Building a toolkit on social inclusion practices in Western Balkans

It has been quite a journey to develop a toolkit, but now we can launch it. One of the principles in Erasmus+ programme is to enhance inclusion. Teachers in vocational education and training, VET, are constantly seeking ways to support their students, especially those with fewer opportunities. The toolkit on social inclusion is designed to empower VET teachers with the tools and strategies they need in their daily work. 

The Erasmus+ Programme Guide defines “people with fewer opportunities” as individuals who face obstacles that prevent them from having effective access to opportunities under the programme. These obstacles can be due to economic, social, cultural, geographical, or health reasons, a migrant background, or reasons such as disability and educational difficulties.

It is not only theory, but a hands-on guide with practices and tips that have been tested and refined through real situations. Teachers from Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Montenegro have already started integrating these new elements into their teaching in their schools. We collected forty-two practices, developed by eighty-eight teachers and piloted together with 652 students. Altogether eleven VET schools were involved in the testing phase to introduce new practices on social inclusion.

Why use the toolkit?

Teachers involved in the DC-VET WB project and their networks of organizations have created and piloted all the practices of the toolkit. You can enhance your competences and gain new skills to support learners with fewer opportunities and help the students to achieve the learning outcomes of the curriculum. The transition from school to work is crucial and you can also find practices to support the smooth transition. 

How did we do it? We had four steps in building the toolkit. 

1. Research: Partners conducted a skill gap analysis through surveys and interviews to assess competence levels of the teachers in Western Balkans.
2. Training: Luovi Vocational College organized a three-day-training seminar on social inclusion for VET staff from Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, Italy, and Spain. The group of teachers gathered together in Helsinki, Finland in June 2024. 
3. Updating teaching methodologies and testing: VET staff in the Western Balkans introduced new elements in their teaching methodology and tested them with students. 
4. Feedback and finalization: The last step involved analyzing the results of the testing and integrating them into the last version of the toolkit.

You can choose from two options. If you want to know everything before choosing the practice you want to try, you can read the long edition of the toolkit. But if you do not have so much time, you can jump to the interactive version of the toolkit and look for the practices from categories such as community-based activities, wellbeing of students, cultural activities, and skills for life.

You can find the toolkit in English and in Western Balkan languages on the project website.

DC-VET WB – Developing Capacity for VET Systems in Western Balkans

Mari Kontturi and Sari Jokela, Luovi Vocational College, Finland