To meet the challenges of a fast-changing world, VET institutions are adding new kinds of services to the activities they offer. By taking on ground-breaking roles in developing innovation, they are contributing to a dynamic new balance of forces in local and national innovation systems. Among those new services, the ETF has identified Applied Research as one of the key contributions that VET institutions can make to Smart Specialisation policies.
"We need to be the change we want to see," says European Commission Senior Expert Joao Santos. "VET institutions need to stay in tune with rapid technological change and all the big transitions currently underway. And the best way of doing that is via Applied Research."
By engaging with Applied Research, VET institutions can play an active part in the innovation process, generating rapid feedback on new breakthroughs and feeding it immediately into education and training systems. Because of the new dynamics and expanded teacher roles that implies, it may not be an option for all VETs. But for those that successfully integrate it into the ways they engage with society, Santos says that it can be a game-changer:
"Companies – and especially SMEs – will understand that VETs can contribute to their own innovation process. That generates significant added value, and transforms the image of VETs for companies, students, parents, and society as a whole."
It also implies a big change in attitudes. Traditionally, innovation has often been associated with higher education institutions and PhDs. "Right now, in Smart Specialisation, there's an excessive focus on higher education," says Santos. "But it's not people coming out of higher education who are going to be applying the results of research on the shop floor. It's people coming out of VETs. So VETs have to be part of the strategy, or implementation will suffer."
"Applied Research is usually associated with the PhD, Masters and undergraduate levels," says Rogerio Atem, Professor at the IFF Innovation Hub in Brazil. "It's a challenge to develop it at VET level, but the benefits for VET students are mind-opening. Instead of learning to follow specific procedures, they begin actively developing new knowledge."
As someone who works in a developing economy, Atem has learned to be creative when it comes to financing Applied Research initiatives. "Because public finance is problematic, we have had to work very closely with companies," he explains. "We go to them and say: we have students who can solve your real-world problems in a creative way." Smaller companies and start-ups account for some 90% of Atem's corporate partners.
"Larger companies have more trouble understanding what VETs can do for them. SMEs see it in a more concrete way. They realise how the technical/vocational level can help them to solve their problems."
One centre with hands-on experience in supplying Applied Research services is Tknika, in Spain's Basque Country. "There's a lot of debate about terminology," says Tknika's Unai Ziarsolo. "The universities say that what VET centres provide isn't research. Personally, I don't care what you call it. We're providing services to SMEs and industry that help them to solve practical problems. For us, that's what Applied Research is."
Typically, the kind of services that Tknika offers are not being provided by higher education institutions. "The projects in question are often too small for them, or they're working on something more advanced," Ziarsolo explains. "It's not strategically interesting for them to solve these smaller problems. So there's a space there that's not being covered, and that's where we come in."
Yet when VETs – traditionally focussed on training – start to take on the role of service providers, it brings a new set of challenges. "It implies a significant up-skilling of our staff," says Ziarsolo. "We have to learn these new techniques ourselves, in order to share that knowledge with businesses. We have to stay one step ahead of the SMEs and micro-SMEs, in order to be able to offer them something new."
To support that transition, the Basque regional government has allocated resources to VET institutions, enabling teaching staff to dedicate time to developing these research projects. SMEs are contacted and offered Applied Research services via the VET centre's existing professional network. A contract is then drawn up and the company pays for the service. "That's important," says Ziarsolo. "The proof that a company values a service is when they're willing to pay for it. And it also provides us with financial sustainability." To support the initiative, the Basque regional government funds 20% of the overall cost.
But Applied Research is not just about providing services to SMEs. It is also about transferring that technical know-how to VET students. "Our staff get up-skilled in these new technologies, and they then transfer that knowledge to their students," Ziarsolo explains. And yet the staff dimension is also this new approach's biggest challenge. "It's always difficult to find instructors who are willing to take part," says Ziarsolo. "It's easier to go on being a lecturer like before. Applied Research projects involve a lot of additional pressure: deadlines, quality requirements... It's a whole new mind-set. Instructors need to see it as something that delivers real benefits to everyone."
At Cometa Formazione in Italy, those benefits are crystal clear. "The context we operate in is continuously evolving right now," says Paolo Nardi, its International Affairs and Research Officer. "We can't use the same approach forever. Applied Research is an opportunity to keep improving, developing and innovating what we do."
Cometa's role as a VET centre working with disadvantaged and vulnerable young people gives it a unique perspective on what Applied Research has to offer. "For us, inclusion has been a trigger for excellence," says Nardi. "Working with our target population has forced us to change our approach, because the classic approach had already failed with them." At Cometa, Applied Research centres on its own educational activities, with a focus on tutoring programmes and reality-based learning. "We develop new practices, and then transform them into teachable practices," Nardi explains. "The idea is generating knowledge and experience that can then be shared with other centres and new colleagues."
The centre incorporates self-contained business units operating in fields such as carpentry, fashion, and the restaurant industry, in which both teachers and students are able to acquire real job experience. "As a teacher in one of these units, you and your students are working with real customers in the real market," says Nardi. "You have to be competitive every day of the week. You have to know what your competitors are doing, and how they are innovating."
The change that Joao Santos talked about is taking place before our eyes. As training centres discover the rich potential of Applied Research, innovation is taking on a dynamic new role at the heart of the VET curriculum.