Under the Europe 2020 strategy, Europe is transitioning towards a low-carbon economy. The construction sector plays an important role with regard to its priorities concerning smart growth, with respect to investments in education, research and innovation, to sustainable growth with respect to energy consumption and emissions and to inclusive growth, which focuses on job creation and poverty reduction. Currently, however, there is often a skills mismatch observed between VET programme contents and industry needs with the results that qualifications do not secure jobs and proper job creation.In Educate2Innovate, a transnational consortium of VET focusing organisations in the Netherlands, Germany and Sweden will develop and implement a new curriculum that responds to the needs of the market by addressing new technologies and innovative educational methods. By offering up-to-date knowledge about sustainable building technologies, VET students will be properly educated and prepared for entry-level jobs in construction firms. They will then bring along new knowledge and implement them on the spot, instead of falling back on traditional, out-of-date knowledge.This project will be focusing on thorough and continuous interaction between all sides of the knowledge triangle. Research organisation will be able to introduce newly invented developments and technologies into VET curricula, making it possible to valorise their knowledge into real-world practices. Innovation focused organisation within the construction sector can use the curriculum as a platform for introducing their experience-based knowledge about sustainable solutions. Education organisations can bring all practical and theoretical knowledge together and introduce and develop innovative learning methods.The objectives of this project is to introduce a new way of teaching and learning in VET that is in line with educational developments, market needs and VET students’ interests. It offers a unique combination of traditional learning methods, physical mobility and virtual mobility by means of e-learning modules and introduction of massive open online courses. In close cooperation with education and research organisations (higher education), construction firms can help build VET programmes and hence reduce skills mismatches. In order to making this new curriculum sustainable, accreditation will be actively pursued, because this new curriculum will have national, transnational and European impact and will mean a difference in VET.Two activities and four intellectual outputs will be developed, which together will form the new curriculum. The project will focus on blended mobility of VET students and on short-term joint staff training events. Exchange events will be organised on a national and transnational level for VET students but also between researchers/teachers/trainers for it is they who must be able to share knowledge and bring educational innovation into practice. As for this, observation, teaching skills must be developed alongside innovation labour-related skills. The curriculum itself will be built around a framework in which e-learning modules can be inserted (to be developed by the consortium) and a massive open online course which will open up basic knowledge about sustainable construction, making entry-level learning possible for anyone interested and giving attention to sustainable building on a wider scale. This project will focus on 1500 participants in VET organisations in the Netherlands, Germany and Sweden.With introducing a new curriculum by modern, innovative methods, skills mismatches will be reduced. Even new skills can be developed because of the interaction of organisations from different sectors. This will lead to a flexible European construction sector that has skilled and capable employees. These VET trained employees are and stay up-to-date with regard to new inventions in the field of sustainable building solutions and are able to implement them skilfully during every day work. In order to increase attention and to inform the markets about this promising development, a multiplier event will be organised in Germany. At the end of this project, the consortium wants to have obtained the necessary accreditations from the various countries in order to further develop and rollout the curriculum to other VET organisations.

A high percentage of young people in Europe does not participate in any kind of vocational training. The young people concerned often share a history of school and work absences, have social problems or a criminal or drug-related past, and thus generally have little chance of finding a job. The objectives of the Europe 2020 programme include increasing the employment rate of the population aged 20-64 from 69% today to at least 75% and reducing the proportion of citizens below the national poverty line by 25%.The VETinCon project had three main objectives:One objective was to improve equal opportunities and to involve disadvantaged young people in vocational training and the labour market. The practical handbook developed in the VETinCon project deals precisely with this target group: examples of good practice for the integration of young people in vocational education and training in the construction sector from six partner countries are presented, their applicability in the respective national contexts examined and conceived in the form of concrete national realization plans, partly tested and finally disseminated. The best practices presented are adaptable and transferable to various European vocational training systems and to other educational institutions and sectors. Thus, the project results promote an entry into successful vocational education and training, from the local to the European level.In addition, the competence of educational staff and youth workers in vocational training institutions in the construction sector should be promoted. In the multiplier and other dissemination events, the educational staff and social pedagogues of the partners or associated institutions were given knowledge about the respective recipes for success and pitfalls of the best practices used in other countries, and those responsible for training in construction companies and associations were also informed. The third objective was to improve the quality/labour market relevance of vocational training both for the young people concerned and for companies in the construction industry. Best practices promoting strong networks between training institutions and construction companies, are now part of the handbook and can contribute to promoting the quality of execution in the construction sector.The project was implemented by seven different institutions from six partner countries. All partners are either vocational training providers or associations of national construction industries with experience and expertise in the field of vocational orientation and the integration of disadvantaged young people into vocational training in the construction industry. A moderated exchange of experience was implemented in transnational project meetings and work steps agreed for the individual work in the partner countries. 16 national multiplier events were held in each partner country. They served to disseminate the five Intellectual Outputs created in the project: Output 1: Systematic overview of best practices for integrating young people into vocational training in the construction industry.Output 2: Questionnaire to identify the most suitable best practices.Output 3: National realization plansOutput 4: Evaluation reportOutput 5: Practice handbookAll results are available in English, German, Czech, Slovak, Dutch, Italian and Swedish.The main project objective of improving equal opportunities and involving disadvantaged young people in vocational training and the labour market was decisively promoted by the project. More and more young people with fewer opportunities on the labour market were continuously integrated into vocational training or employment in the construction sector or into vocational training in general. Not least due to the best practices implemented by the project partners from other European countries, innovative measures could be taken to integrate disadvantaged young people into vocational training or employment in the construction sector at European level, which would not have been possible without the project. The most promising best practice examples will continue to be considered and developed in the partner institutions in the future. By directly addressing relevant decision-makers, the national or regional prerequisites for the implementation of these implementation plans can be improved and their implementation facilitated in the future. Communication with stakeholders in vocational education and training does not end at the end of the project, but will be supported in the long term by the experience gained in the project.The announcement of the project results to the social partners of relevant institutions and experts from other sectors will ensure the sustainable use of the project results in the construction sector and other sectors.