VetgoesRural partners at the Kick off Meeting
The 'VETgoesRURAL' project aims to improve VET professionals' skills and capacities in order to provide enhanced training and foster learners' engagement in EU isolated rural and remote areas.
To fulfil this aim, the project will design, test and fine-tune innovative VET teaching and training methods, with an appropriate mix of open, digital and participative learning environments. VETgoesRURAL addresses needs and priorities recently confirmed by the EU and its Member States. Particularly, the EU Council Recommendation on VET (December 2020) has pointed out that “VET programmes need to be accessible for vulnerable groups, low-skilled people and people in rural or remote areas” and “VET staff need to undertake continuing professional development to deliver high quality training through digital skills and effective innovative methods”.
The project encourages the strengthening of capacities and practices of national, regional, and local VET networks within 4 EU target countries - Spain, Italy, Greece, and Ireland. These countries are characterised by a complex territorial situation, with macro-regions experiencing high levels of rural isolation. Moreover, three of them (Spain, Italy and Greece) show the lowest rates in both adult engagement in vocational learning and employment. The project also includes one of the 9 EU Outermost Regions (Canary Islands), geographically very distant from the European continent. VETgoesRURAL will conduct its work within 12 selected isolated remote/rural territories, based on specific criteria i.e., less than 5.000 inhabitants, high-rates of dropout, unemployment and/or with low socio-educational rates opportunities. The project will engage mainly learners with low skills and support VET professionals in better approaching and engaging this target group in the local VET offer. VETgoesRURAL will ensure a strong participative approach during the whole project, while promoting transnational cooperation and mutual learning. It will disseminate the results at EU level and ensure wide replication of project results by multiple VET organisations outside the partnership.
Dace’s role in the VetgoesRural project is in leading the research, mapping the current situation and developing a gap analysis study on VET/FET in EU isolated rural and remote areas. We look forward to engaging with providers, practitioners, learners and policy makers in the coming 24 months and in sharing the research reports.