A new edition of Diseinua International project has been launched, putting together Vocational training students from HETEL Schools ( La Salle Berrozpe, Salesianos Deusto, Zulaibar, Somorrostro and Egibide) with students from ROC da Vinci College in the Netherlands, thanks to the support of BBK and Fundación Vital. In this case, the challenge given by the teachers to the students to solve it is the design of an injection machine to reduce the volume of plastic waste. During these 2 next weeks, Dutch students have come to the Basque Country to meet the peers in their group. After the joint presentation of the challenge to the students, these will be working partially on-line partially in person to give a satisfactory answer to the challenge. The solution given by the students will be presented and evaluated in the Netherlands the week of the 9th of March. The participants in this international project will develop important skills for companies, such as teamwork, English, intercultural communication, self-learning or self-management, which will help them to be better prepared for their next professional future. Abantean!

HETEL, together with VET schools’ networks from the Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Finland and Scotland, participates in the erasmus+ KA03 “VET Network of networks” project led by the Dutch school “Onderwijsgroep Tilburg”. The purpose of this project is to improve the quality of Vocational Training in our schools, defining the internationalization strategy and strengthening the European collaboration network. These actions will also strengthen the international strategy of HETEL, in order to improve the quality of our training offer. Last week the first meeting of this ambitious project took place in Arnhem (Holland). In this meeting the bases have been set and the actions of this European project have been structured. Abantean!

The INTENT project is an Erasmus+ funded project coordinated by the Department of Vocational Education of the German region North-Westphalia and HETEL participates as a partner. The project tries to build a comprehensive approach to vocational education, promoting interdisciplinary cooperation among VET programmes in line with organizational models 4.0, where supply chains follow an interconnected structure, with more flexibility and shorter response times to the market demands. As digital skills of workers are essential to work in this kind of environment, the first result of the project focuses on the identification of digital tools already available and in use by VET schools participating in the project in different departments, part of the value chain. In the next meeting in the Czech Republic, we will pool our work to go on with the next stages of the project. We will keep you updated in HETEL´s Website and social networks!

SIMPLY INCLUDED, supported by European Commission under the Erasmus+ Program and coordinated by KulturLife, starts on December 1st 2019 and promotes awareness of the need for social inclusion of migrants and refugees in companies and VET, as well as the positive use of diversity in professional structures. The project is a follow-up project of the Erasmus+ SIMPLE project (Social Inclusion of migrants through Peer Learning Experience) in VET and aims to develop pedagogical methods and materials built upon the concept of cooperative learning together with international project partners. The project outputs are intended to support migrants and refugees becoming aware of their strengths and competences and to present them on the European labour market. This should facilitate their integration into the educational system and at the same time combat unemployment among the target group. Companies and society should also be sensitized for this topic and should create awareness of these issues. The project addresses the need of migrants and refugees, vocational trainers and teachers and companies while all of these groups should be actively involved in the development of the above described material. Project partners: KulturLife gGmbH (Germany) ELAZIG MESLEKI ve TEKNIK ANADOLU LISESI (Turkey) Grm Novo mesto – center biotehnike in turizma (Slovenia) HETEL-Heziketa Teknikoko Elkartea (Spain) MOBILIZING EXPERTISE AB (Sweden) InterCultural Ísland (Iceland) Further information: https://kultur-life.de/projekte/simply-included/     Further information: https://kultur-life.de/projekte/simply-included/

Each year the members of Network of Networks (NoN), get together in one of NoN´s location to exchange on the latest trends in vocational training in the countries and regions member of the network (Finland, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Scotland and the Basque Country) and to discuss of possible new ways of cooperation among the colleges part of each regional/national network. The encounter took place this time in Newry (Northern Ireland), from the 06th to the 09th of October. This year, the focus of the programme was on internationalization strategies, with a highlight on internationalization at home, and on co-design and co-delivery of VET curriculums. Besides, we could also meet with the city mayor of Newry and had the opportunity to exchange information about projects already running among partners of the NoN (such as CyVETsecurity or a KA3 project which starts this year) as well as new ideas of posible projects and other ways of international cooperation to be pursued in 2020. This year, the representation of HETEL was done by the responsible of international projects in the association plus the responsible of international relations of Jesuitak Indautxu, Zulaibar, Otxarkoaga and La Salle Berrozpe. Next year, NoN will meet again, this time in the Netherlands, to keep on improving vocational education. In the meanwhile, we will keep on working on the ideas detected during our meeting in Newry!

Information, business, education or human relations take place more and more often in the digital world. The more we use digital media to look for and share any kinds of information with different purposes, the more necessary it is to know and understand the risks of doing so and to protect ourselves of undesired consequences. The CyVETsecurity, co-financed by the Erasmus+ Programme from the European Commission and coordinated by HETEL, aims to increase the awareness of digital perils and the necessity of information and data protection across all kinds of professionals, by developing training materials addressed to VET teachers in order to increase their own knowledge and competences (and those from their students) on cybersecurity, counting also with the collaboration of technical experts and companies. With this in mind, we have already developed a tool that identifies different units of learning on cybersecurity adapted to 4 types of professionals: non-technical professions with just basic information security skills, technical professionals with basic information security skills, non- technical professionals with higher need of information security skills and technical professionals, mainly IT ones, with a higher need of information security skills. For each of these 4 profiles, we have defined essential units of learning and we are now in the process to develop training materials to acquire those identified units. In the project Website you will find these materials so you can train your own students and teachers and contribute to a safer digital world! http://www.cyvetsecurity.eu/intellectual-outputs/

The Erasmus+ project Mobiliteach, coordinated by UNISER, is coming to an end this month. The aim of the project was to train teachers to better prepare students to work in an international environment, being this through a mobility experience or by the integration in international teams. To do so, we created a summer school based on peer learning and experiential learning, hosted each time in a different country, which offered VET teachers from Italy, Basque Country, France, Germany and Slovenia the possibility to get in touch with colleagues from abroad, enjoying an international experience. We celebrated 2 editions of the summer school within the project, one in Bologna (IT) and one in La Rochelle (FR), dealing with the following topics: –          Intercultural communication and awareness. –          Management of mobility projects. –          International WBL We will keep on using the summer school concept to offer international training to teachers on different topics. Don´t miss the project Website to be updated with the possibilities we will bring you! www.mobiliteach.net

During the second transnational meeting of the Erasmus+ project “People in Work Based Learning”, hosted by the Federation of Metalworking Companies from Biscay in Bilbao, we defined a model to transfer the ECVET technical framework to the implementation of work-based learning by VET schools and companies in Slovenia, Italy and Spain. This week in Kranj (Slovenia), we are celebrating a training activity for teachers and companies in order to transfer this model and organise a pilot of it which will start in February and around 30 companies from the different countries will participate. The model and tools we have created, as well as the results of the pilot experience will be available along 2020 in the project Website: http://people-in-wbl.com/

Mobiliteach Summer School is an Erasmus+ project aimed to create a summer school dedicated to mobility, dealing with the different aspects related to it: intercultural preparation, administrative management and work -based learning abroad. During the first year of the project, the partners from Italy, Belgium, Slovenia, Germany, Portugal and Spain worked in the design of a programme and the development of the necessary materials to deliver a first pilot Mobiliteach Summer School, which took place in Bologna (Italy) between the 25th-29th of June 2018. With the feedback from last year, this July we carried out the second MobiliTeach summer school in La Rochelle (France). From HETEL´s side, 2 teachers attended the summer school in La Rochelle: Karmelo Usategi (Zulaibar Arratiako Lanbide Ikastegia) and Izaskun Arratibel (Egibide). As one of the trainers taking part in the summer school, Tamara Rodríguez, coordinator of international projects in HETEL, highlights “the good spirit the participants showed, their motivation and their personal involvement in all the activities, sharing their own experiences and own ideas on how to use what has been learnt when they go back to their job”. The programme, contents (and some funny pictures!) of the Mobiliteach Summer School in Bologna and La Rochelle can be consulted in the Website: https://mobiliteach.net/

On the 4th July HETEL FP was awarded with the Honor Plaque of the “Orden Civil Alfonso X el Sabio” by the Spanish Minister of Education and Vocational Education and Training. The recognition was given by Ms Isabel Celaá, Spanish Minister of Education and Vocational Education and Training, who  stressed that “the education is the oil of our society, supporting the development of human beings, as an essential tool for equality and indeed the door for a growing economy.”  Following these words, HETEL FP, has been recognized for their “efforts to improve the Basque Country VET system thanks to their excellence innovative projects which aims to improve the working opportunities of the younger generations and to match with the industry needs. “The Orden Civil Alfonso X el Sabio means for HETEL new enhancement to their work to improve the VET system in the Basque Country” has said Julen Elgeta President of HETEL “HETEL is growing: with more centres, more services, but also within their passion and engagement towards the improvement of the VET system”.  As Elgeta said this “award means a national recognition, and recognized their work as fundamental actors who are engaged with the training and working opportunities for the youngest”. Elgeta acknowledged HETEL team who are working really hard every day to open new working paths, of innovation and services to their network centers and for those youngest that are making VET as a real first choice. Concluding, he has greeted, as well, the Spanish Minister of Education and VET for supporting their work and engagement.