Vezne R. (Yürütücü)
Erasmus Projesi, 2022 - 2025
Background: Why did you apply for this project? What are the needs you plan to address?
The overarching ambition of LeadVET is to enhance vocational teacher education (VTE) and vocational education and
training (VET) by developing sustainable university-school partnerships, together with leadership and networking skills for
professionals in the field. Within VET, the connection between educational and occupational practices is crucial, as VETTeachers
work at the intersection of these practices. The profession of vocational teaching is constantly in transformation,
as jobs and occupations change in response to societal challenges. Teaching and learning practices need to reflect this
continual transformation. In particular, vocational teaching suffers from recruitment and retention issues because it is
difficult for those employees in practical or vocational occupations to combine their professional work with teaching in a
university context. In addition, the age and profile of possible recruits makes it more difficult for them to follow full-time
study courses. LeadVET will address this problem through developing the positive aspects of this 'boundary-spanning'
situation. Having both an academic and vocational perspective is an underrated characteristic, and those who can
develop these dual characteristics are in a good position to: 1) be attuned to the needs of vocational teacher students 2 )
influence the skill levels of employees through effective supervision and training, 3) to develop a research based
vocational teacher education, closely linked to practice 4) to be a positive force for collaboration and partnership in the
VET ecosystem
Objectives: What do you want to achieve by implementing the project?
Overall aim: Better collaboration between university vocational teacher education, vocational schools and enterprises,
which constitute the vocational ecosystem, leading to: Improved recruitment, retention, training and leadership skills and
job satisfaction, for vocational teachers. The concrete objectives are: objective 1/PR1: identify tools for mapping networks
and networking activities across vocational ecosystems objective 2/PR2: Create a model and mentoring system to bridge
the theory-practice gap in vocational teacher education objective 3/PR3: Increase the potential for recruitment of quality
candidates for VET teacher education through partnerships between schools, universities and employers, including initial
teacher education and in-service or professional development Objective 4/PR4: create accessible learning materials to
disseminate the above results, including bite-sized videos, for the leaders and key persons who will facilitate the above
actions within partnerships and networks.
Implementation: What activities are you going to implement?
The activities of the project will include: 1) Producing a robust theoretical model for leadership in collaborative or
partnership in VTE, 2) Producing a framework for how to recruit and educate more VET-teachers by developing inservice
training in partnership with VET schools and companies 3) Producing a VTE-student mentoring system in cooperation
with VET-institutions that bridges the theory-pratice gap in VTE and 4) Producing Academic videos for bitesized
learning for VET/TVE leader and key personnel.
Results: What project results and other outcomes do you expect your project to have?
The formal project results will include: PR1:Mapping networks and roles in Vocational Teacher Education VTE/VET
leaders move in networks to strengthen the theory-practice link and recruitment and take on specific roles there. Within a
literature review, it will first be determined which networks in VTE/VET can be distinguished across countries. The
different stakeholders will also be taken into account. In addition, the literature review will clarify which techniques can
best be used to empirically record such networks. In the empirical part of this result, relevant VET networks will then be
identified through interviews and other survey techniques. PR1 will support all other results. PR2: A model for in-service
training in Vocational Teacher Education We will develop a model for in-service training and professional development
structures in VTE, including curriculum design and learning practices with wide applicability over a range of VTE
subjects, and geographical or educational contexts. The model will be based on three fundamental principles: 1)
Networking is crucial to vocational education, due to the need for direct connection between schools and potential
employers 2) Partnerships, in which all participants have trust, equal rights and responsibilities, should connect key
players such as schools, universities, other VET providers and municipalities 3) Mentoring is important for both VTE
students and VTE educators, in order to share knowledge more effectively and to gain skills. dimensions to their work.
The essential goal of PR2 is bridging the theory-practice gap in networks in, or related to, university-school partnerships
and networks with enterprises. PR3: The essential goal of PR3 is bridging the theory-practice gap in networks in or
related to university-school partnerships, by: 1. Applying the theoretical model developed in PR3 to practice i.e. building a
relevant practical collaboration network model to the Finnish context. The model can be applied to LeadVet partner
institutions. 2. Based on the network model, Haaga-Helia will develop an VTE-student mentoring system in co-operation
with VET-institutions. The mentoring system will be adaptable to LeadVET partners’ national circumstances. VETinstitutions
thus have the possibility to develop VTE according to their interests, and their teachers are motivated to
improve their skills and find inspiring dimensions to their work. PR4: This result, PR 4 will consist of training videos for
VET/TVE leader and key personnel. The videos provide knowledge about how to contribute to establishing and
maintaining sustainable structures and processes between university - school and trades/companies in order to enhance
recruitment and bridge the gap between theory and practice in VTE and VET. We will initially prepare 7 BSL videos
focused on one aspect of practice: • BSL-1 Video will be the general introduction of the LeadVETproject • BSL-2 Video
will be about the role of student-teachers in VET • BSL-3 Video will be about the role of vocational teachers in our model •
BSL-4 Video will be about the role of academic staff and vocational teacher-educators in our model • BSL-5 Video will be
about the role of school leaders in VET networks • BSL-6 Video will be about the role of coordinators at school in
collaborative partnerships • BSL-7 Video will be about the role of coordinator at university in collaborative partnerships.