Today we had the presentation”VET Excelence Centers and VET political options in EU” by João Santos, from the European Commission, and later on, we had the opportunity to have an open Dialogue with him.

João Santos is Deputy Head of Unit in the Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion at the European Commission in Brussels. The Unit is responsible for Vocational Training, apprenticeships and Adult education, as well as for the Erasmus programme in these policy fields.

We also spent the rest of the morning in workgroups for project networking and brokerage, having the opportunity to meet our partners.

Aquí teniu algunas imatges del primer dia de feina de 80 educadors d’escoles i associacions salesianes d’arreu d’Europa.

Hem estat parlant dels programes “Erasmus + in times of COVID” i veient com ha afectat aquesta situació els projectes que tenim en marxa. I, d’altre banda, s’ha presentat el nou projecte KA3 “DB WAVE”, del qual ja us hem parlat i fa pocs dies, us vam ensenyar el seu logo.

Demà més! Us mantindrem informats!!!

The DBWAVE project, supported by the “Erasmus+” program of the European Union, turns one year old.

The project, which includes 8 Salesian partners from 6 different countries, including the European organization “Don Bosco International” (DBI), aims to strengthen the European Salesian Vocational Training (VT) network.

A year ago, the partners of the project gathered at the Salesian house in Aschau-am-Inn (Munich, Germany) to start a process that was destined to last two years. The pandemic then delayed some peer learning and peer review, which can be recovered with an extension of the project for a further six months, but did not stop some processes aimed at supporting the internationalization strategy of national networks of Salesian VT.

At the end of the first year, the partners involved students of Salesian VT from Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Hungary in a competition for the selection of the official logo of the DBWAVE project.

The winner, creator of the logo, is Davide Bovo, a student of the Graphics courses of the CNOS-FAP Vocational Training Center in Mestre (Venice, Italy).

Soon also the project’s website will be accessible online: http://dbtecheurope.eu/

This year we will have a different kind of meeting, totally online, on the 18th and 19th November 2020.

For the first day, we share some good practices of Erasmus in times of COVID: it is an opportunity for us to know how to respond to the challenges posed by this pandemic and how to overcome limits and contingencies. This first day also, we will have with us the new Youth Ministry Councillor, Fr. Miguel Ángel García, who will address us a word of greeting.

On the 19th, we will also have Mr. João Santos, an important representative of the European Union, responsible for the Erasmus programmes, who will speak to us about the challenges of the Centres of Excellence and the policies for Vocational Training for the coming times of the European Union.

Because of COVID19, the Salesian Schools and T-VET EuroProjects meeting this year will not be able to be hold in Brussels as planned. The conditions are not met for us to be able to hold it in person. However, we do not want to miss the opportunity to meet!

In this sense, we will keep the meeting planned for 18 and 19 November 2020, but online. We will use only part of the mornings of these two days (9h00 -12h30). The 18th will be dedicated to our projects (what kind of European projects can be developed in the context of a pandemic like COVID?) and the sharing of some good practices. For the 19th, we will have with us Dr. João Santos from the European Commission, an expert on European projects. It will be a great opportunity to make us aware of the proposals of the new Commission and a unique opportunity to make ourselves known as a “Salesian network” in this European context!