Centre of Excellence by UNESCO-UNEVOC and develops VET excellence in various international projects, see https://www.omnia.fi/en

The participants will gain new knowledge, ideas, methods, skills, and motivation to implement VET excellence in their daily work, deeper understanding of the concept vocational excellence, and how it can be used as a tool to transform VET systems in Europe.

The participants will establish networks and find partners for transnational cooperation possibilities offered by the Erasmus+ programme.

The seminar is aimed at persons and organizations participating in Erasmus+ activities who want to understand how the achievement of excellence can be promoted, achieved and utilized in vocational training in different ways, and for those who want to deepen their understanding of the concept of "vocational excellence".

In the selection of participants, priority is given to applicants who already have some knowledge and experience of Skills activities.