There are many cases where students drop their studies because of a personal problem. Their educators play (or should play) an important role in their decision, but what skills do they need to have in order to be able to stand by them and inspire them? In order to be able to advise them appropriately? Our project Dropping the Baggage – Investing in the future aims exactly in that!
Dropping the baggage, means looking into the future without carrying any baggages, without reservations and of course without fear. Dropping the baggage means looking into the future with optimism, creativity and courage. As it seems, it does not always happen! A lot of students avoid looking direct in their future. Many students avoid making decisions that will, long-term, strengthen their personality and there are students who certainly think about the present and any difficulties of it.
Last month our partners held an online two-day event with four (4) workshops. The online workshops were carried out after the primary survey conducted on students and educators of VET in each partner country.
Our aims are to:
- Create tools that will help teachers encourage their students to leave behind what keeps them away from education.
- Change their approach of learning, to a more holistic approach and
- Change the existing mentalities, methodologies of education and teaching.
The four (4) online workshops were held during 20 and 21 January.
Our Workshops
Our partners met online and divided into three (3) groups of five-six (5-6) people, one of each country (England, Finland, The Netherlands, Spain, Greece and Portugal), in order to discuss the various views and what prevails in each one’s country.
20/01/2021 Workshops
The first and second workshop were held on 20/01/2022. The main subject of the first on-line workshop referred on changing the existing exclusive attitudes for inclusive education and student empowerment. The first workshop focused on how the hidden agenda could prevent students from dropping their baggage in VET and how teachers can draw up action plans focusing on inclusive education.
Teambuilding – There is no “I” in “we” approach, was the subject of the second on-line workshop. That workshop focused on how VET teachers will let go of personal preferences and on Teamlearning VS Co-learning (teambuilding). After those two workshops, the divided groups of partners, met and presented common and different views on the above issues.
21/01/2021 Workshops
The third and fourth on-line workshop were held on 21/01/2022. The empowerment of students through coaching and mentoring was the subject discussed on the third workshop. Also, it focused on “failure». Furthermore, our partners discussed on “Failing is an opportunity to grow! Helping students learn from failure” and focused on how to help students take ownership of their failure and use it for improved skills development and empowerment.
S.C.R.E.A.M! (Strength, Collaboration, Respect, (self)Evaluate, Achieve, Motivate), the thematic deliverable of our project, was the main subject of the fourth workshop, our partners focused on new leadership roles in VET, Do’s and Don’ts.
The three groups of our partners met together again after the workshops and presented their views on the above issues. As a result, a common basis was co-created on which the project will proceed.
During workshops, all the different points of views were exchanged and analyzed resulting the renewal of the workshops for further discussion and planning of the next steps for the project.
Stay tuned for more!
