- According to the Key Indicators on Education, Skills and Employment 2022 elaborated by the European Training Foundation, acquire Vocational and Education (VET) education enhances the curriculum
- The European Education Area has formed several Working Groups that aims to contribute to make this virtual environment a reality. One of them deals with vocational education and training and the green transition
- Destine project aims to design a new virtual classroom curriculum that promotes diversity tolerance among students and inclusiveness.
Abraham Maslow (1908-1970), in his work “A Theory of Human Motivation”, developed what is known as Maslow’s pyramid, a visual way of understanding human behaviour according to needs. This pyramid has the following levels:
- Basic needs: food, breathing, hydration.
- Security needs: health, housing, employment and therefore education.
- Social needs: friendship, affection
- Recognition needs: trust, respect
- Self-fulfilment needs: success
Once basic needs are met, the individual seeks to meet «security needs» such as health, housing or employment. A range of needs that would not be possible without education. The outbreak of the pandemic showed the difficulties of access to an educational environment for the most vulnerable people, who worsened their social situation by not having the same resources to improve their skills. This is why global education is one of the UN’s SDGs.
In this way, areas such as VET appear to be key to achieving personal development and thus covering all the needs that Maslow points out in his pyramid. According to the Key indicators on education, skills and employment (2022) released by the European Training Foundation, VET programmes offer benefits such as increasing labour market attractiveness through the acquisition of apprpiate skills or mitigating the decline in school drop-out rates.
The research points out that as a result of COVID, many people became overqualified, which was more detrimental than beneficial. That is why actions such as the one DESTINE members are pursuing – making online VET accessible, tolerant and inclusive – are so important. Transferring practical knowledge to the digital world by ensuring accessibility and inclusion is a general duty. Make practical education accessible to all, regardless of background, socio-economic status or national characteristics will improve not only the competitiveness of Europe´s future workforce, but also the economy, society and tolerance.
As December draws to a close, the European Year of Youth gives way in 2023 to the Year of Skills, a year in which projects such as DESTINE take centre stage, making VET in the digital environment a key tool for the future of Europe and the world.
About DESTINE
In a context marked by recent technological changes, shifts in global economic power, accelerating urbanization and demographic changes, coupled with the importance of digital as recently highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic; the DESTINE project, funded by the Erasmus + programme, responds to the challenge of addressing the issues of inclusion, diversity and tolerance in the online and distance learning environment. Specifically, the project aims to develop and improve the skills and competences of teachers, trainers and mentors in the field of inclusion and diversity as applied to e-learning.
About ERASMUS +
Erasmus+ 2021-2027 is the European Union’s renewed programme in the fields of education and training, youth and sport, offering opportunities for all people and in all education sectors (School Education, Professional Training, Higher Education and Adult Education). This new Erasmus+ is more international, more inclusive, more digital and greener, supporting digital transformation, inclusion and diversity, as well as the environment and the fight against climate change. With a budget of more than €28 billion, it will fund learning-related mobility and cross-border cooperation projects for 10 million people of all ages and from all backgrounds.
“This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.”
