Fostering Social Inclusion in VET

One of the aims of the DC-VET WB project is to foster social inclusion in VET systems. In the second week of June 2024, a seminar on social inclusion was organized in Helsinki.

The seminar was attended by teachers and other vocational education professionals from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Finland, Italy, Kosovo, Montenegro and Spain. Luovi Vocational College was responsible for organizing the three-day seminar.

Before the seminar Luovi implemented a skill gap analysis through a survey to assess the participants competences level in supporting students with fewer opportunities in all countries. The wishes and needs of the participants were also clarified regarding the content and topics of the seminar through the survey. It was also important to find out how the participants understand the term students with fewer opportunities. Based on the answers, it was concluded that the concept of students with fewer opportunities is broad and the reasons can be very diverse for example students with special needs, students from socially disadvantaged backgrounds, students who are migrants or refugees or students who live in poverty or have other socioeconomic challenges. On inclusion and diversity is one of the priorities in Erasmus+ program which promotes opportunities for people with fewer opportunities. Priorities of the Erasmus+ Programme – Erasmus+ (europa.eu)

The project partners will develop a toolkit on social inclusion strategies in VET, which will contain practices and useful tips on how to support young people with fewer opportunities. The seminar presented several practical examples about interaction, making an individual study plan for a student, alternative teaching methods, using plain language to communicate with the students and how to work with the network of the student. After the summer with the prototype of the toolkit at disposal, VET staff in the Western Balkans will pilot them with their colleagues and students.

The final step of this work package next spring will consist in analyzing the results of the testing and integrating them into the final version of the toolkit which will be uploaded on the project platform for the public access of practitioners. So even though the seminar is over, our cooperation with this topic has just begun. We have arranged a team meeting for September to help everyone to start their piloting phases and will continue to support the teachers in their work all the way. Already looking forward to hearing about the experiences using the new methods in supporting students.

Sari Jokela

Study Advisor and International coordinator, Luovi Vocational College