International Conference on Vocational Training 2021

November 15, 2021 |

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International Conference on Vocational Training 2021

“VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING IN THE ERA OF HUMANITY, TECHNOLOGY AND INTELLIGENCE”

The International VET Congress organised by the Basques Country Government & TKNIKA “Vocational Education and Training in the age of humanity, technology & intelligence”, took place in San Sebastian, Spain, on the 10^th and 11^th of November 2021. The Congress gathered 1000 present participants and 4000 connected from 150 countries. EfVET members had the chance to meet participants from all over the world.

The fourth industrial revolution, the digital transformation and the development of intelligent systems are transforming societies. Many jobs will become obsolete, or change substantially, and new ones will emerge. Businesses, especially SMEs, have, and will continue to have, serious difficulties in adapting to the transitions and remaining competitive. On top of this, the planet is starting to show signs of exhaustion. The green transition is a necessity: if societies do not become sustainable, the world as we know it will disappear. Furthermore, globalisation, driven by digitalisation, continues to advance by leaps and bounds to the point where everything we do in one place affects and is in turn affected by, what happens in others.

In this context, Vocational Education and Training becomes a key transforming agent: it trains the workers of the future, enables those who are active to adapt to the changes, inserts the unemployed into the labour market and allows companies to be competitive.

The conference “VET in the age of humanity, technology and intelligence” allows you to reflect, at an international level and with speakers of the highest level, on what Vocational Education and Training can do to enable societies to overcome the challenges of the technological-digital and green transitions.

The morning started with a welcome Mr. Jokin Bildarratz (Minister of Education of the Basque Government). He was followed by Mrs. Clara Sanz (General Secretary for VET at the Spanish Ministry of Education), Ms. Manuela Geleng (Director of Unit, DG-EMPL, EC), then Mr. Jorge Arévalo (Vice Minister of VET of the Basque Government) and Ms. Chiara Riondino (Head of Unit for VET, DG-EMPL, EC).

In the afternoon the EfVET team and other participants had the opportunity to visit four innovative VET centres in the region around the following areas:

Intelligent Energy and Advanced Manufacturing: CIFP Usurbil LHII
Intelligent Manufacturing. Industry 5.0. Intelligent digital space and immersive digital space: CIPF Miguel Altuna LHII
0 Environment. 3D printing for Manufacturing, food and bioprinting: CIFP Tolosaldea LHII
Robotic additive manufacturing, high-precision industrial 3D printing, cybersecurity, food characterization, cell biology, bioprinting, precision farming: TKNIKA

After the VET centres visit, João Santos (EC, Senior expert at the DG-EMPL, EC) presented the European initiative on Vocational Excellence. João Santos highlighted three factors of success of the European Centres of Vocational Excellence: strong enduring partnership, integration of activities and strategies for regional development and said that “There is no excellence without true inclusion” and showed the video of GIVE project.

During the key to excellent Vocational Education and Training Boudewijn Grievink introduced the “PoVE Water Project”.