PoVE Water Scale up project presented to the Pilot Pove Water partnership following its submission

PoVE Water Scale up project presented to the Pilot Pove Water partnership following its submission

The PoVE Water Scale up project – whose application was submitted on September 6, 2021 – has been presented to the Pove Water Pilot project partnership in their last meeting in September.

The principle that animated the well consolidated partnership at the second application is “Water is life” and this is a precondition for human, animal, and plant life as well as an indispensable resource for the economy and fundamental in climate regulation.

The proposed project PoVE Water Scale-up is a joint initiative of 8 VET schools, 7 Water industry professionals, 4 academic partners and 4 support partners in Europe (NL, DE, MT, CZ, LV, EE, BE) and beyond (SA) to educate our VET students to become agile, digitally skilled and sustainable oriented water sector professionals that our future desperately needs.

The aim of the project is to integrate Vocational Excellence in the Water sector, thus ensuring high quality skills and competences that lead to quality jobs and careers, meeting the needs of an innovative, inclusive and sustainable economy.

The specific objectives and activities are as follows:

• To expand the holistic approach to Vocational Excellence in the EU Water sector by securing a central role of VET in the regional Innovation Ecosystems and further developing strong and enduring relationships between VET, research & the water industry.

• To expand PoVE Water geographically in a sustainable way (environmentally and economically) in line with the EU Green deal by setting up and interlinking CoVE Water networks that operate on Regional level.

•  To drive innovation in water related VET on a regional and EU level by developing contemporary (Digital, VR) learning materials.

• To ensure that current and future water sector professionals have the key skills & competences demanded by developing blended training programmes.

• To increase students, teachers, and professionals’ competence for international mobilities by organising international mobilities as common practise in Water related VET.

• To build EU and global recognition for PoVE Water as a worldwide point of reference for VET in the water sector.

• To future proof the workforce for the Water sector and avoid a brain- & skills drain by securing current and increasing future students in water related studies.

Some interesting facts as follows: 

• 41 triple helix partners signed a Letter of Support to back our project application and the ambitions we have for the future, including several regional governments. 
• The partnership (full partners) grows from 12 partners in the pilot project to 23 partners in the scale-up project, including a partner in South Africa (Stellenbosch University).
• In the Scale-up project: CoVE Water Friesland will grow to CoVE Water West-EU, CoVE Water Malta will grow to CoVE Water Mediterranean, CoVE Water Latvia will grow to CoVE Water Baltics and CoVE Water Czech Republic will grow to CoVE Water Central EU.