An essential need is found nowadays regarding the connection between the VET systems and the labour market in view of the high unemployment rates, especially affecting youngsters. In many EU countries different policies have been recently enforced to support practical experiences in companies, as part of the vocational training systems. Most of these initiatives have a regional scope and a pilot purpose, or they are still at their initial stages of implementation requiring to fine-tune different elements. This causes a significant fragmentation of the models not only at European level, but also a national level, which makes difficult comparative analyses and to evaluate the impact of the different policies.This diagnosis led four partners in a previous EU transfer of innovation project in the fashion and textile sector to set up this proposal in order to benchmark existing resources and build tools based on the most effective ones, aiming to contribute to the solution of this situation. The partnership has been extended to another five partners, which have cooperate together for the first time in Modatop project. The participating countries include Spain, Italy, Portugal and Czech Republic, where textile industry is a pillar of their economies. The partnership has included VET practitioners, sectoral bodies representing the textile industry and educative institutions with public regulatory and policy-making roles at regional or national level. The project has built on the VET educational frames in the participating countries that incorporate practical training sessions in companies. It has reached the goal to benchmark resources and methods used in the VET schools and in the companies in the textile sector, which assist the training efforts of teachers and tutors in the practical training sessions. Modatop envisaged two tools, which have been produced to complement the already existing resources for teachers and tutors in the fashion and textile sector, including: (i) Guide of Recommendations for teachers and tutors; (ii) Online tool to enable recognising the learning outcomes accomplished in the practical phase of the training, in cooperation with the VET schools.The project has overly reached the target to involve directly some 150 stakeholders to get access to the intellectual outputs of the project. Most of them in the testing and validation phases of the outputs production. The promotion of the results through dissemination events and multipliers events carried out during project lifetime reached as well directly some 2.500 representatives from the three target groups: teachers and students from VET schools participating in dual systems in the textile and fashion sector, companies hosting and interested to host stages for VET students in this sector, policy-makers and institutions in charge of designing and implementing VET systems which incorporate practices in companies.

CONFYE (Confección y Empleo) is a Strategic Partnership gathering industry associations, VET centres, Education Regulators and Certifying Bodies in Spain, Portugal and Czech Republic. The project focuses on the Fashion and Clothing production sector. The partners have cooperated previously in another educational initiative related to Dual VET systems on the basis of which they have detected needs to bring closer the VET centres and the companies of the sector to promote quality employment and competetiveness in this economic sector. CONFYE project has implemented the main output that was funded, a MOOC on professional orientation and entrepreneurship. It has contributed to develop the competences of groups of VET students in the different countries, and to strengthen their possibilities to find a job or create their own business. CONFYE product is a complementary resource to the creation of the end-of-cycle projects that are part of the curricular instructions in the upper cycles of VET. This MOOC has been tested and used in connection to the topic of Fashion and Textile.This output is a Open Educational Resource (OER) compliant with the EdX standards and hosted in a plataform that enables and promotes the access from anyone who is interested in exploring and following the course. The project has reached the goal to involve directly more of 100 stakeholders to obtain the planned results. More that 140 stakeholders (companies of fashion and textile, VET teachers and students, education institution representatives and other professionals related with these sectors) have been involved only in the multiplier events, largely exceeding the expected impact, despite the restrictions of the COVID pandemic. In addition, the phases of development and testing of the product have involved directly more than 10 teachers and 60 students in the three participating countries. Finally the promotion and dissemination activities have exceeded the target to reach directly more than 600 representatives from the three target groups: fashion companies, teachers and students from VET schools, and policy-makers and institutions in charge of designing and implementing VET systems, through info sessions, participation in international fairs and projects, newsletters and technological means (webpage and social networks).To reach the targeted stakeholders the partnership has counted with the support of a broad representation of the Textile, Fashion and Clothing production sector and of VET centres providing studies in this field. Relevant associated partners have actively contributed and supported this initiative.

Whereas the manufacturing and distribution of apparel has advanced in past years with the application of new CAM and ITC technologies, the design process is still very traditional. Sketching ideas, creating story boards, draping, and developing technical drawings (also known as technical sketches) are just some of the tasks that are still being done either in the old-fashioned way or with the aid of digital tools, most of which are spinoff uses of technologies developed for other industries, and not adapted to the necessities of the creative apparel industry. At the same time, there are emerging technologies that could reduce the timing and the cost of the design process, such as 3D scanners and 3D sketching tools. New low cost 3D scanners have indeed appeared in the market, and could allow a real customization of the clothes design. Moreover, libraries of 3D realistic avatars adapted to the target population of a new clothing collection will be a great improvement for mass production. Theoretically, a designer could sketch the design over the avatar of a customer, or over a realistic avatar that represents a target population. Sketching designs over real 3D bodies allows the visualization of designs in real dimensions, improves communication between the creative team, and reduce misunderstandings in the following steps (e.g. pattern making, manufacturing, etc.). The realistic visualization of the designs has many advantages: 1) Elimination of manual tasks. 2) Improvement of the communication between designers and decision takers (the managers that approve the design for manufacturing). The realistic visualization reduces misunderstandings and failures. 3) Better cost analysis. InKreate expects to improve the apparel design process using low cost 3D scanners and 3D sketching tools.