The project is based on the NLQAVET model of Quality in VET which emphases the interdependency of quality system, quality culture, quality awareness and quality behaviour as fundament for sustainable implementation of improvements actions.The key factors for quality in VET can been seen from 2 different perspectives: The visible factors which include the quality system and the quality behaviour of staff, and the non-visible factors: the quality awareness of staff and the quality culture of the VET provider. The project will emphasis these non-visible factors for the development of high quality work through systematic comparing, exchanging and learning from day-to-day practices between Specialised VET providers and Regular VET providers in national and International settings.The EU policy on VET is encouraging INCLUSIVE Education and Training for All. The policy is encouraging partnerships and close cooperation between special VET providers and regular VET providers that creates the basis for a more inclusive approach on education and training.The project is based on using capacities of specialized and mainstream VET providers in creating valuable learning arrangements that results in improving current the performances and to explore opportunities for inclusive education for all. The area of quality therefore is introduced a common areas for better understanding of their practices and way of working. The project therefore has the following objectives:1. Improving the overall quality performance and quality culture (performance of Quality culture assessment tool) of special and regular VET providers by systematic benchmarking and bench learning.2. Contributing to inclusive education by creating sustainable partnerships between specialized VET providers and regular VET providers for the benefits of all learners.Prior to the project, a comprehensive needs assessment of quality culture aspects and Eqavet aspects will be carried out by all partners. The needs assessment will carried out with a questionnaire on Quality Culture aspect (Quality Culture survey) and a questionnaire that collect information of needs of the project partner on the building blocks of the Eqavet model: management culture, approaches that reflect provider circumstances, culture of self-assessment, support to training of staff and using feedback and data for improvement. Based on the needs assessment, all partners will identify and carry out two improvement initiatives: one initiative to improve quality Culture and one initiative to improve performance on EQAVET building blocks.In 8 transnational project meetings (= learning arrangements) of three days each will be organized. The topics for these learning arrangements will be derived from the needs assessment that is carried out prior to the project and linked to the improvement initiatives of the project partners. At these learning arrangements three main activities will be carried out:1. Systematic bench marking on agreed quality culture aspects and on aspect of the Eqavet model2. Bench learning activities: exchange of information, performance, interventions and daily practices with the aim of improving current performance and current practice3. Additional training by experts on quality cultural aspects and on identified aspects of the Eqavet building blocks.Expected results:1. Successful implementation of an improvement initiative related to one aspect of Quality Culture. (total 10 improvement initiatives)2. Successful implementation of an improvement initiative related to one of the EQAVET building blocks (total 10 improvement initiatives)3. Methodology on systematic benchmarking and bench learning.4. Curriculum of specific training modules related to Quality Culture Aspects and Eqavet building blocks.5. Signed agreement for sustainable partnership (continuation of cooperation) at national and/or national level to explore the feasibility and conditions for Inclusive education for all.

Context/BackgroundAn increasing group of persons have challenges to enter and participate at the open labour market. Especially persons with a disability and having qualifications on a lower level, face a future without realistic chances of participating in the society by finding appropriate employment fitting to their qualifications and competencies. These challenges exist in many countries. It is therefore that service providers and educators of persons with a disability are looking for new strategies to create more chances in entering and participating in the labour market. Traditional employment strategies for students with a disability mainly focus on the individual student with a disability. Strategies focusing on the added value for the employer are rarely used or neglected. The approach is that a new strategy, focusing on the added value for the employer, will increase the opportunities for students with a disability and low formal qualifications. This requires a paradigm shift.This new strategy of creating jobs that benefits employers, is called Inclusive Job Design. Inclusive Job Design is a comprehensive term for an employer-oriented method to create sustainable employment for persons with disabilities whose chances of competitive employment are limited, especially for those who have a low level of qualification and limited competences. The method of Inclusive Job Design implies the re-designing of work processes, analyzing and splitting the job-activities of existing jobs in various levels of complexity. The aim of this method is to create a positive business case for the employer and in the same time to create inclusive employment opportunities for the student with a disability. ObjectivesThe project aim was to enlarge the sustainable employment opportunities in the open labour market for VET students with a disability by: •building up the capacity of those organisation’s providing employment services by implementing the methodology of Inclusive Job Design. •building up specific competencies of VET providers (e.g. employment specialists) working with VET students with disabilities.The expected results in the project were: •To develop and to test a curriculum for VET providers based on the Inclusive Job Design concept. •To create sustainable partnerships between VET Providers and Employers. •To increase the knowledge of project partners about Inclusive Job Design, Corporate Social Responsibility and Inclusive Employment strategies for students with a disability. •To increase the competences of the project partners to apply the Inclusive Job Design-Methodology. •To increase the number of successful and sustainable placement opportunities for VET students with a disability into the labour market (by using the Inclusive Job Design method). In order to achieve the expected results, 4 Intellectual Outputs were produced, tested and finalised. IO1. Self-Assessment Instrument With this self-assessment tool, organisations are able to identify strengths and issues for improvement that are considered to be key factors for implementing the methodology of Inclusive Job Design. IO2. Curriculum for employment specialists The curriculum is an education and training program for implementing Inclusive Job Design methodology. It also includes examples of good practices. The curriculum is meant for employment specialists who facilitate and support the job finding process. IO3. Manual for employment specialists The manual consists of guidelines for applying the methodology of Inclusive Job Design. The manual is meant for supporting VET providers in applying the methodology of Inclusive Job Design for supporting companies to increase their efficiency and to create sustainable employment for students with a disability. IO4. Guidelines and recommendations for VET providers The guidelines for VET providers is a descriptive study on feasibility of implementing Inclusive Job Design. It describes barriers and facilitators of implementing the Inclusive Job Design methodology in the countries of the project partners.Profile of the participantsIn the project we worked with 2 expert partners and 7 VET providers. The experts were selected for their expertise and experiences in building up competences and applying the method of Inclusive Job Design. Both partners had successful experiences in international projects and they have skills and competences to develop information, learning and training materials in an international context and they had experiences in evaluating both processes and results.As for the VET partners, these were employment specialists of the VET provider, working with VET students in a dis-advanced position. Example of employees involved are: apprenticeship trainers, vocational rehabilitation specialists, labour office employment specialists, trainers of jobseekers.From each VET provider, 2 staff members of each of these partners participated in the project.Results, impact and longer term benefitsReflecting on the expected results, all intellectual outputs(including the curriculum for VET providers) have been developed and tested. These outputs are posted on the project website in all languages of project partners. Knowledge and competences of the project partners are increased. Also sustainable partnerships between VET providers and employers and successful and sustainable placement opportunities have been increased. The achievement of placement opportunities is still low. The Covid-19 pandemic and its International, National and Local measures of restriction, has limited impact on this objective. Initiatives to build up capacity outside the partnership have been started up in Austria and Norway after removing the restrictions. This is later than planned and will take place after the project now the Covid-19 restrictions are less.Evaluation shows that the project has had significant impact on creating awareness and, though no goal at itself in the project, a limited impact on the actual placement of VET students with a disability. The majority of the participants stated in the closing meeting that, because of participating in the project, they are more focused on creating added value for employers as the starting point as a starting point their employement activities. The results of this evaluation are posted on the project website under 7.10.

<< Objectives >>The over-all-aim is to build up the capacity of VET providers to assess Life Skills for students and to contribute in Life Skills development by applying Creative Teaching methodologies.The objectives are: 1. To understand Life Skills Concept in VET2. To increase the creativity capacity of the individual teachers3. To increase Life Skills development of students in VET4. To validate various methods and techniques in Creative Teaching of Life Skills to students in VET.<< Implementation >>1.Discussing how to introduce Life Skills Development with creative teaching methods in VET2.Selecting Life Skills Development workshops3.Discussing how Life Skills Development workshops will be delivered4.Carrying out Life Skills Development workshops5.Collecting and reporting feedback from Teachers6.Collecting and reporting feedback from Students7.Validating evaluation results8.Identifying recommendations for implementation strategy9.Adjusting the described workshops in the compendium.<< Results >>PR 1: Information package with back ground, rationale, understanding, assessing and strategy for implementing of Life Skills Concept in VET. (Publication)2. PR 2: A Self-Assessment instrument for assessing Life Skills for students in VET. (Excel-file)3. PR 3: Compendium of successful Creative Teaching and training methods in Life-Skills-Development forstudents in VET. (Publication)

"In the project ""Professionals without borders"" 28 teachers and trainers from REA College Pluryn are going to visit 28 colleagues from five schools for (special) vocational education. The hosting countries are: Finland, Estonia, Norway, Lithuania and Germany.The purpose of the participating organizations is to improve education for young people with disabilities and / or special needs and promote inclusion in their own country and throughout Europe.The exchange of knowledge and experiences among professionals, has to contribute this long term goal. The short term goal is that the visits lead to improvements in the education and guidance of this special target group in the participating countries. We also want to encourage a culture of peer review amongst professionals that are working with this special target group.The agenda of the visit includes a general part and an individual part.1. During the general part teachers and trainers in the project will get information about the schools they are visiting, the educational system in the country and how inclusion is implemented. The visitors will give a presentation about the educational system in the Netherlands.2. In the individual part is a 1 to 1 program, where the visitors are job shadowing so they can get a better picture of how teaching and guidance for the target group is implemented in the hosting country.To maximize the impact and the sustainability of the visits, preparatory meetings and evaluation meetings organized on each visit. Impact and follow-up are important topics for these meetings.The international visits will give teachers and trainers a broader look at their work and they will understand concepts and methods used in other countries better. Special attention will be given to initiatives aimed at improving job prospects. This is expected to lead to improvements in education for the target group of the partners.Professionals without borders is in line with earlier projects of REA College Pluryn and other partners in the project (such as The Vet Learning Community: TVLC) that aim to improve education by improving (quality) culture and quality awareness. In TVLC focuses on the management. In this project focus on the teachers and trainers because it is our believe that quality requires not only commitment of the management but requires initiatives of professionals at all levels of an organization."

People who cannot perform their present jobs after an illness or as a result of an accident anymore need a new perspective. The Berufsförderungswerk Köln gGmbH assists them in finding a new job perspective; legally this is regulated by the social code IX (Teilhabe am Arbeitsleben). Our services are vocational orientation, preparatory courses, education and retraining – all exams are held before the Chamber of Industry and Commerce or Chamber of Trade as a regulated training program/education by law - support for the integration in the job market and medical, psychological and social care. The Berufsförderungswerk Köln gGmbH is one of 28 facilities of the vocational rehabilitation system in Germany. With our project - Go BFW Cologne - vocational rehabilitation thinks out of the box! - we would like to enable our participants, our employees and our co-operating external partners on the one hand to be able to meet innovatively the growing demands on the job market and to give possibilities for the improvement of foreign llanguage knowledge as well as an offer to gain intercultural working experience. On the other hand we want to make sure that also socially and/or healthwise disadvanted people - like so many others in education and training – can gain valuable working experience abroad during their vocational education within a setting that suits their needs. This will strengthen their self-confidence and motivation and also it will improve their vocational mobility. In this frame we will enable 65 participants and 34 employees and also external partners who are involved in the rehabilitation process with guidance and coaching regarding vocational orientation to do an internship (e.g., in the business area) or a hospitation/jobshadowing in Scotland or the Netherlands. There is not a classical profile among our participants. Nevertheless, one could distinguish two profile situations: 1. a young person who was homeless before, socially disadvantaged, a school drop-out, a psychosis was released by drug abuse. The young person was stabilised in former projects (social situation and also the health situation). The person got the chance to orientate him-/herself regarding a vocational career and now he/she starts an education as a storekeeper. 2. a life-experienced person, in the mid 40's, secondary education completed, very work experienced, e.g., truck driver who has lost both legs after an accident, he sits in the wheel chair now and and does a retraining as Logistics expert working in the office. He misses his former occupation, it is hard for him to learn again, he is unsure whether he will find employment at his age again and posesses of little or no knowledge of English or intercultural working experience. Our project is also directed at our graduates who were not able to find a job right afer their graduation (or within a max. 10 months afterwards). he BFW Köln aims, primarily, at an effect at a local / regional level. We would like to benefit as an organization from this project by improving our quality. We want to make sure that we will reach our goals in the reintegration to the jobmarket of our participants. Offering these internships will ensure that we keep track with the developments of the European job market and that our graduates can compete in the job market.. Regarding the intended presentation of our project results to the Federal Association of German Berufsförderungswerke we also intend to further develop the vocational rehabilitation system at the national level further. We expect that the employability of our participants is going to be improved by this project. This will be shown by a higher level of self-esteem and also in a higher flexibility regarding the location of work and also by their improved foreign language skills. We expect that the work of our educational staff will further improve in quality by this project; we will be ready to react to new trends quicker. We also want to keep the motivation of our employees high. The program will also help our staff to improve their own flexibility in order to keep track with the constant changes in the labour market. The project realisation is steered centrally by the co-ordinator to all internally involved personnel , to the participants and also to the partners.