SMART INFORMATION MODELS FOR ADEQUATELY ADAPTING VET TO THE LABOUR MARKET NEEDS (SIMOVET)
Labour market monitoring can play an important role in reaching the goals of the Europe 2020 strategy: high levels of employment, productivity and social cohesion. However, there is a lack of adequate information concerning the real skills needs of companies, often resulting in inhibiting the competitiveness of European companies. Our strategic partnership supports the development, transfer and implementation of smart innovation systems aimed at reducing skills mismatches. Through exchange with knowledgeable and experienced actors from different European regions, different ways for improving labour market instrument in regard to the skills needs of companies are explored and tested. The project activities focus on regional and local labour market monitoring instruments.
Start date: 1 September 2014, finish date: 30 August 2016
Activities
At the outset of the project, a database of 25 good practice examples is established. The compilation shows how labour market monitoring can tackle skills mismatches through involving targeted information on the demand-side for skilled labour. This step is followed by a thorough analysis of the skills formation system and the companies’ skilled labour needsin a region or locality in Spain, Germany, the UK and the Czech republic.
Through interviews and workshops with the important stakeholders in the regional VET system crucial elements of labour market monitoring instruments delivering information on the demand-side of the labour market are be identified. Based on these insights, a pilot project for improving an existing regional/local labour market monitoring instrument is implemented in every country involved in the project.
All these activities are carried out in close exchange with the key actors of the local and regional skills formation systems in the participating countries.
The results of each activity will be made available in the section “RESULTS/PUBLICATIONS” in the due course of the project.
Results/Publications
Searchable Database of Good Practice Examples
This new resource presents 26 case studies each of which has been identified, through the SIMOVET partnership, as a good practice. Each best practice explores a different approach to ensuring that vocational education and training in a region or locality is tailored to the needs of employers and to the growing and future needs of the economy. The database is searchable by a number of terms and criteria including ‘sectors’, ‘audience’ and ‘methodology’.
Download database
Download compendium
Evaluation Report of best practices
This output transforms the best practices of the database into relevant information for VET decision makers. The good practices have been externally and internally evaluated through contrast with different VET agents and the expertise of the partnership. The report provides a clear picture of the most adequate best practices for a given region identified from the database.
Regional Working Groups
Every participating region has started up a regional working group in order to establish a feedback mechanism between VET and the labour market. The following report provides a description on how these working groups help improve the information systems to give the opportunity to VET systems to renew themselves and to assess the usefulness of the methods and the information for the decision making process.
Pilot Projects
Based on the benchmarking of good practices across Europe and their evaluation, the Simovet partners have launched pilot projects in the existing information systems of all regions incorporating new information sources of business needs in terms of professionals and skills. The deliverable of this output provides a detailed description of each pilot project.
Case Studies
The Anthology of case studies summarises and showcases the different pilot projects. For a quick and visual glance take a look at the case studies and if necessary use the pilot projects report to go more in depth. The anthology helps to analyse in which ways the information model has improved and how the VET system is receiving inputs from it.
Career Guidelines
As a result of the pilot projects carried out and the case studies analysed, the Simovet partners have produced specific career guidelines for their regions. The guidelines are suitable for two specific segments of potential consumers: professional career advisors and young people and adults who are at the stage of choosing a vocational training.
Download (ES)
Download (UK)
Download (DE)
Download (CZ)
Lessons Learned
At this stage, it is vital to receive feedback from the VET system in each region about the usefulness of the new or adapted information on the labour market. After contrasting the case studies with key stakeholders (VET providers, public authorities and other organisations related to the VET decision making process), the partners have developed a report detailing the lessons learned from their experience of piloting practices as well as from the corroboration with stakeholders.
