ECOTRAIN

ECOTRAIN had the main goal to provide ongoing education in the field of environment and sustainability to teachers, trainers, and educators specialising in vocational education and training (VET) ...

ECOTRAIN had the main goal to provide ongoing education in the field of environment and sustainability to teachers, trainers, and educators specialising in vocational education and training (VET) in technical fields. The initiative focused on developing green skills and competencies among staff from 3 VET centers. The project sought to address the key questions: How can VET courses in technical fields be made more resource-efficient and environmentally friendly? What proactive steps can teachers, trainers, and educators take in their workplace to reduce their ecological footprint and contribute to reducing CO2 emissions? How can this knowledge be effectively transmitted to VET learners, many of whom view VET trainers as role models? Therefore, the project focused on developing and testing learning modules for continuing education tailored to VET teachers, trainers, and educators in fields such as glass production, electrical engineering, road transport, and meat processing. The main aims of the project included enhancing the capabilities of the VET staff, strengthening the participating organisations through capacity building, and benefit young learners in VET centers by providing them with valuable knowledge from skilled trainers

Besides the conducted project management activities (two transnational project meetings held in Vienna and online), but also the regular online meetings via Zoom, the following activities were implemented contributing to the successful finalisation of the project: - 6 VET centre best practice workshops regarding eco-friendly practices and methods in technical professions (2 per country) - Development of 3 learning modules with content for the piloting programme (PDF manual and PPT slides) - 6 piloting workshops with 10 VET teachers, trainers and educators each (total: 60 trained VET trainers, 2 workshops per country) - 1 Online International Final Conference where further exchange was enabled between VET staff and organisations.

Within the ECOTRAIN project, all planned outputs were implemented, contributing to the successful finalisation of the project. The following outputs and results were achieved: - Six conducted best practice collection workshops with VET trainers and trainees in three partner countries - Developed Catalogue of Best Practice Examples (available in EN, AT, BG, GR) comprising examples from three coun tries categorised in 5 fields (electrical engineering, glass production, road transport, meat processing, waste management) - 3 developed learning modules focusing on: A. Already existing green best practice examples in technical professions in the VET centres; B: What can be done in terms of acting more environmentally conscious concretely in specific technical professions?; C: What can be done in terms of acting more environmentally conscious on the workplace in general. The modules are available in EN and three partner languages (PPT and PDF) - 6 conducted piloting workshops on national level (2 per country) with 64 VET trainer and trainees - 1 organised international conference with VET trainers who participated in the piloting workshops, but also external company representatives who expressed their interest for the conference.