Microcredentials - A New Path for Capacity Building in VET
Erasmus+ Capacity Building in VET
Project number: 101092464
Duration: January 2023 – December 2025
Project summary
In Europe, a growing number of people need to update their knowledge, skills, and competencies to bridge the gap between their formal education and the rapidly changing needs of society and the labor market. Maintaining and acquiring new competencies is crucial for enabling active participation in society, ensuring continuous personal, social, and professional development, as well as fostering employability and socio-economic innovation. While secondary school qualifications play a key role in Europe, alternatives are increasingly seen as a way to add to and/or reform existing qualification systems. Microcredentials are often presented and promoted as a new way for individuals to build their own skill profiles (portfolios) by collecting and "stacking" learning experiences in a flexible manner, at their own pace, and according to their own priorities.
The general aim of the project is to strengthen the connection between EU countries and Southeastern European countries (Western Balkans) through the analysis and definition of microcredentials in vocational education and training (VET) to support the relevance, accessibility, and responsiveness of VET institutions and systems to changes in the labor market. The activities in this project are intended to leverage the experiences of partner organizations from Croatia and Slovenia and avoid the obstacles they encountered. The development of analyses is based on an understanding of microcredentials as defined in the Council Recommendations of June 16, 2022, on a European approach to microcredentials for lifelong learning and employability (2022/C 243/02).
To exchange experiences and knowledge on the development of microcredentials, the partners will organize a series of transnational and national peer-learning activities involving teachers and trainers, principals, experts, and policymakers in vocational education and training. The partners will propose a definition of microcredentials in their national context and a methodology for their development. Based on this definition, the partners will design a joint educational content in the field of mechanical engineering, specifically in 3D printing technology, with active involvement from employers in defining competencies. The new joint educational content will be tested in each country on a sample of participants, accompanied by teacher mobility in the form of train-the-trainer sessions.
Project Leader:
Craft College - institution for adult education (Croatia) https://www.obrtnicko-uciliste.hr/
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Partners:
School Centre Novo mesto (Slovenia) https://www.sc-nm.si/
Secondary Vocational School Kragujevac (Serbia) https://srednjastrucna.kg.edu.rs/
Institution for Education Master (Bosnia and Herzegovina) http://zavod-skolstvo.ba/
Secondary Mechanical Engineering School Faust Vrančić (Bosnia and Herzegovina) http://strojarskaskolamo.tel.net.ba
Center for Vocational Education (Montenegro) https://www.gov.me/cso
JU Secondary Vocational School Ivan Uskoković (Montenegro) https://masinskapg.me/
Agency for Vocational Education and Training and Adult Education (Associate Partner) https://www.asoo.hr/
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