As mentioned on the home page, according to several studies noncognitive abilities such as persistence, motivation, emotional stability or social skills are equally or more important than cognitive capabilities in determining success in the labor market.

Thus this Partnership plans to explore ways Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) programmes could be applied to VET.

Our main aims are to:
1) Explore SEL programmes in different settings and learn about
    - ways they can be applied to vocational education and to after-school Settings,
    - the prerequisites of their introduction on local and on national levels,
    - the kind of trainings needed for VET teachers to conduct SEL classes/courses,
    - the critical success factors for their sustainability,
2) Involve VET students in the exploration and evaluation of the presented best practices,
3) Examine the transferability of the studied methods into the partners' countries,
4) Lay down the foundation for future international joint projects,
5) Disseminate the presented best practices and project ideas in the local and wider life long learning communities.

The setup...

The partnership consists of 4 organizations. Their countries of origin are: Hungary, Germany, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The participating organizations have different profiles and level of experience with SEL.

Our project revolves around four main activities:

- Organizing field trips and workshops within the framework of 3 day partner meetings,

- Local development activities for the adaptation of the new practices to local context,

- Creating a website that would share background literature, project reports and photos with the broader public,

- Creating a toolkit that would help with the implementation of the presented best practices.

Our objectives...

  1. To explore SEL programmes in different settings and learn about:
    - ways they can be applied to vocational education and to after-school settings
    - the prerequisites of their introduction on local and on national levels
    - the kind of trainings needed for VET teachers to conduct SEL classes/courses
    - the critical success factors for their sustainability,
  2. To give the opportunity to VET students to explore and evaluate the presented best practices themselves,
  3. To collect background information (theoretical foundation) regarding the selected practices,
  4. To examine the adaptability of the selected programmes (or elements of programmes) to other countries/environments and to assess the necessary steps for their implementation,
  5. To examine the possibility of future collaboration and initiate joint projects,
  6. To highlight the importance of life skills in enhancing employability,
  7. To evaluate the pertinence of the project's processes.

Our Motivation...

   The long-term employability of job seekers cannot be improved by training schemes that only consider employers’ demands for competencies specificfic to their own immediate-term needs. Noncognitive abilities such as persistence, motivation, emotional stability or general social skills are equally or even more important than cognitive capabilities in determining success in the labour market. Interpersonal and emotional skills are increasingly demanded by many employers, particularly where there is a direct interface with customers or in the field of health care.

Social and emotional learning (SEL) programmes help children and adults to develop the fundamental skills for life effectiveness. SEL helps students to become good communicators, cooperative members of a team, effective leaders, and caring, concerned members of their communities. It teaches them how to set and achieve goals and how to persist in the face of challenges. By increasing their capacity for learning it helps to reduce the achievement gap between high- and low-achieving youth. Some SEL programmes combine classroom curricula with activities outside of the classroom, involving the entire school, parents, and the broader community. Many of the programmes that teach SEL skills have now been rigorously evaluated and found to have significant positive impacts.

The goals of SEL reflect the strategic goals of the European Commission for the development of vocational education and training as well. According to The Bruges Communiqué "it is important to empower people to adapt to new developments and manage change which means enabling people to acquire knowledge, skills and competencies that are not purely occupational. These broader competencies – key competencies – are important to succeed in life, and it should be possible to acquire them as well in VET as in any other form of education." Further, "participating countries should guarantee that initial VET provides learners with both specific vocational competencies and broader key competencies, including transversal competencies, that enable them to follow further education and training (within VET or in higher education) and to support career choices, participation in and transitions within the labour market".

Please let us introduce ourselves...

On the following pages you will find short introductions of the participating organizations
together with their general profile, a linked logo and of course
a description of their role in our partnership.