The workshop was held within the framework of the 5th edition of the yearly SIF – Skillman.eu International Forum 2019 on “Curriculum design, Sectoral skills development and Ethical issues on Advanced Manufacturing sector” organised by Cedefop's VET toolkit Ambassador Giovanni Crisona. The event took place on October 10th and 11th 2019 in Florence, Italy. Skillman is a worldwide network addressed to introduce skills, competences and innovative curricula for the advanced manufacturing sector within the VET pathways.

The Session co-ordinators were Dr Irene Psifidou, Cedefop Expert and Viktor Miloshevski, Proposal writer and Project Manager for Skillman.eu. Experts participating in the workshop provided very constructive feedback on the usefulness of the VET toolkit by proposing ideas for its future development and improvement. Viktor Miloshevski focus on the importance to use digitalisation and the development of digital skills to serve the needs of learners at risk. Francesco Pisanu, Director Office for the Evaluation of Educational Policies Department of Education and Culture Province of Trento, Italy discussed the phenomenon of the “silent dropouts” and the challenge to timely identify them and intervene to keep them in education and training. He also emphasized the need to offer simple, user-friendly evaluation tools to serve the needs of the policy makers.

Julian Ng, Vice-President (Europe) for IVETA / Warnborough College highlighted the need to address aspects of andrology and teachers’ training to work with disadvantage learners; while  Fadia Khraisat, EU DESK Responsible at the department of the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Spain shared her experience using mobility programmes as a means to motivate learners at risk of dropping out.

The event concluded with a Skillman policy paper with an opinion on the usefulness of the VET toolkit for tackling early leaving and its wide dissemination among VET providers and policy makers.

Find more on the event page here and for more information on Cedefop's workshop here.

Visit Cedefop VET toolkit here: www.cedefop.europa.eu/TEL-toolkit