The first coaching session "Career Education" is completed!

In the first cycle of virtual coaching sessions of the ETF-ENE-PIB (the Vocational Education Association, Latvia) PIB representatives shared their experience in terms of developing career education plans in VET institutions and the activities implemented there to attract primary school students and create growing interest in the profession among the existing students.

Latvian educational institutions, thanks to the opportunity provided by the European Union in terms of a career education support, take a number of varied measures to support career education and they consider that, overall, very solid efforts have been made to greatly promote career education in every VET institution.

Daugavpils Construction Technical School, for example, starts career education from pre-school, organizing field workshops to arouse children's interest in the profession. This approach was a novelty for partners, as no specific attention has been paid to career education at this early age in any of the partner countries, and several partners acknowledged that this is a good idea that would be worth trying to implement in their respective countries.

In general, the workshop leaders - representatives of Daugavpils Construction Technical School and Riga State Technical School - presented their experience on how career education is provided from basic school’s age (for example, career days in primary schools, open days, integrated career classes, etc.) and how it is addressed also in the vocational training phase, for example through internal or regional mastery competitions. This idea also aroused the interest of the partners and stimulated some discussions after the coaching session.

The coaching session took place over two days, in both English and Russian. The discussions were especially lively after the Russian language session, and it was clear that the partners were happy with the new ideas and were eager to discuss them.

Overall, the participants of the sessions came to the conclusion that cooperation with employers is of special importance. According to PIB board member, Ilze Brante, without the involvement of employers and the industry, vocational education is not possible.

The support and involvement of the industry and its companies in both informative and practical activities provides various benefits not only for students but also for employers - the more the employers get involved in the teaching process, the greater the guarantees that the resulting qualifications will meet the actual needs of the industry.

This conclusion was agreed upon by all parties involved in the coaching session - although in some countries there is still some work to be done to make this cooperation with employers successful on a practical level; this is the next series of project coaching sessions, titled “Motivating  and  engaging  businesses to get involved  in  work-based  learning".

If you have an interest in improving your cooperation with employers in WBL, or any questions in this regard, please don’t hesitate to contact us (sigita.jasinska@ovt.lv)! We will be happy to clarify and help.