TWIN-TECH – Twin Transition for VET Resilience
Project number: 2025-1-SI01-KA220-VET-000360870
Program: Erasmus+ KA220-VET
Project website: twin-tech.eu
There is a danger that workers can spend several years studying for a vocational qualification only to find that when they start work, a few months later, the equipment, software and even working practices have changed so much that the qualifications they have worked so hard for are largely obsolete.
However, updating a formal qualification takes time to filter down through the various processes and stakeholders involved, and that is why learning outcomes can take years to be revised and have new teaching materials, to train teachers, and to approve updated programs developed.
In the face of the green and digital transitions it is important to prepare workers quickly for the introduction of new technologies such as energy monitoring, new production software, battery systems or more efficient manufacturing processes. Delaying the update of existing programs of vocational training for several years is not acceptable.
The response from the European vocational education systems, which are currently undergoing the process of vocational training reform, can be found in the form of introduction of smaller learning units or microcredentials, to be used in combination with the training that the individual already possesses. A trained electrician will require training of additional skills in the area of battery storage. A production worker will require training of additional skills in order to learn how to use the energy monitoring tools currently available.
There’s nothing revolutionary about offering short professional courses. They have been available for decades. What is new is the effort to make these shorter pieces of learning as easily recognizable, combinable and transferable as possible between different learning environments (workplace/vocational school) and between different employers and education systems.
Microcredentials in the context of Cedefop are learning outcomes recorded in relatively small units of learning which can be used as standalone certificates or be accumulated into more comprehensive learning opportunities and qualifications within formal education systems and/or in the labor market.
This increase of modular training and recognition of prior learning also leads to new European ways of dealing with formal and informal learning in VET, and raises questions on how to recognize single learning certificates within and outside of employment and in which standards these have to be issued.
However, these smaller learning elements must not be misused to reduce the breadth of vocational education and training and replace it with a collection of short modules and courses, thereby failing to provide learners with the required basic and Broadway skills for their chosen trade or occupation.
This is the path which is also being taken by the TWIN-TECH project. Modular, stackable learning units which can be integrated into existing VET programs without having to wait for an update of the complete curriculum are recommended by work being done in Slovenia for example. Short learning units are recommended by findings in Austria too. These can be used to build up additional competences within the framework of existing VET programs.
As jobs evolve into long-term career paths that span a range of different technologies, the nature of education itself is likely to change too. With no chance for workers to return to formal education for long periods, short, easily-accessible courses that build on earlier learning are likely to become an increasingly-important feature of the education landscape.
The projects within the Erasmus+ program (here the project TWIN-TECH) offer opportunities for vocational schools, companies and training organizations from different European countries to test and further develop flexible approaches to update and supplement the formal learning pathways within the given labor market. The formal learning pathways within the vocational training systems will keep their importance, however, they will be seen as a foundation for lifelong learning.
