<< Background >>The Digital transformation is one of the two main strategic priorities in EU for the period 2020 – 2027. The Digital Education Action Plan has two strategic priorities:1.Fostering the development of a high-performing digital education ecosystem requiring:-infrastructure, connectivity, and digital equipment-effective digital capacity planning and development, including up-to-date organisational capabilities-digitally competent and confident teachers and education and training staff-high-quality learning content, user-friendly tools and secure platforms which respect privacy and ethical standards2.Enhancing digital skills and competences for the digital transformation requiring:-basic digital skills and competences from an early ageodigital literacy, including fighting disinformationocomputing educationogood knowledge and understanding of data-intensive technologies, such as artificial intelligence-advanced digital skills which produce more digital specialists and also ensure that girls and young women are equally represented in digital studies and careersMost educational institutions have problems addressing digital transformation on operational level although many supporting tools, literature and good practices have been developed. VET schools with all their sector specific challenges and rapid developments are put into an even more challenging situation as they have to apply digitalisation to these professional digital developments.We identified SELFIE (Self-reflection on Effective Learning by Fostering the use of Innovative Educational technologies) a free tool designed to help schools embed digital technologies into teaching, learning and assessment developed by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission (launched in October 2018) as a useful tool to identify the digital readiness of schools. Nevertheless, it does not cover sector specific issues and apprenticeships which are one of the vital parts of VET schools.In spring 2020 JRC published a tender to pilot the SELFIE WBL tool (related to apprenticeships, involving also in-company trainers) in 4 EU countries (France, Germany, Poland, and Hungary). EfVET applied to the tender supported by the members in these countries (SEPR, BBSW, OIC Foundation Poland and AHDE) and the research partner from Slovenia (Skupnost VSŠ). The partnership piloted SELFIE WBL in the 4 mentioned countries engaging a total of 59 VET schools, 97 in-company trainers, 177 school leaders, 1,221 VET teachers, 10,294 VET students, and 43 school coordinators in the pilot.VET schools received a colourful report with a lot of data and information from different stakeholders. Nevertheless, all of them found it difficult to translate the results into actions to effectively address the digital transformation of their VET school. They missed recommendations based on results, good practices and a possibility to benchmark not as a ranking list but rather to have an indication what these results mean in the national or EU context. Furthermore, VET schools learned that their communication with the companies is quite poor and expressed the need to strengthen the ecosystem with their regional stakeholders.To address all these open questions of the VET schools engaged in the pilot the same partnership decided to apply for this SELFIE WBL Follow Up project.<< Objectives >>The objectives of the SELFIE WBL Follow Up project are:-For the VET schools to understand fully the results received through the SELFIE WBL institutional report.-Use these results to effectively address the actions for digital transformation.-Build the capacity for digital transformation of their VET school.-To use SELFIE WBL to strengthen the ecosystem and cooperation with companies and other stakeholders which will contribute to better professional and digital skills and competencies of all stakeholders (especially students).-For VET schools to use the SELFIE WBL tool on regular basis and follow their achievements towards their digital transformation.-Prepare guidelines with recommendations and good practices for all other users of the SELFIE WBL tool to make the use of their report easier.-Propose the project result SELFIE WBL supporting toolkit as supporting materials to JRC.-To make it easier to all further VET schools to use the SELFIE WBL tool as an effective toll towards their digital transformation.<< Implementation >>The SELFIE WBL Follow Up project aims to produce the following project results:Institutional Digital Action Plans by:-Comparing and analysing anonymous institutional SELFIE WBL pilot report results per stakeholder and section (Peer Learning Activity)-Reading and understanding institutional SELFIE WBL pilot report results-Analysing institutional SELFIE WBL pilot report results-Designing an institutional Digital Action Plan through the identification of “Excellence” by means of the McKinsey 7s model-Putting the Digital Action Plan into action (activating the Digital Action Plan, monitoring actions)Collection of good/bad practices/networking by:-Preparing a template for good/bad practice collection-Identifying and collecting good/bad practices-Quality check and selection of good/bad practices. identification of “Excellence” by means of the McKinsey 7s model-Sharing the collection good/bad practicesCPD solutions for leadership and management/teachers/students by:-Identifying digitalisation gaps among leadership/teachers/students-Developing CPD solutions for leadership/teachers/students-Piloting (Test) the CPD solutions-Implementing CPD solutions for leadership/teachers/students-Evaluating CPD solutions for leadership/teachers/studentsBuilding the ecosystem with companies by:-Identifying existing gaps with companies-Developing solutions to strengthen bounds to companies-Implementing solutions to empower the school – company ecosystem-Evaluating solutions to empower the school – company ecosystemRepeating the SELFIE WBL self-reflection exercise by:-Preparing the repeated SELFIE WBL self-reflection exercise by:oIdentifying areas of more detailed interestoSelecting the appropriate optional questionsoDefining and designing own questionsoDefining the best timeslot for the repeated SELFIE WBL self-reflection exerciseoMobilising stakeholders for the repeated SELFIE WBL self-reflection exerciseoPromoting the reasoning and benefits of the repeated SELFIE WBL self-reflection exercise among stakeholders-Conducting the repeated SELFIE WBL self-reflection exercise-Following-up focus groups and interviews-Collecting the repeated institutional SELFIE WBL report results-Analysing the of the repeated institutional SELFIE WBL report results and trends-Evaluating progress and trends according to the set Digital Action Plan-Updating the Digital Action PlanDeveloping the SELFIE WBL supporting toolkit-Preparation guide before the SELFIE WBL self-reflection exercise.-Follow-up guide.-How to translate results into an institutional Digital Action Plan.-Publishing and sharing the collection good/bad practices.-Country Progress Reports.<< Results >>As a direct project result, we expect:-50 Institutional Digital Action Plans (10 per country – FR, DE, HU, PL, SI)-50 Good/bad practices (10 per country – FR, DE, HU, PL, SI)-5 CPD solutions for leadership and management (1 per country – FR, DE, HU, PL, SI)-5 CPD solutions for teachers (1 per country – FR, DE, HU, PL, SI)-5 CPD solutions for students (1 per country – FR, DE, HU, PL, SI)-500 in-company trainers engaged the repeated SELFIE WBL exercise (FR, DE, HU, PL, SI)-200 school leaders engaged the repeated SELFIE WBL exercise (FR, DE, HU, PL, SI)-1,500 VET teachers engaged the repeated SELFIE WBL exercise (FR, DE, HU, PL, SI)-15,000 VET students engaged the repeated SELFIE WBL exercise (FR, DE, HU, PL, SI)-50 school coordinators engaged the repeated SELFIE WBL exercise (10 per country – FR, DE, HU, PL, SI)-50 focus groups with 5-10 teaching staff (10 per country – FR, DE, HU, PL, SI)-50 focus groups with 5-10 students (10 per country – FR, DE, HU, PL, SI)-50 interviews with school leaders (10 per country – FR, DE, HU, PL, SI)-50 interviews with company representatives (10 per country – FR, DE, HU, PL, SI)-50 interviews with institutional SELFIE WBL coordinators (10 per country – FR, DE, HU, PL, SI)-50 Updated Institutional Digital Action Plans (10 per country – FR, DE, HU, PL, SI)-1 Preparation guide before the SELFIE WBL self-reflection exercise in 6 languages (EN, FR, DE, HU, PL, SI)-1 SELFIE WBL Follow-up guide in 6 languages (EN, FR, DE, HU, PL, SI)-1 Guidelines on how to translate SELFIE WBL report results into an institutional Digital Action Plan in 6 languages (EN, FR, DE, HU, PL, SI)-1 Collection good/bad practices in 6 languages (EN, FR, DE, HU, PL, SI)-5 Country Progress Reports (FR, DE, HU, PL, SI)-Strengthening the digital capacity on national and international level in FR, DE, HU, PL, SIAs indirect project results, we expect:-Strengthening internationalisation among the 50 VET schools in FR, DE, HU, PL, SI-Promote digital transformation in VET-Promote the use of SELFIE WBL (EfVET has the reach of 205 associations in 33 countries, approximately 200 000 VET professionals and 2.000.000 VET learners)-To make the effective use of the SELFIE WBL for VET schools in all EU countries-Strengthen the SELFIE WBL ecosystem on regional and national level-Contribute to the further development of the SELFIE WBL tool also for Higher VET and PHE

<< Objectives >>- Increase awareness, knowledge and understanding regarding barriers, challenges and opportunities of inclusive engagement of VET students at European, national and institutional level- Encourage VET institutions to critically reflect on their own policies and practices around inclusive student engagement - Support VET institutions with concrete instruments to increase participation of underrepresented groups within VET institutional formal and informal systems of student engagement<< Implementation >>Activities leading to the main results are part of 3 key WPs:- Benchmarking student engagement in VET institutions - scorecards & self-assessment for making student engagement more inclusive & accessible for underrepresented & disadvantaged students- Action planning for inclusive student engagement policies & practices in VET institutions through self-assessment & student-led review- Online course & supporting resources on inclusive student engagement aimed at student support staff<< Results >>Main results consist of:- Mapping report on challenges & barriers of inclusive student engagement for underrepresented students- Benchmarking framework for inclusive engagement- Self-evaluation tool for inclusive engagement - Methodology & training manual for student-led institutional review on inclusive student engagement policies and practises- Guidelines for institutional Action Planning - Online course & supporting resources - Promotional campaign toolkit - Policy recommendations

The main attribute of professional higher education (PHE) is their relationship to the world of work through apprenticeships that represent a substantial part of their curricula. When of high quality, apprenticeships promote a smoother student transition from PHE institution (PHEI) to work, enabling a good start to working careers by providing a good mix of basic competences and job-specific skills and valuable work experience. Employers benefit by identifying and training students adding to their productive capacity and forming their future employees but struggle with the bureaucratic burden, lack of direction and support from PHE institutions (PHEI). The key innovation of Apprentice Track (AppT) lies in the unique 360-degree approach to apprenticeship management by creating a quality framework (IO1) developed into a transparent and comparative response and data driven digital tool (IO2), upgraded by a supportive training raising the pedagogical and digital capacity of mentors (IO3).The Apprentice Track (AppT) project:Strengthened cooperation between students, HEIs and SMEs during the apprenticeships through improved efficiency of cooperation thanks to the provision of the AppT Prototype (IO2) as an online digital tool available on any type of devices (smartphone, tablet, and computer) with all information accessible to all stakeholders with just a few clicks anywhere at any time; offering a collection of relevant data on institutional and national level which allows the identification of labour market needs and gaps to improve curricula and policies. The course for mentors (IO3) was implemented to support employers in integrating apprenticeships into their strategic planning, recruiting, management, and cooperation with PHEIs.Gained a quick, easy, and efficient way to track the progress of students and ensured that learning outcomes which should be achieved through work-based learning (WBL) are attained by providing students and mentors with a list of learning outcomes to be achieved (IO1), enabling transparent progress assessment supported with assessment criteria and showing an overall apprenticeship progress grade accessible and visible at any time to each student and their PHEI in the AppT Prototype (IO2).Obtained a good overview of the role of the student in the apprenticeships for mentors by providing mentors with the insight to all agreed documents at any time and place. For each individual student’s agreement, clear description of agreed role, responsibility, and obligations of the student during their apprenticeship is provided. Gained a quick and easy ongoing evaluation of student progress at apprenticeships for mentors by enabling the mentor the instant insight to student’s competences to be achieved, prepared workplan, assessment of progress and at the end of the apprenticeship the compilation and translation into a final student’s apprenticeship grade and report from the mentor in the AppT Prototype (IO2).Enabled the possibility of a quick and effective response of organizers to lack of students' progression through improved responsiveness of apprenticeships in PHE by the AppT Prototype (IO2) requiring adequate input to each procedure, assuring relevance, consistency, and timely insight into the progress of achievement facilitating the PHE supervisor to follow the students’ progress or lack of progress which enables them to act efficiently when identifying student’s poor or no progress during the apprenticeship contributing to timely problem resolution.Involved students into quality assessment of the apprenticeships by providing student direct access to the regular periodic assessment of their progress in the AppT Prototype (IO2) student can react to assessment, discuss it with mentor and understand or object assessment if it is not aligned with the assessment criteria. The opportunity to follow their own progress assessment motivates the student to even better achievements.Kept the whole process of apprenticeship progression transparent, comparative, and paperless through improved quality by defining a transparent, comparable quality framework (IO1) which was set to offer all actors insight into apprenticeship management at any time anywhere in the AppT Prototype (IO2), by collecting periodically relevant statistical data per country and compare results, by enabling the use of the AppT Prototype (IO2) cross boarders providing transparent and comparable apprenticeship management to Erasmus+ students due to its multilingual approach.Met the needs of employers, students and PHEIs in the field of ICT supporting tools and increased the attractiveness of PHE by creating a use-friendly, efficient, and accessible digital tool for paperless apprenticeship management (IO2) and providing supporting training (IO3), the project enabled apprenticeships to be an easy manageable, meaningful, and pleasant experience making its attributes more evident contributing to the attractiveness of PHE.

Although EQAVET has been published as a European recommendation a decade ago, its adoption by the VET market has yet to fulfil its potential. Reasons for this seem to rely in a self-feeding vicious circle of interrelated causes, such as difficulties of users in understanding the EQAVET Criteria; unavailability of practical tools in the market to facilitate their implementation; absence of capacity-building programmes to qualify EQAVET professionals; and non-integration of EQAVET in a quality infrastructure that would dynamize a whole market around it. (International Accreditation Forum, 2018, European Commission, 2016, 2017)In this context, the objectives of “A standardized practical toolkit to implement the European Quality Assurance Framework for Vocational Education and Training” are to provide the market with solutions that will mitigate these issues, in order to increase EQAVET adoption by VET and Higher VET (HVET) organisations.The project will be implemented by a consortium composed of six formal partners from four countries – Italy, Malta, Portugal and Slovenia - of which four are VET/HVET providers (EPA (AEVA), ERIFO, IPTrans (AETPL), MCAST), one is a VET/HVET Association (SKUPNOST VSS) and one is an SME specialised in quality in education and knowledge transfer (KIC). Supporting the consortium from the beginning are also three external associated partners: One National Agency responsible for the implementation of EQF and EQAVET (ANQEP), one National Standardization Body (IPQ) and one International Standardization Workgroup specialized in education (ISO/PC288/WG1).Together, these partners will collaborate to:- identify clearly the difficulties felt by EQAVET users in interpreting and/or implementing the EQAVET criteria; - determine the adequate competence profiles for EQAVET professionals; - design curricula for capacity-building of those professionals; and - develop a standardized practical toolkit that will facilitate and support EQAVET criteria implementation by VET/HVET organisations. Taking advantage of its professional-oriented nature, the consortium will use action research as a method to carry out the project activities, as this is one of the most adequate methods for professional practice development and promotion of continuous improvement (Thomas, 2013). It follows an iterative process, based on an action-reflection-action cycle, with the aim of causing positive impact to organisations and societies, beyond the mere literary academic production, insufficient to produce sustainable positive changes (Lewin, 1946, cited by Thomas, 2013), such as the envisaged by the EQAVET+ project. The consortium has high expectations in terms of results and its positive impacts, such as increased curiosity, awareness, understanding and mastery of the EQAVET criteria by management of VET and HVET organizations; launch of national accredited certification schemes for EQAVET and ISO 21001, supported by ISO standards such as the 17021 series; simplified peer-recognition between European and non-European VET, HVET/PHE providers; internationalization of European branded products such as EQAVET and EQF; growth the national qualification catalogues database and its usage; and increased mobility of EQAVET professionals across Europe and beyond, through facilitated recognition of their competences. Altogether, these impacts have the potential to sustainably dynamize the market, conducing to a widen adoption of the EQAVET criteria, which will contribute to the continuous improvement of European VET and HVET services and its worldwide recognition as a brand of excellence.References:European Commission (2017). Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions - The annual Union work programme for European standardisation for 2018. European Commission: Brussels. Accessed at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52017DC0453European Commission (2016). Joint Initiative on Standardisation: responding to a changing marketplace. European Commission: Brussels. Accessed at: http://ec.europa.eu/growth/content/joint-initiative-standardisation-responding-changing-marketplace-0_enInternational Accreditation Forum (2018). 12 international organizations renew their commitment to promote quality through a global network. International Accreditation Forum: Cherrybrook. Retrieved from: https://www.iaf.nu/articles/INetQI_Meets_in_Geneva/604Thomas (2013). How to do your Research Project. SAGE: London

The project aimed to increase the quality of the connection of Professional Higher Education (PHE) with the World of Work (WoW). The main objectives were to encourage Professional Higher Education Institutions (PHEIs) to analyze their internal policies for cooperation between education, research and business, implement improvements and reforms to policies and practices as regards cooperation with the WoW, support the sharing of best practices for strengthening the knowledge triangle, design a set of supporting tools, such as framework policies and implementation guides, to strengthen active cooperation between HEIs and external stakeholders.The project consortium consisted of two PHEIs (PWSZTAR, (PL) and TTK (EE)), three national associations of PHE (AZVO (HR), CASPHE (CZ) and VIVIS (SI)), EURASHE as the European umbrella organization for PHE and Knowledge Innovation Centre (MT). All partners were involved in former EURASHE projects and initiatives. Besides PWSZTAR and TTK, thirteen other PHE institutions from PL, CZ, HR, SI and EE were also involved in piloting. PHE associations from PL and EE were taking part in dissemination activities.Two sets of activities were running in parallel during the project and informing each other:1: Development of self-assessment and improvement methodology for PHEIs (data-collection framework, methodology for identifying improvement strategies to policies for cooperation with the WoW) and running self-assessment and improvement processes within pilot PHEIs (self-improvement cycles, creation of self-assessment reports and improvement plans). 2: Collection of best practices, and design of tools to stimulate best practice. The framework policies were created in the form of a checklist which can be used by institutional leaders to assess their compliance with each of the criteria of the PHE Quality Framework. An online self-assessment and benchmarking tool was developed and made available at https://buildphe.eu/assessment/. The main results of the project are: Methodological framework and set of self-assessment tools, Database of best practice cases, Publication “Tools to Support Quality in Professional Higher Education“. Additionally, on the basis of project outputs, Self-Assessment Reports were produced by pilot and Implementation Plans describing proposed improvements to policies and strategies to better cooperate with the world of work were formulated. The most important immaterial output are new competences of staff acquired during a peer-learning training event and later developed in the framework of project activities: an international group of “PHE agents of change” was created. At local and regional level, the project fostered collaboration between PHEIs and enterprises, strengthening 'dual' options involving a mixture of studies and work experience such as apprenticeships, contributed towards addressing skill-shortages in key technical areas of employment and enhanced the quality of the 'professional' experiences offered by PHEIs.At national level, the project made recommendations to policy-makers as to measures to improve and enhance cooperation between academia and enterprises. At EU level, the project facilitated exchange of practice and increased cooperation between Institutions and Associations of PHE, with EURASHE WG Quality as a platform to support such cooperation.The project promoted a holistic approach to considering quality of all activities and processes within PHE institutions and from this perspective fed into a strategic priorities of EURASHE. The findings and experience from the project served also for policy discussion on the development of PHE across Europe, its quality assurance and enhancement as reflected in EURASHE contributions to EC policies or EHEA documents. From this view a synergy effect with the EQUIP project, mapping implementation of European Standards and Guidelines was quite beneficial.The most important longer-term benefit of the project is the possibility to use optimized tools and methodology in self-assessment processes by a wide range of PHEIs in Europe and beyond. HEIs from Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine and Latin America have already expressed their interest in adopting BuildPHE tools in their national environments and two EPP CB projects were just submitted. The fact that the master version of tools is elaborated in English brings supplementary added value to institutions in non-English speaking countries – international dimension of internal QA (possibilities of comparison and benchmarking) and thus better preparation for external QA (in many national regulations international dimension of QA is appreciated by accreditation bodies). The international experience will likely enhance readiness of PHEIs to engage in cross-border activities, should it be joint programmes or benefitting from cross-border QA, both being strongly supported by European policies as a tool of strengthening European added-value and identity.