A SPEECH BY ANDREA LOMBARDI (UNISER)

A new generation of VET Mobility Programmes at the European Parliament

Andrea Lombardi Uniser CEO (Uniser is member of iMOVE) talked about how VET is nowadays the first choice but also often the only choice for many categories of learners and how Erasmus can be the only way to live a mobility experience.

On behalf of EfVET, he introduced the new position paper “A new generation of VET Mobility Programmes” to a Stakeholder Meeting at the European Parliament, hosted by MEP Emilian Pavel and organised by the Youth Intergroup, on the topic “Erasmus+ 2021-27 Pupils Mobility and VET”.

During his speech Andrea Lombardi identified the profile of many VET learners as a target group “pupils which failed in school education, kids with difficult social and economic background, young people with fewer opportunities and at risk of social exclusion”.
“A new generation of VET Mobility Programmes” outlines the main results provided by EfVET online consultation on VET Mobility Programmes and it focuses on the elaboration of the surveys collected from EfVET members, active in VET mobility, representing through their rich networks that includes 276 VET providers, 23 Mobility providers,17 member states and reaches over 4.000 VET learners and staff mobilities per year.

For a more inclusive mobility

The position paper presents a series of recommendations to ensure that future mobility programmes will be inclusive for this wide part of VET learners, by considering short term mobility as important as Erasmus Pro. Ok, the budget issues exist, but the EfVET paper propose (as Lombardi explained at the European Parliament) the possibility to create two budget lines, “ensuring that the minimum individual support will be sufficient to cover all the costs of the experience, in order to avoid financial burden on participants.
The VET Charter is the first essential step to make mobility a regular part of VET curricula. As EfVET recommends for the future programme a smooth renewal process for charter holders as well as the flexibility to allow those organisations to include other schools and as multipliers of mobility opportunities thanks to the experience they developed.

Availability and great expertise is the key

The future of EfVET is a place “where mobility opportunities will be available in any VET school in Europe and pointed out Mobility Consortia as a model to push forward in order to make it happens”. Additionally, he suggested “to substitute in the programme guide the word “intermediary organisation” with “Mobility providers”, as is mentioned at EfVET position paper. As a result of EfVET consultation, Lombardi explained, “that we see that the use of external support from professional organisation is a relevant phenomenon, which more and more VET providers decide to go for. To adopt a technical name would be a first step to highlight the need for experience and precise quality standards from organisations wishing to provide these services”.

Next steps in the world of VET

The “Erasmus+ 2021-27 Pupils Mobility and VET” stakeholder meeting represented another step forward in the pathway to improve VET mobility in the next Erasmus programme. At least but not last, EfVET Annual Conference 2018, will represent a unique moment to gather stakeholders and institutions together to talk about the future of Vocational Education and Erasmus+ programme.