RESET: Resources for Post-Pandemic Effective Training

"<< Background >>With COVID-19 many daily activities have been translated into digital. It was necessary to value the difficulties faced by teachers, coordinators, tutors, students, and parents. The transition to online training proved challenging for students, teachers, and VET staff. The transfer of skills to distance learning required a change in the mindset of teachers and tutors/coordinators. The VET system needed to respond by implementing an urgent process of pedagogical digitization of staff and facilities that would lead them to increase competitiveness, attractiveness, and resilience even by applying DigCompEdu and DigCompOrg in an innovative, practical, and integrated way. The needs identified during the preparation of the RESET proposal were: Digitize/upgrade VET provision; Improve and modernize services; Expand operational perspectives; Provide exposure for internal staff to international collaborative projects; Improve competitiveness and resilience; Support growth and internationalization; Acquire knowledge, practices, and experiences from other operational entities in Europe's VET/educational ecosystem; and Develop DigCompEdu-based pedagogical digital competencies and capabilities.<< Objectives >>GENERAL OBJ. With RESET, the partnership expected to contribute to raising the resilience and attractiveness and level of efficiency of the VET system in response to the COVID-19 emergency. All in compliance with the European policy of digitizing the VET System through the translation of DigCompEdu components into training pills, operational guidelines and a Multidimensional Matrix. SPECIFIC OBJ. RESET intended to: improve the performance of teachers as developers and deliverers of effective and inclusive distance and blended training content; raise the skills of TUTOR/COORDINATORS and OPERATIONAL STAFF in coordinating and mentoring online/blended inclusive training activities; raise the quality level of IVET and CVET digital educational environments; equip VET organizations to adequately support their users with innovative, effective and engaging training solutions; initiate/enhance the process of digitization, growth and internationalization of the different realities of the partnership; acquire knowledge, practices and experiences from other operational realities of the VET ecosystem in Europe.<< Implementation >>RESET has adopted an activity implementation methodology that follows a chained-step logic, namely: Analysis ==> Development ==> Test & Validation ==> Deployment of OER ==> Use.These phases were in turn broken down into specific activities that can be summarized schematically in the following temporal operational structure: >> PR1 Open Education Resources RESET Platform: R1-A1 Development of ePlatform structure; R1-A2 Maintenance and continued operation of the platform. >> PR2 Digital Competencies and VET System Resilience: Stock-Taking & Benchmark: R2-A1 Common Working Methodology; R2-A2 Mapping; R2-A3 Drafting of PR2 ""Digital Competencies and VET System Resilience: Stock-Taking & Benchmark"" (5 Country Snapshots + 1 Executive Summary). >> PR3 RESET Training & Operational Tools to Boost DigCompEdu in Operational VET Settings: R3-A1 Development of RESET tools (12 trainings + 12 operational tools); R3-A2 Translation into 4 languages; R3-A3 Validation Plan; R3-A4 RESET Delivery to 190 target groups (+ online feedback collection); R3-A5 RESET Validated.>> PR4 Multidimensional Matrix and Scoring Mechanism for RESET Adoption across EU VET Ecosystem: R4-A1 identification definition of macro-categories; R4-A2 identification of baseline indicators; R4-A3 construction of Matrix; R4-A4 development of guidelines for RESET adoption and translation of all products.<< Results >>RESET achieved the project objectives by developing innovative operational tools and training courses: >> PR1 Open, free and multilingual version of OER Platform: a Platform developed taking into consideration DigCompOrg that contains in a single open access environment tools for the development of ""digital competencies"" of all VET practitioners (NOT ONLY TEACHERS but also TUTOR COORDINATORS and VET STAFF in GENERAL) and organizations based on EU made frameworks and self-assessments (DigCompEdu, DigCompOrg, SELFIE). Thanks to the OER Platform, partners also had the opportunity to share different experiences, approaches and cultural visions with respect to the issue of digitization of VET providers and the VET System. >> PR2 Stock-Taking & Benchmark Analysis to understand which digital competencies were most lacking among VET system operators. A written ""stock-taking"" and ""benchmarking"" compendium of how COVID has accelerated the process of digital transformation of VET and VET operators (NOT ONLY TEACHERS but also TUTOR COORDINATORS and VET STAFF in GENERAL) that would bring out which digital competencies were most lacking at the operator level. The starting point for PR2 was DigCompEdu (European Framework Digital Competence Educators) developed by UE and the ESCO profiles of VET professionals. >> PR3 Operational Tools, 12 training products (vs. 8 planned by application) and 10 operational products (vs. 8 planned by application) to fill identified gaps. This is a package of Training and Operational Tools that enables practitioners to ""digitize"" the VET system and its staff and ""plug & play"" the DigCompEdu Framework. All products in the package have been tested and validated in real offline application contexts with 190 target groups (compared to 180 planned by application) to check their correspondence with actual needs and make possible their adoption in other VET contexts. In addition, by the end of January 2024, the RESET platform recorded product use by more than a thousand users and the collection of more than 50 online feedback forms. Regularly completed training courses give access to Certificates of Completion automatically generated by the OER Platform with competencies acquired (knowledge and skills) and the associated EQF level. >> PR4 Multidimensional Matrix and Scoring Mechanism to cross-reference PR2 and PR3 results at the individual intervention level and at the systemic level Matrix and Scoring, developed on the basis of the DigCompEdu and DigCompOrg frameworks, enable VET ecosystem operators to take a snapshot of their capacity to deliver distance learning interventions, anticipate digital needs, identify areas for intervention, develop strategies, and initiate/pursue an organizational digital transformation processDetailed information with respect to individual PRs can be found in the dedicated sections of the report."