European project ETOS

MEH partner in new European project ETOS

On Monday the 28th of November the kick off meeting of ETOS project will take place in Lodz, Poland. ETOS, which stands for “Effective Training for Outsiders of the Society”, is a Grundtvig Multilateral project, an action funded by the European Union regarding adult ongoing education.

Erika Grasso, staff member of the Italian organization Formater Vercelli, the lead partner of this project idea, expresses the reason why her VET institution decided to apply for a European financing: “A big portion of adult marginalized population have never seen their competences certified due to lack of completion of any kind of school. As adults, former drop outs, people with learning disabilities, migrants, find themselves missing these recognized skills, not being able to attend standard adult training, thus reducing the already scarce chances to access the labor market and increasing their social exclusion”. Given this general conditions “the aim of ETOS is to create an attractive, practical training model not requiring in classroom attendance, but allowing on the job learning, to transfer and certify basic skills to the target population.” ETOS, in fact, will develop a training model which will be performed on the job and not in classrooms through practical inter-relational activities thanks to entrepreneurs (small, sole proprietorship) becoming adult trainers and supported by experienced tutors. The project will also develop a new EU skills certification based on an innovative evaluation model in line with ECVET system requirements, awarded at the end of the training path”.

The partnership delivering this two year program is composed by 10 European organizations, three from Italy, two from Greece and the UK, one from Bulgaria, Lithuania and Poland. ETOS, in fact, faces several tasks which the consortium will develop according to its expertise closely related to adult training. In details, the project will elaborate a state of the art analysis and a training need assessment among 90 stakeholders in 6 EU countries so as to collect good practices regarding the training of outsiders of the society and to picture the competence gaps of trainers regarding this target group of students. This will lead to a provisional draft of the new to be built training model and certification system which will represent, after testing and finalization, the innovative product of the project.

About ninety adult trainers will perform the pilot training with hundred and fifty final beneficiaries so as to allow the editing of the training and certification handbook along with the guidelines for their use. The participating organisations, which list two public authorities, two Vocational Educational Training institutes, one university, two NGO’s, one profit and two no profit entities, will inform European stakeholders about the development of the project’s actions by means of a project website, newsletters, press releases, media events in 5 EU countries and six local seminars which will be implemented in the participating counties at the end of the two year program.

“An additional strong intention of the partnership” continues Erika Grasso, “is to enable further exploitation of the newly developed training path and the certification system. The plan is to organize two In Service Trainings for European adult trainers, six workshops with stakeholders and decision makers along the project period and to make twenty public institutions committed in requiring ETOS approach on behalf of other EU local training entities”.

More than twenty adults (trainers, academics, psychologists, educators, businessmen) will meet for two days hosted by Społeczna Wyższa Szkoła Przedsiębiorczości i Zarządzania (Academy of Management) to organize and to give life to the first tasks of ETOS, strongly believing in creating vital training tools for marginalized people, thus giving them a higher chance to achieve professional certification and increase their odds to enter an already difficult and challenging labor market.