DUAL ECOsystems – EU Alliances for ICT

In the course of the project, a compendium of dual approaches to training in the information technology (IT) sector in Italy, Germany, Spain and Northern Ireland will be compiled. To this end, all dual education programs in the participating countries that can be considered fully qualifying, i.e. on level 3 or above of the German/European Qualifications Framework (DQR/EQR) will be analyzed and their strengths and weaknesses described. In Germany, in addition to the classic dual vocational training courses in the sector (level 4), the dual courses of study at bachelor level (6) and the dual master's course of study at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Bremen at level 7 are also included. The aim of the project is to submit a full proposal in the funding line "Centers of Vocational Excellence".

The project partners, within the regional/national Dual System in which they operate, have more or less informally created virtuous local "ecosystems" in the ICT sector to ensure effective local cooperation between the VET actors involved in the delivery of Dual training programmes, for the success of all (student/worker, companies, VET institutions).

Such ecosystems normally involve:

• VET institutions

• Companies, Chambers and companies’ representation bodies

• Workers' associations / Trade Unions

• Universities

• Accreditation and Certification bodies

The project starts from the premise that within the partnership the partners have identified some cases of apparent good practices, that are success factors in the different Dual Systems of the countries involved, which guarantee the proper functioning of the ecosystems, in terms of: high quality of VET paths; raising the employability rate; effective work-based learning system; efficient skills certification system.

“DUAL ECO” project will let partners analyse and share good practices adopted in the 4 local “ecosystems”, and evaluate which good practices have the potential to be transferred to the European level. The partners will conduct an experimentation on some selected good practices, “importing” them into their local ecosystems and applying to existing VET Dual programmes, in order to evaluate the transferability of each good practice at a larger scale.

Once set the good practices to be evaluated, the partnership will agree on general and specific “evaluation indicators”. Each local ecosystem will run an on-going evaluation on the effectiveness of the good practices applied. At the end of the programmes, a “Final evaluation on the effectiveness of the good practices applied” will be carried out by each local ecosystem. On the basis of the evaluation outcomes, each local ecosystem will draft a brief report on “Evaluation on the transferability of the good practices applied”, in order to improve the final version of the Handbook. The latest release of the Handbook can be shared in all UE national context for the application of good and transferable practices of the model developed (Dissemination of the project results).