Alumni Stories (ES)

ALFA-COLLEGE

Alfa-college is a denominational Regional Education Centre (ROC) for vocational training and adult education. The ROC provides a coherent range of courses enabling young people and adults to gain qualifications for further education and the labour market.  Alfa-college has over 11,500 students in the age range of 16 – 60 and 1,000 members of staff at various divisions in the north-eastern part of the Netherlands with Groningen as its centre. Alfa-college caters for a wide range of intermediate vocational training ( business studies, hospitality, tourism and leisure, security, ICT, beauty care and wellness, hairdressing, health and social care, retail, sports, technology and tailor-made adult education from which (young) people can choose, fitting in with their ambition and talent with which they can obtain a strong position on the labour market due to the fact that apart from social behaviour attention is paid to functioning in an organisation. Furthermore Alfa-college provides tailor-made courses for business and industry.

General secondary education i.e. fast track pre-university courses are offered within adult education.

Alfa-college also teach Dutch as a second language in combination with vocational education to asylum seekers, refugees and immigrants.

The Ministry of Education in the Netherlands has created a policy framework in which the ROCs have to be transformed into social enterprises. This has resulted in the obligation to see to an adequate tie-up between education and the labour market.

Alfa-college works closely together in international projects aimed at innovation and renewal of educational programmes. We participate under various international Lifelong Learning Programmes funded by Leonardo da Vinci, Comenius, Grundtvig, Erasmus plus and other EU programmes.

The ROC’s programme focuses on the development of the European dimension in VET. Within the framework of the strategy policy for the Northern Netherlands and because of Alfa-college’s presence in this area, the college has developed the following objectives: to improve the skills and competencies of people, especially of young people, in initial vocational training at all levels, with a view to facilitating their integration and reintegration in the labour market. To improve the quality of, and access to, vocational education and training systems and qualifications, and to guidance systems in order to enhance the employability of young people and adults in the labour market.

Contact person/s: Mrs Hanneke Smid
Full postal address: Boumaboulevard 573, Groningen, Netherlands
Tel: 0031615055026
Email: jgf.smid@alfa.college.nl
Partner website: https://www.alfa-college.nl

VOCATIONAL CENTER OF PÄRNU COUNTY

Vocational Center of Pärnu County is the biggest educational institution of Pärnu County and has students from every county in Estonia. Altogether there are about 170 employees and 1300 students. In department of adult education we have 200 students learning on post-secondary vocational education level and about 2000 students on different training courses (including courses for start-up entrepreneurs).

The main aim of the school is to satisfy educational needs of the community, from initial vocational training to broad based continuing education.

The mission of the school is to train, in co-operation with social partners, employees with relevant qualification for working life. Active participation in networks and regional development activities. Our vision is that the school has high reputation and acknowledged learning environment, training future employees who are competitive both at local and international labour market.

Vocational Center of Pärnu County offers students vocational education on the basis of a basic school education and on the basis of a secondary school education. In some specialities, it is possible to study without gaining previously basic school education. There is a possibility to acquire vocational education in session learning in some specialities.

Besides vocational studies for students, our school offers a wide range of courses and development programs to adults and one of our priorities is to level and encourage lifelong learning.

In Vocational Center of Pärnu County there is a possibility to study in the following departments: technical department, hospitality services and accommodation department, adult education department and Voltveti Training Center.

All the school’s curricula have business and economic basic module. In Estonia our business services curriculum group is divided into three categories:

1. Leadership and management curricula are: business administration, small entrepreneurship (level 5).
2. Accounting and taxation curricula: accountant (level 5)
3. Secretary curricula: secretary work (level 4)

We also participate in different local and International projects. Our school has been a promoter, a coordinator and a partner in various International projects.

Contact person/s: Ms. Teele Luks, Ms Kersti Oksaar
Full postal address: Niidupargi 12, Pärnu 80047, Estonia
Tel: +37253308710; +372445 9465
Email: teele.luks@hariduskeskus.ee, kersti.oksaar@hariduskeskus.ee
Partner website: www.hariduskeskus.ee

VALNALON

We are an agency of the regional government of Asturias (Spain) with a remit to implement the regional action plan for entrepreneurship. To do so, we bring together decision-makers, teachers, entrepreneurs, employers, third sector organizations and other social agents in the design and delivery of enterprise education projects in primary, secondary and VET schools.

Our team designs and publishes teaching resources, provides teacher training and offers advice and continued support to an extensive network of schools implementing different entrepreneurial education projects.

At the international level, we have developed some experience in the coordination of European projects (ADEPTT, COPIE). Lately we have been involved in “Entrepreneurship360”, an OECD/EC joint initiative to offer a freely available self-assessment instrument that will support institutions and individual teachers in advancing their strategies and practices to promote entrepreneurship, as well as to develop a platform for exchange amongst peers.

Another core area is providing advice to hundreds of entrepreneurs, start-ups and companies devising specific training courses for entrepreneurs and start-up methodologies.

We do firmly believe VET schools are in a position to steer a multi-stakeholder process where local authorities, employers, start-ups, teachers and students come together to shape the way enterprise is embedded in the curriculum confronting, in a collaborative way, challenges that are highly relevant for the students and the community.

Contact person/s: Mr. Iván Diego
Full postal address: Hornos Altos s/n. 33930 Langreo, Spain
Tel: +34985692227
Fax: +34985683193
Email: ivan@valnalon.com
Partner website: www.valnalon.com

COMETA

The Oliver Twist school, managed by Cometa Formazione, is a vocational education and training centre pursuing the specific aim to educate students to practice a profession. Since 2009, it has been providing vocational training courses on carpentry, textile design and hospitality for young people of compulsory school age and customised technical training to prepare them to enter the job market as well as professional training courses for unemployed people. Its courses and experimental learning pathways against the school dropout phenomenon through the rotation between school and work aims at placing the student in the job market.

Cometa has developed an innovative model of education and vocational training to address the major societal challenges in the next decades. This model has been already awarded in 2016 by ETF, European Training Foundation, as one of the ten best entrepreneurial programs in Europe, and short-listed by DG EMPL among the best practices awarded during the 2016 VET Week.

Projects in education and vocational training include a wide range of issues: after-school activities for students (help with homework; tutoring; counselling); CLIL project; Digital tools for teaching; development of “school-enterprise” method; education to sport.

Approximately 400 students and 60 staff members (teachers and tutors included) are enrolled in the Oliver Twist School. The school can also count on a team of professional counselors, psychologists and expert in labour market, helping the students during their studies, internships and entry into the job market. A placement office consisting of 5 people help students and Alumni in their job experience before and after graduation, tracking for at least one year after graduation their professional development.

Contact person/s: Paolo Nardi
Full postal address: Via Madruzza, 36, 22100 Como, Italy
Tel: +39031 263779

Email: paolo.nardi@puntocometa.org
Partner website: http://www.puntocometa.org/

Education and Employers Taskforce

Education and Employers charity was launched on the 15th October 2009 with the aim of ensuring that every school and college has an effective partnership with employers to provide its young people with the inspiration, motivation, knowledge, skills and opportunities they need to help them achieve their potential and so to secure the UK’s future prosperity.

The charity works to achieve this by working in close partnership with leading national bodies representing schools, colleges and employers.  It oversees an innovative delivery programme – Inspiring the Future – which has connected more than one million young people with employee volunteers since its launch in 2012.  Inspiring the Future harnesses online technology to make it quick, easy and free (modest delivery costs are covered by donations and contracted work) for schools and colleges to connect with a wide range of local employee volunteers.

The charity also maintains a research which aims to:

-Improve the quantity, quality and relevance of research into employer engagement in education to inform policy and practice;

-Fill gap in understanding with high quality research;

-Make relevant research findings as accessible as possible to teaching staff, employers and policy makers.

Our research team has published extensively on the subject of employer engagement. We also work with many UK and international scholars on collaborative research projects and to raise awareness of their studies. It is our role to bring together leading academics, analysts, policy makers and practitioners to share learning and work collaboratively to build the evidence base on what, if anything, happens when employers engage with schools to support pupil learning and progression ultimately into the world of work. The Taskforce also regularly hosts events by the OECD and other educational organisations to help build understanding of research findings.  Our international research conference attracts speakers and delegates from around the world.  The research team has presented its finding in more than a dozen countries around the world.  The team is regularly commissioned to undertaken research into employer engagement in vocational and mainstream education.

Collectively, the team has been responsible for numerous publications including peer review academic literature.

Contact person/s: Elnaz Kashefpakdel, Nick Chambers
Full postal address: Quantum House,22-24 Red Lion Court, Fleet Street, London EC4A 3EB

Tel: +442075664894

Email: elnaz.kashef@educationandemployers.org
Partner website: https://www.educationandemployers.org

TKNIKA

Tknika is a centre promoted by the Basque Department of Education, Linguistic Policies & Culture, under the direct auspices of the Sub-Department of Vocational Training.

Innovation is at the core of Tknika in its ongoing efforts to place Basque Vocational Training at the European forefront.

Tknika is modelled after some of the world’s most advanced vocational training centres. Through networking and direct involvement by the Basque Vocational Training teaching staff, the Centre develops innovative projects in the areas of Applied Research, Entrepreneurship, New Learning Methodologies, Improvement and Innovation, Internationalization.

Tknika is the innovation tool for the Basque Vocational Training System. Under TknikaINNOVA, the Centre’s innovation management model, Tknika incorporates into its activities companies, technology centres, research centres, universities and other institutions that can add value to the system – all based on the dynamic of open innovation.

Contact person/s: Mr. Víctor Arias
Full postal address: Zamalbide Auzoa z/g. 20100 Errenteria, Gipuzkoa, Spain
Tel: +34943082900
Email: barias@tknika.net
Partner website: www.tknika.eu