Building European Learning Opportunities and Networks for Growth in VET

BELONGtoEU gathers 6 partners (VET providers and HEI) from 5 members and candidate countries of the European Union (Italy, Ireland, Estonia, Spain, and North Macedonia). Since even across younger generations opposing political tendencies are rising all over Europe, BELONGtoEU intends to stimulate democratic participation and to deter Euroscepticism. The specific objective of the project is to reduce the perceived distance between EU institutions and citizens, especially students and trainers. The initiative aims to equip trainers from 5 VET schools with the necessary skills and materials to introduce EU studies in their teaching activities, and to increase the EU knowledge in teachers and students and eventually their sense of belonging to the EU. For these purposes, internal and external good practices and learning needs will be analysed. BELONGtoEU will offer training sessions about EU dedicated to teachers, direct beneficiaries of the project, together with a comprehensive and multi-disciplinar e-Toolkit of useful contents. In order to improve teachers’ knowledge on EU matters and to equip them with new teaching methodologies, they will have the opportunity to attend a dedicated workshop in Italy to put their competencies into practice. Moreover, thanks to the mobility opportunities reserved to them, they wil be able to apply for a training trip to the European institutions and for co-teaching mobility exchanges among VET schools partners. E-Toolkit and innovative teaching methodologies will be tested during a piloting phase that will take place in the VET schools. The analysis of the results and the assessment of the materials will help to fine-tune and finalise the BELONGtoEU outcomes, which will be freely accessible at the end of the project. Dissemination is a crucial aspect of the project, and the exploitation of the results will be favoured by the strong collaboration with Sister Projects and international VET providers networks.