Online Platform for Vocational Education and Training - OPVET

The OPVET project falls within the objectives of the strategic framework for European cooperation inThe OPVET project falls within the objectives of the strategic framework for European cooperation ineducation and training (ET 2020) where internationalization is expected to become a recognizedfeature in vocational training, as part of ’openness to the world at large’.

It also addresses thedevelopment of new forms of learning and the use of new teaching and learning technologies, thestrengthening of linguistic competences, and the provision of continuous professional developmentfor teachers and trainers.

The OPVET project has the primary goal of supporting organizations in Higher Education to developand reinforce networks, increase capacity and to operate at transnational level in theinternationalization of education and training of students in Vocational Teacher Education.

Its objectives are (1) to develop three modular Vocational Optional Online Courses (VOOCs) inEnglish, intercultural competence and digital storytelling (2) to test these VOOCs in internationalvocational placements for student teachers in VET (3) to make the VOOCs available to a wide rangeof VET providers. Intercultural competence refers to a range of skills, knowledge and attitudes necessary to functioneffectively outside one's own national context. This includes, for example, sensitivity to culturallyspecificaspects of work practices.

In the vocational context, these are frequently implicit in practiceand need to be brought into the open in order for students to appreciate their importance.

The project will achieve:
• internationalization of vocational teacher education (VTE),
• design and implementation of a viocational optional online programme (VOOC )platform incurricular activities in vocational teacher education (VTE),
• improvement of student teachers ICT competence and language skills
• improvement of student teachers’ sensitivity towards cultural knowledge/diversity.• improvement of student teachers’ sensitivity towards cultural knowledge/diversity.
• The development of digital stories to communicate the intercultural dimension of craft skills, forexample in catering/hospitality industries and in electro‐mechanical work