About

AIM

“Leadership Interaction in Sustainable Partnerships to Enhance Continuous Improvement of Vocational Teacher Education- LeadVET” Project aims to enhance vocational teacher education (VTE) and vocational education and training (VET) by developing sustainable university-school partnerships, together with leadership and networking skills for professionals in the field.

Within VET, the connection between educational and occupational practices is crucial, as VET Teachers work at the intersection of these practices. The profession of vocational teaching is constantly in transformation, as jobs and occupations change in response to societal challenges. Teaching and learning practices need to reflect this continual transformation. In particular, vocational teaching suffers from recruitment and retention issues because it is difficult for those employees in practical or vocational occupations to combine their professional work with teaching in a university context. In addition, the age and profile of possible recruits makes it more difficult for them to follow full-time study courses. LeadVET will address this problem through developing the positive aspects of this 'boundary-spanning' situation. Having both an academic and vocational perspective is an underrated characteristic, and those who can develop these dual characteristics are in a good position to: 1) be attuned to the needs of vocational teacher students 2) influence the skill levels of employees through effective supervision and training, 3) to develop a research based vocational teacher education, closely linked to practice 4) to be a positive force for collaboration and partnership in the VET ecosystem.

ACTIVITIES

The activities of the project will include:

1. Producing a robust theoretical model for leadership in collaborative or partnership in VTE,
2. Producing a framework for how to recruit and educate more VET-teachers by developing in-service training in partnership with VET schools and companies
3. Producing a VTE-student mentoring system in cooperation with VET-institutions that bridges the theory-practice gap in VTE and
4. Producing Academic videos for bite sized learning for VET/TVE leader and key personnel
5. Organizing a training for leaders in VET partnerships 
6. Organizing three multiplier events to disseminate project outputs
7. Organizing an International Conference