Sustainability of project results as an important factor of its success in vocational education and training

If you work in the field of vocational education and training in organizations that are active in that field or carry out interdisciplinary activities in different fields, and you have an idea how to adapt vocational education and training (VET) to the requirements of the labour market, how to innovate existing processes, train teachers and associates for the application of digital technologies, adapt contents to students/participants, raise the quality level of VET, expand processes at the national and international level, or if you need funds to realize an idea, welcome to the world of the Erasmus+ program KA2 cooperation partnership projects.

Of course, if you want to turn an idea into a project proposal, you have to deal with some assumptions, which are the answers to the following questions:

1. What do we want to solve, what are our objectives?
2. Who will we work with, who will be our partners?
3. To whom are our solutions addressed, who are our target groups?
4. What methods will we use to reach the target groups and encourage them to take action?
5. How will we ensure that the project results are sustainable even after the end of the project?

All these answers are very important, but if the project results do not come to life in practice and are not applied in the activities of the target groups, then the project is a miss and has no meaning. Therefore, the sustainability of the project must be worked on from the elaboration of the idea into a project proposal until its completion in order to make sure that it can be realized. In doing so, it is important to look for answers to the following questions:

1. What is the effect or what are the positive changes that the project results will cause in the target groups?
2. What instruments are needed to disseminate project results; are they even possible?
3. What needs to be done to ensure that the results are sustainable and are the provided mechanisms sufficient for this activity?
4. Do the project results promote sustainable development in their area of ​​use?

Perhaps it is best to answer all the questions with an example of good practice. In this case it is the project 2016-1-HR01-KA202-022187 – Welding is your chance (WeldChance 2016 – 2018).

Project coordinator: College ULJANIK (HR) project implementation/ Association STRUKA (HR) project sustainability.

Partners: EWF – European Welding Federation (BE / PT), IIS Progress (IT) – start-up company of the Italian Welding Institute, CESOL (ES) – national welding association, Industrial and Trade School Slavonski Brod (HR), KONČAR Steel structures (HR).

Associated partners: SVSXASS (CH) – national welding association, HDTZ (HR) – Croatian welding association and NCVVO – National centre for external evaluation of education (HR).

Objectives/results: European framework curricula for arc welders, digital platform for welders, new teaching methodology.

Target groups: European welding community (individuals, associations, organizations), young and unemployed people of all profiles and public authority institutions in charge of policy and decision making and program documents in the area of education.

The project sustainability was planned with dissemination activities that achieved the following results in the two years of implementation:

1. Project results were presented on three continents – Europe, North America and Asia in front of participants from 42 countries from 5 continents
2. Over 800 experts from the field of welding attended the presentations of project results through scientific professional papers at international conferences and national seminars
3. Welding was introduced to young people at Career Day, Lifelong Education Week, job fairs and SwissSkills (over 500 young people)
4. Project results will be incorporated in the education systems of individual countries; Croatia is the first to do so
5. The network platform will be moved to the EWF server and thus become the European platform for all welders (permanent).

Project sustainability – Croatian example (2018. – 2023.) – activities

By implementing the project results in Croatia, the following objectives were to be achieved:

1. Raise the level of the occupation welder to 4.1 according to the Croatian qualification framework (HKO), i.e. change from a two-year to a three-year vocational program
2. Harmonize the national qualifications for welders with the international ones, the only ones that are considered valid on the labour market
3. Unify the programs for individual welding processes and base them on occupational standards and qualifications in HKO
4. Raise the competences of welders to a level acceptable to the international labour market, which will, in return, raise the level of competitiveness of the organizations in which they will work
5. Harmonize programs in vocational schools and adult education institutions so that the acquired competences are the same for each welding process and competitive on the labour market.

The following activities were carried out to realize the objectives:

1. At the end of 2019, the Ministry of Science and Education formed working groups for the development of occupational standards and qualification standards for the occupation welder; members of the working groups participated in the WeldChance project and are members of the STRUKA association

2. On 16. 03. 2022, the occupational standard for welders was entered into the HKO register with validity period until 31. 12. 2027.

3. On 20. 05. 2022, the qualification standard for welders was entered into the HKO register with validity period until 31. 12. 2027.

4. At the end of 2022, 25 microcredentials for welders based on the occupational and qualifications standards were created at the request and for the needs of the Agency for Vocational and Education of Adults to be used/developed in adult education institutions

5. Beginning of 2023, in the scope of the Regional Competence Centre RCK Slavonika 5.1, a flexible modular vocational curriculum for the occupation welder level 4.1 HKO – a three-year vocational education program was created; the Ministry of Education and Culture approved the implementation of the experimental program starting from the school year 2023/2024. The curriculum is flexible because it can be used in the proposed form for classical, modular and dual education of welders.

6. End of May 2023, 7 partial qualifications were created for the needs of the Agency for Vocational Education and Education of Adults as a basis for their further development in adult education institutions.

It is evident from the above described activities that the project results are sustainable and adaptable, that they will not change until the end of 2027, and that they are a good foundation that will be adjusted over time with new methods and approaches, thus marking these project results as sustainable for many years to come.