Vocational Training for craft and SMES: Toward EU excellence

Premises

Continuing Craft SMEs VET providers impact on many vital challenges as a key element for deal and respond with these challenges: a crucial activity for the future of European SMEs that require a deepened analysis on the training needs and a rapid cross sector business process transformation of upskill and reskill in order to deal with the new markets and SMEs global value chains, new products/services, demands and issues of a mutated world.

Introduction

Continuing Craft SMEs VET providers impact on many vital challenges as a key element for deal and respond with these challenges: a crucial activity for the future of European SMEs that require a deepened analysis on the training needs and a rapid cross sector business process transformation of upskill and reskill in order to deal with the new markets and SMEs global value chains, new products/services, demands and issues of a mutated world.

Main Conference objectives

In the final event of Craft and SMEs, as result of the work of the precedents main events of the projects a final Key recommendations paper will be presented and discussed at the EU and national political level and among the most distributed SMEs and C-VET European organizations.

The document will be one of the main outputs of the Craft and SMEs Community: a result of the conversation, the interactions, the sharing of ideas, views and resources that are taking life in the Craft and SMEs Vet Net platform: www.vet-net.eu

The paper will be the corner stone for two interactive sessions.

The sessions will focus on:

• A debate about the key recommendations and the development of ideas and views about the future EU policies for C-VET for the next years: funds, tools and strategies to be implemented.
• How C- Vet organizations at national deal with the challenges and the future c-vet and how they will improve, enlarge and empower their networks, continuing the work of Craft and SMEs Community, to strengthen a common C-VET provider shared identity, to have a stronger political voice at local/regional/national/EU level and to improve and innovate their systems.

The results of the discussion will be published as a political proposal for the EU and National policy makers in order to disseminate, strengthen and continue the political discussion in the next year through the empowerment of the CRAFT and SMEs Network in order to contribute to the shaping of the C-VET of the future.

Background CVET material

A list of background documents dealing with vet policies at EU level are available in the Craft VET NET Community Platform Repository. Please register to the platform to have access to this repository for your better information via the following link https://www.vet-net.eu/platform/share/search-repositories/

The Craft and SMEs Community platform

Craft and SMEs VET NET Community platform is dedicated to build the first European Community of Practice (CoP) focused on C-VET. The objective is to create a space for a common European perspective about C-VET. A bottom-up process that involves all the possible interested members: C-VET providers, professional trainees, institutions at regional, national, and European levels. A place to discuss and meet others, to share resources, issues and ideas, a place to attended courses, to improve skills.

The Conference topics will be developed through the Craft VET NET Community Platform Forum. Please register to the platform to participate in the above-mentioned dialogue via the following link: https://www.vet-net.eu/platform/users/registration/

The organizer

The Conference is organized by the five-partner organizations of the Craft and SMES Consortium:

ECIPA Foundation, SME ACADEMY Avignon, Small Enterprises Institute of the Hellenic Confederation of Professionals Craftsmen & Merchants (IME GSEVEE), PIMEC, EFQBL in the framework of Crafts and SMEs vocational and educational training network, that is an EU innovative network supported by the EC ERASMUS+ Program.

AGENDA

9th December

Opening Session H. 08.50 – 9.30

Mr Victor Negrescu – EU Parliament, MEP, Vice-Chair Committee on Culture and Education
Mr Alban Maggiar – SMEUnited, President

Mr Georgios Kavvathas – Small Enterprises Institute of GSEVEE (IME GSEVEE), President

Mr Antoni Cañete – Micro, petita i mitjana empresa de Catalunya (PIMEC), President

Mr Florin Janu – Consiliul NaţIonal Al ÎNtreprinderilor Private Mici şI Mijlocii Din RomÂNia (CNIMPPR), President

Mr Claudio Cappellini – Italian Confederation of Craft Trades and Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises (CNA), Head of European office

09.30 – 11.15 Round table 1: “Craft and vet net policy proposal toward the Training excellences for Craft And SMEs European C-VET: new competencies, news policies, new skills“.

Moderator: Mr Dimitris Bimpas – SME ACADEMY Avignon, Economist / SMEs expert

09.30 – 09.45 Introduction: Luca Reitano – ECIPA Foundation, Craft and SMEs VET NET Project Manager

9.45 – 9.55 Cesare Onestini – European Training Foundation (ETF) Executive Director

9.55 – 10.05 Panagiotis Gkofas – European Economic Social Committee (EESC), Member of Group III

10.05 – 10.15 Gertrude Hirtreiter – ZDH, Vocational Training Policy Advisor

10.15 – 10.40 Discussion

10.40 -10.50 – Break

10.50 – 13.30 Round table 2: “How C- Vet organizations will deal with the challenges and the future C-vet at local/regional/national/EU level and how they improve the networking and the community of C-VET Craft and SMEs providers”.

Moderator: Ms Marina Forns – Micro, petita i mitjana empresa de Catalunya (PIMEC), Technician of Labour Area

10.50 – 11.05 Introduction: Mr Vassilis Siomadis – IME GSEVEE, Responsible for EU projects

11.05 – 11.15 European Vocational Training Association (EVTA),tbc

11.15 – 11.25 European Association of Institutes for Vocational Training (EVBB), tbc

11.25 – 11.35 European Forum of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (EFVET), tbc

11.35 – 11.45 Ms Anna Barbieri – DG Employment and Social Affairs, Policy Officer – vocational education and training

11.45 – 12:00 Mr A. Schmölz – Austrian Institute for Research on VET, Executive Director

12.00 – 12.10 Mr Giuseppe Vivace – ECIPA Foundation, Director

12.10 – 12.20 Mr Antonios Glaros – National Organisation for the Certification of Qualifications and Vocational Guidance (EOPPEP), Head of Development & Communication Department

12.20 – 12.30 Mr David Anton – Micro, petita i mitjana empresa de Catalunya (PIMEC), Member of Training and Occupation Sectorial

12.30 – 12.40 Mr Peter Mazohl – European Foundation Quality in Blended Learning (EFQBL), President

12.40 – 13.25 Discussion – Short Interventions

Mr Mark Bergfeld – Property Services & UNICARE (video message), Director

Ms Isabelle Le Mouillour – Federal Institute for Vocational Education & Training, Head of Unit (DE)

Ms Adina Cocu – University “Dunarea de Jos” of Galati, Professor (RO)

Mr Aleksandar Stevanovic – Serbian association of SMEs, President of Council (RS)

Mr Reza Ziarati – Center for Factories for the Future, Chairman (UK)

Mr Georgios Daskalakis – Former Vice General of fire Brigade (GR)

13.25 – 13.30 Conclusions

13.30 Closing of the Conference