Vocational Cooperative Learning Triangles: Using Cooperative Learning to Promote Employer Engagement

"VET learners must develop relevant transferable skills required for the workplace. To ensure these skills are transferred, VET teachers need stronger links with employers so their learners can interact meaningfully with them. This problem (or opportunity) is clearly recognised in business.ET2020 calls for partnership between enterprise and VET in two strategic objectives: improving quality and efficiency of education and training by raising the quality of CPD opportunities and enhancing innovation and creativity at all levels of VET. The 1st European Business Forum on Vocational Training (2012) states promoting collaboration between business and VET is pivotal to ensure proper alignment between what businesses need and what institutions teach their future employees. Cooperation around work-based learning of VET students is beneficial to all three actors: the learner, the company and the VET organisation (the learning 'triangle'). Most companies regard technical skills as the basics – the must haves – but having staff with suitable technical skills alone does not make a company stand out. What makes the difference is the level of transversal skills. Employers stress that these transversal skills enable skilled employees to fully utilise their technical expertise, put it into practice and contribute to company growth, learning & innovation.The consortium therefore aimed to transfer and implement an innovative student-centred pedagogy, Cooperative Learning (COL), to develop transversal skills. Whilst COL is not new, it is rarely used in VET. Working with COL develops experience and maturity, mainly by exposure to views and feelings of others and the ability to work collectively to a goal whilst considering these. In the project we identified innovation-friendly employers to work with trained VET staff, to create tasks (real workplace tasks framed as learning outcomes) for transversal skills development. Employers, learners and staff worked on tasks together as peers in Vocational Cooperative Learning (VoCOL) Triangles promoting engagement by bringing together the worlds of work and VET. Outputs included a best practice guide; a guide to COL and training material; lesson plan resources and video; an EQF mapping guide and a project website.VoCOL’s objectives were to:1. Develop skills of VET staff to use COL to develop and assess key employment competencies2. Improve VET’s attractiveness and relevance by ensuring the curriculum meets employability needs of learners and employers3. Strengthen alignment and collaboration between work and VET through innovative methods4. Enhance the modernisation and internationalisation of VET systems in partner countriesThe consortium comprised five VET partners along with ICI (the 'master' trainer') and three industry Associate Partners.* Dundee & Angus College UK, (D&A) provides VET training to over 16,000 learners. Since 2007 a small team of staff have experimented with COL to support the acquisition of technical and transversal skills with very positive results. They have received praise from HMIe, were featured at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas and established a COL community of practice. * Bollnas Kommun, SE: engages with local companies to run ""Vocational High Schools Courses"" for adult learners related to business lifeHETEL, ES: association of 21 Basque VET centres working to deepen collaboration with companies through various initiatives* INSTITUT INPRO, CZ: educational organization operating in further education, VET & development of new forms of education* RegioVision Schwerin GmbH, DE: facilitates the integration of people with difficulties to access the labour market through continuing vocational training. ICI, IS: training & advocacy organisation offering EU wide training in COLAlso three industry organisations were Associate Partners to ensure labour market relevance: Dundee & Angus Chamber of Commerce, Association of SMEs & Crafts of the Czech Republic and MittMedia i Hälsingland (Swedish media company)The participating organisations gained new ways of working with employers, a broader understanding of practices and systems and better alignment to the labour market.Teachers/trainers benefited from an upgrade to their knowledge, skills and competence, developed intercultural skills, are now able to match learners' transversal skills with workplace requirements, and they acquired improved methods of teaching. The participating learners experienced an increased awareness of their transversal skills and their importance in the labour market, now feel a greater sense of initiative and self-worth, with improved levels of skills for employability. The sustainable longer term results will be: * Deeper work based learning and engagement for an increasing numbers of teachers* Replicable practices to improve professional VET and employer engagement across Europe* An engagement of an increasing number of learners with employers"