Europe is facing its greatest threat since World War II. The COVID19 outbreak is triggering unprecedented social & economic consequences. It has brought into question established practices & highlighted the importance of developing digital skills & tools in order to find innovative solutions to meet the new challenges in continuing to offer transnational work-based learning (TWBL) opportunities in the VET sector.

Work-based learning is one of the main areas in European VET policies. Targets & priorities are underlined within core strategies & initiatives, such as the Europe 2020 Growth Strategy, the ET 2020 Strategic Framework & the Agenda for New Skills & jobs.

Before the onset of the pandemic, the difficulties encountered by trainees in securing TWBL were raised at the ‘Future of VET Conference’ in Helsinki, 11-13 Nov 2019. This was identified as a major problem that has now become even more problematic in a COVID19 world & no adequate solutions currently exist.

There is a gap between the requirements of both employers & trainees, creating a vicious circle. Trainees need work-based learning opportunities to get a job & companies need future employees with both qualifications & work-experience. There is a clear & identifiable need to help trainees find opportunities abroad & persuade employers to provide the opportunities that trainees require as the transnational element brings further added-value to a CV & an application.

TWBL traditionally involves a trainee working physically in a company in another country. COVID19 has reduced mobility & led to travel restrictions, thereby creating a need for innovative solutions to continue to provide appropriate TWBL opportunities for trainees if physical mobility is not possible.

For this to happen, trainees require improved digital competences & greater awareness of available digital tools to contribute effectively to a host company if working remotely.

Companies need to be made aware of the possibilities for physical, virtual & blended TWBL & the benefits to the company of hosting a trainee from another country.

The primary objective of our project is to address these challenges by bringing together partners from 6 EU countries & developing 3 main outputs.

Firstly, we will create online tutorials to develop key digital skills required by trainees in varied forms of TWBL: to improve trainees’ awareness & capacity to use digital applications before, during & after a work-placement, strengthening links with EU tools such as the new Europass & allowing them to adapt how they work if required to work virtually.

Secondly, we will expand our research & focus on the views of companies from 6 countries on physical, virtual & Blended TWBL in the light of COVID19. We will use digital questionnaires & analytical tools to design digital marketing materials for TWBL for VET providers to showcase new approaches & the value of hosting trainees from another country to companies.

Thirdly, we will develop an innovative, user-friendly online ‘market place’ to increase TWBL opportunities in a COVID19 context. This will allow the remote matching of trainees & host companies & take into account the needs & expectations of trainees & host companies, leading to improved accuracy in the matching process. With many trainees currently learning remotely, this becomes even more important, especially for smaller VET providers, lacking resources to develop their own platform.

In this way, we aim to facilitate a PERFECT MATCH between the challenges of the COVID19 pandemic & the digital needs of trainees for appropriate innovative transnational work-based learning opportunities.

We will test our outputs in pilot studies in 6 countries, with over 30 host companies & trainees. The project will cater for all categories of VET learner with special attention to the needs of those from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds & less likely to take part in TWBL.

The PM resources will be digital, open-source, downloadable from the PM website & available in 7 languages.  They will empower VET providers to offer high-quality TWBL to their trainees & can be tailored to the needs of specific target groups.

The impacts will be on 6 levels:

+ Develop digital competences of trainees thereby improving the quality of the labour force

+ Identify innovative ways to diversify the types of TWBL available to trainees despite the challenges of COVID19

+ Increase the awareness of companies of the benefits of hosting trainees

+ Increase the quality of the matching process & thereby the quality of TWBL

+ Increase the number of companies prepared to host trainees & thereby the opportunities available to trainees

+ Increase the satisfaction & added-value to involved parties

As D.E. Norman said ‘To get real work experience, you need a job, & most jobs will require you to have had real work experience & a qualification’. The ‘PERFECT MATCH’ project aims to make a substantial contribution in this area.