DEAL WITH DIGITAL WORK-BASED LEARNING ON ERASMUS DAYS

Digitization has entered overwhelmingly into all training systems, implying new ways of designing workbased learning experiences. This trend presents a number of benefits and drawbacks for educators and institutions who want to continue to offer their students the rigorous education they need to thrive.  Education sector, working closely with companies on dual character training, are questioning pedagogical methodologies, technological tools to help reinvent the WBL approach in virtual learning environments. Which is a best practice in Digital work-based learning? Which are the possible applications scenarios? Which are the key elements and competences to design VET blended courses? The International Consortium lead by SFC and made up of 8 partners from 5 European Countries tried to answer these questions during the ERASMUS DAYS online event on 13th October through a specific focus on the Deal with digital work-based learning project.

During the ERASMUS DAYS event the Consortium had a good opportunity to share experience and spread the word about the project. After welcoming speech and introduction Ivana Russiello and Francesca Galanti gave the floor to Pablo Baztán Quemada (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya). The presenter shared key elements and best practices in digital WBL. Laura Eigbrecht (Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg) presented co-designed project competence framework. Social partners and other interested parties from all the countries, participating in the project, followed the session and contributed to the discussion on digital transformation and implementation of innovative teaching strategies.

You can get acquainted with all relevant information on the implementation of Deal with digital work-based learning project activities on the specialized project website:  https://digitalwbl.com/

Video about the project: https://digitalwbl.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/WBL_video_introduttivo.webm 

DEAL WITH DIGITAL WBL – FOCUS GROUPS

To be able to provide training opportunities for the design of Digital Work-based Learning (WBL) experiences the project consortium decided on collecting best practice examples of digital WBL experiences. But before the research and collection of best practice examples can start a methodology and structure must be developed.

For this purpose, each partner in the project consortium created a focus group consisting of a variety of different stakeholders:

  • VET Students
  • VET Teacher
  • VET Centre Directors
  • Administration or government personnel with responsibility in VET
  • Entrepreneurs with experience of having VET students

In total 7 focus groups with around 40 participants from 5 different countries were created. The aim of these focus groups was to collect participants opinion about this central question: How is a VET good practice in DIGITAL WORK-BASED LEARNING like? We seek to establish criteria that allow us to design, implement and evaluate a good practice.

Based on the literature and on the contributions we have received from participants from different countries, we have defined 7 thematic blocks.

  1. Competencies in digital WBL good practice for VET
  2. Content and resources
  3. Teaching-learning methodologies
  4. Interaction-networked community
  5. Assessment
  6. General characteristics
  7. Roles of Students, Teachers, Coordinators, Entrepreneurs and Administration

The diverse focus groups, consisting of teachers, students, administrators and entrepreneurs allowed us to have explanatory discussions about all of the mentioned topics. The project partners reported interesting and to the topic dedicated discussions and the consortium very much likes to continue stakeholders engagement in this topic.

Over the next weeks the results of the focus groups will be further analysed and guidelines for the development of best practice examples of digital WBL will be developed.