Are you interested in the latest developments of CoVEs? Did hear about a CoVE Community of Practices (CoP)?
What is this CoP all about? Why are we doing it? What are our plans? Would you like to know more? Who is involved? When did everything start? Where does it come from? If you want to know more, please keep reading.
Want to more about the CoP?
Let me start by asking. Where does it all come from?
Everything started with the approval of the first 5 pilot CoVE projects in 2019. The 5 pioneers started to team up. Now, more than one year later, the cooperation persists. In 2020, 7 new CoVEs were added. Thus the group increased from 5 to 12.
Then, in the 2020-2021 academic year, the EC called the 12 CoVE projects and other stakeholders to a meeting. The goal was to discuss the idea of creating a CoP. Everybody agreed with the proposal and this is how everything started.
Thus far about the origin. Let’s move on now.
Who is involved in the CoP? All CoVE projects and the European Training Foundation Initiative on VET excellence. The EC supports the initiative. Other stakeholders join meetings too. From the outset, the CoP wanted to follow a bottom-up approach. Namely, CoVEs decide and act, the EC supports.
And why do we want to create this community? To assist each other. To work togehter. To discuss. To share. To improve. To help others.
All this is fine, but time has come to strengthen the CoP. This is why we will hold a kick-off in June. All CoVE projects cooperating! Doesn’t it sound exciting?
Of course it does! But we must prepare the meeting to ensure its success.
And to do that we met on March 3. Want to know more about the meeting?
We divded it in 3 parts:
- What do we want with the CoP?
- How will the kick-off look like?
- What will we discuss in the CoP kick-off?
Read the next 3 sections to know more!
What do we want with the CoP?
At first, João Santos, senior expert in the DG EMPL, EC, took the lead. Just in case you don’t know him, Joao is one of the most passionate defendants of VET. A firm believer in the CoVE initiative.
He summarised the results of a questionnaire previously sent to all the participants. 5 key messages:
- YES, WE NEED IT. Everyone supports the CoP.
- FOCUS. We want a CoP only for CoVEs.
- GRADUAL GROWTH. Start simple.
- NEED FOR EXPERTISE. We want expert guidance. This will help the CoP thrive.
- LEADERSHIP. We need strong leaders to move the CoP.
With this outstanding opening, João set a high standard. But lets moved to the second part.
How will the kick-off look like?
The second part was aimed at preparing the kick-off. To do that, Boudewijn Grievink and Iñigo Araiztegui took the lead. Boudewijn is an International Project Manager at Katapult. Iñigo is the Director of the International Department at Tknika and the EXAM 4.0 project coordinator. Here the group discussed two things:
- the agenda outline
- the roadmap to the kick-off.
And we agreed to:
- Meet in April
- Meet in May
- Have a two days kick-off meeting
- Combine study visits and workshops in the kick off
With these agreements, we moved to the breakout sessions.
What will we discuss in the CoP kick-off?
In the breakouts we wanted to identify topics for the kick-off. In dynamic and participative discussions we agreed on some topics. This are an example:
- What can be done to make CoVEs sustainable?
- How can we involve local partners?
- What are the effects of COVID?
- Can we optimize our stakeholder ecosystem?
- How to involve teachers?
Although we will have time to go deeper in next meetings, it is a nice starting point.
Wrap up
The CoVE CoP is a new player in the EU VET arena. There will be a meeting in April. One more in May. And then, a kick-off meeting.
The CoVE CoP kick-off will be in June in the Basque Country. It will combine visits and workshops. And, as we just said, so far the topics are:
- What can be done to make CoVEs sustainable?
- How can we involve local partners?
- What are the effects of COVID?
- Can we optimize our stakeholder ecosystem?
- How to involve teachers?
The EXAM 4.0 project feels really excited to be part of the CoP. We will give our best to make it flourish!
Want to know more? Stay tuned!
