Innovating VET practices in isolated rural and remote regions of the EU

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 ...

VETgoesRURAL wants to achieve innovation in VET methodologies and approaches to make VET opportunities tailored to the needs and expectations of professionals and learners from isolated rural and remote parts of the EU. This will aim to increase the quality of VET programmes and the learners' participation and retainment in VET. 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, selected based on specific criteria.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 offering.

VETgoesRURAL foresees 3 Project Results and complementary project management, dissemination and valorisation activities. The core of the project will be focused on: 1) Project Result 1 - Research, mapping and analysis of main barriers and motivations for participation in VET activities in remote/isolated rural areas, with a special focus on factors and strategies to adapt to new ways of learning for the COVID-19 recovery period. 2) Project Result 2 - Development of an Educational Suite embedding new teaching and training strategies and tools for VET providers in isolated remote/rural areas, defined upon the findings of the previous analysis. 3) Project Result 3 - Design, pilot testing and fine-tuning of an elearning course for VET providers to provide in-depth support knowledge, skills and practical cases for a successful implementation of the Educational Suite at local level. Apart from the project results, 5 multiplier events will be organised to achieve high impact in project results' dissemination. Furthermore, the partnership will conduct a wide range of online and offline dissemination activities to raise awareness about the project: from online & physical events to social media campaigns, press releases, podcasts, video pills, webinars, publications, etc. Two transnational project meetings are foreseen, along with periodic online events, to ensure partners' smooth collaboration for the project implementation.

Key expected impacts include: 1) Enhanced capacities of VET providers in engaging and training learners, as well as enhanced skills, engagement and motivation among the same learners. 2) Knowledge transfer and capacity building to foster innovation and new practices in the field of VET, for low-skilled learners living in rural/remote areas of Europe. 3) Increased awareness of the role of long-life learning and education for rural/remote populations as a key way to re-think the development and regeneration of those areas. This will lead to an increased recognition of VET for geographically disadvantaged areas in policies and education services at EU, national, and local level. Concrete results will include: improved research on EU and national VET practices in isolated remote/rural areas; one innovative methodology outlining new tools, strategies and approaches tailored to the specificity of rural low skilled learners and one complementary elearning course to deepen practitioners' knowledge to increase the quality of training offer in the concerned areas. Over 240 VET professionals and 100 learners from isolated rural/remote communities will be involved in the project activities, along with other local key stakeholders such as policy-makers, education providers, and civil society representatives, in a participative and inclusive effort to improve VET in rural and remote contexts of the EU.