A bottom-up approach to inspiring international vocational education excellence

Almost a month ago, the depth and scope of the European Training Foundation’s work was on display at the 3rd Forum on Vocational Excellence held in Lyon, France. The range of activities presented for just this one area of ETF responsibilities highlights the burgeoning resources and networks developed under the strategy of generating knowledge to support ETF policy advice.

“The ETF works increasingly with vocational centres and educators because we see that if we are able to spark new initiatives and we put the spotlight on good practices, others learn from this and improve. So now we have both the ETF policy advice and the bottom-up approach that brings it together,” said Dr Jolien van Uden.

Van Uden is a senior expert in innovative teaching and learning in the ETF’s knowledge hub department. Among other things, she is currently content coordinator of the project on Internationalising Vocational Excellence (IntVE), which the ETF is undertaking on behalf of the European Commission.

The ETF team at the Forum comprised 36 people including 29 from five EU neighbouring countries – Georgia, Moldova, Morocco, North Macedonia and Tunisia. “This supports the international dimension of the ETF’s work and offers participants from partner countries the opportunity to meet other centres working on vocational excellence,” she said.

Van Uden presented at one of the two ETF workshops, on IntVE and its Internation Self-Assessment Tool for Centres of Vocational Excelence, ISATCOVE, s, a Cookbook on Vocational Excellence, an e-library on Vocational Excellence Resources, and the ETF’s upcoming first Winter Camp on Vocational Excellence.

These reflect the ETF’s expanding services that include research, guides, learning materials, toolkits and advice to educators and education systems to improve and to implement policy on the ground, thus backing up ETF advice to partner governments. 

The importance of ETF participation in the Forum

The 3rd Forum on Vocational Excellence was held in Lyon from 10 to 12 September 2024. It was organised by the French Ministry of Education in cooperation with the Community of Practice of Centres of Vocational Excellence (COP CoVEs).

The first forum was hosted by Tknika, a VET institute in Spain, and the second by Katapult, a Dutch organisation. Before the first Forum, they joined forces to set up a community of CoVEs, including all centres funded under the Erasmus+ international mobility scheme. This Erasmus+ criterion highlights the importance Europe gives to internationalising VET.

“In parallel to the developments in the EU with CoVEs, we established our own ETF Network for Excellence (ENE), initially by writing to partner country authorities and asking them to appoint centres to participate,” Van Uden said. 

The first day of the Forum held a number of roundtables with high-level speakers, including ETF Director Dr Pilvi Torsti. She spoke about the ETF’s work in partner countries, the added value of working on vocational excellence, and the establishment of CoVES, as they are seen as a driver of VET reform and improvement,

She also announced the ETF’s first Winter Camp on Vocational Excellence, to be held from 10 to 13 February 2025 in Nova Gorica, Slovenia. Content will be provided by three experienced CoVEs. Participants will learn how to enhance their VET provision using innovative teaching and learning, building partnerships and establishing robust governance and funding.

On the second day of the Forum the ETF held two workshops. One involved the ETF Network for Excellence (ENE).

The Internationalising Vocational Excellence, IntVE

The second workshop was on IntVE. The ETF has supported the international dimension of CoVEs since 2021, on behalf of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion. It is currently running the second project, from 2023 to 2025.

Work on the ETF Network of Excellence resulted in the ETF getting asked to undertake the EU project. “We are two related projects within the ETF, working closely together,” Van Uden said. IntVE is funded by the EU as part of its strategy to make CoVEs an engine for the development of vocational excellence through international collaboration. 

“The first part of the project focused on the development and piloting of an international self-assessment tool for CoVEs,” said Van Uden. Also, a feasibility study was conducted on developing a certificate of vocational excellence.

The first wave of ISATCOVE’s implementation was from April to July, with 13 centres participating from seven countries around the world. In the second wave, from October to December, there are over 60 centres from 10 countries, also worldwide. 

“So you can really see that there’s increasing interest in using the tool,” Van Uden remarked. ISATCOVE consists of three dimensions – teaching and learning, partnership and coordination, and governance and funding – with 23 criteria and 577 indicators. “That sounds overwhelming, but centres can select criteria and indicators that are relevant to them, in their context.”

Another ETF initiative presented during the workshop was formal recognition of vocational excellence, which many VET centres want. This year there will be a Committed to Excellence certificate and badges for schools implementing ISATCOVE covering at least 50 indicators and concluding the process with a development plan.

“We will pilot a Vocational Excellence certificate with four schools, where they will need to do a comprehensive self-assessment including at least 13 criteria, meet a minimum score for a number of criteria, share good practices, and have a development plan,” Van Uden said.

“What was at the core of our workshop at the Forum were the services we have developed to further support CoVEs to enhance their vocational excellence.” Centres want to improve, but do not always know how. One of the services is coaching for centres implementing ISATCOVE.

Also presented was the e-library where resources on vocational excellence developed by different projects and organisations will become easily accessible and browsable. Van Uden invited participants to share resources with the ETF.

Further, the ETF is developing two knowledge packages, with guidelines, focusing on priority areas – ensuring the relevance of training to labour market and societal needs; and developing and maintaining skills ecosystems.

Another initiative presented at the Forum was the ETF’s Cookbook on Vocational Excellence which is in progress. It stems from focus groups in which participants asked for a FAQ, road map or recipe on vocational excellence.  The cookbook will highlight the key ingredients needed to work on vocational excellence and will reflect these ingredients in different recipes. 

Why it is important to internationalise VET excellence

An important advantage of internationalising VET excellence is for centres to be able to learn from each other. VET centres need partners in their regions but, said Van Uden, “often you can achieve more when you collaborate across countries, because you face similar issues.”

With ISATCOVE schools can make a start and see where they are. But then the question is, what next? “And so we are also creating services that will support centres to take the next steps.” The entry point will be the Centres of Vocational Excellence section we are developing on the DG Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion website, where we will bring these resources and support services together.”

Vocational excellence is important in relation to the EU’s ambition to be innovative and globally competitive. Van Uden said: “CoVEs are seen as drivers of reform, as examples to improve the whole VET system. By working with a number of centres that can be inspiring examples, across numerous countries, we aim to strengthen the whole VET system.”

Importantly, vocational excellence across Europe is reflected in policies. She gave the example of France’s Les Campus des métiers et des qualifications. EU neighbouring countries where CoVEs are part of national policies include, for example, North Macedonia and Moldova.

“There’s not one model, but it’s about creating centres that work in partnerships, where they have close relations with industry and enterprise, research organisations, maybe also other educational sectors – such as higher education – to really make use of innovation capacity that’s available when you combine all these actors, and to support economic growth in general.

The way forward – Next steps

Interest in centres of vocational excellence is growing, in Europe and around the world. The ETF will further support the use of ISATCOVE with coaches. “Important in that regard is that we will start piloting a ‘cascading approach’,” Van Uden said. The problem with growing interest is that personalised coaching for ISATCOVE with every VET school could become unsustainable. 

“Centres interested in ISATCOVE have been able to register for the tool. We are recruiting coaches who can coach them, preferably in their own language.” The tool is now available in English, French, Spanish, Polish, German, Italian, Romanian and Turkish.

The cascading approach will be tested through what has become known as the Castilla y León model – named after that large region in Spain, which participated in an ISATCOVE pilot last year. They will now use ISATCOVE for their own procedures for certificates of vocational excellence and will have more than 30 schools participating. A similar approach will be piloted with two education networks in Italy, and it will also develop guidance materials.

The same is the case for the certificate of vocational excellence. “If the pilot works out, we can offer a certificate of vocational excellence, so recognition for more schools. That can also help schools with their request for peer learning, because the second step would be to have a database of VET centres with a certificate. 

Importantly, the ETF is also working on thematic labels. In the certificate of excellence pilot, the four schools can choose a thematic label – such as excellence in green, digital, entrepreneurship or lifelong learning. This certificate will further support peer learning and finding partners.

“A third step will be to link to policy. ISATCOVE will collect a lot of data, Van Uden concluded. “It will become a rich source of information to inform policies and next activities.”