15 OCT Aragon will have 70 new innovative projects in FP in 2019
These initiatives, which are carried out between educational centres and companies or institutions, contribute to the development of students' skills in technological innovation, industry, bioeconomics or virtual reality.
Councillor Felipe Faci attended the Conference "Innovation in VET in a digital world" in which successful experiences developed in the last academic year and the A.0 digital campus where the students of the future will be trained were presented.
Aragon will have 70 new innovation projects in Vocational Training this coming academic year. This was evident during the opening of the Conference on "Innovation in Vocational Training in a digital world", which today brings together all those responsible for these projects at the Centre for Innovation in Vocational Training (CIFPA) and which was attended by the Minister of Education, Culture and Sport, Felipe Faci. The meeting, which is part of the European Vocational Training Week which is held between 14 and 18 October, aims to highlight the need to establish new methodologies in education in order to achieve professionals who are more competent, creative and, above all, close to the current reality of the productive system.
The innovation projects developed in the Aragonese centres are carried out in collaboration with companies or institutions related to their studies, and seek to contribute to the development of transversal competences of the students. The majority of those to be promoted during the 2019-2020 academic year focus on four specific areas: Industry 4.0 and Digitalisation; Methodological Innovation; Bioeconomics and Circular Economy, as well as Augmented Reality Applications and Virtual Reality to VET.
These projects, as the Minister pointed out, focus on sectors as different as the automotive industry, wine, safety in the workplace, agriculture and tele-assistance, and they were intended to be relevant in a common day, as most of them did not go beyond the centre that develops them until now. The councillor recalled that last academic year another 77 innovation initiatives had already been carried out in different HEIs and IPCs of VET. In fact, in the last two calls for these innovation projects, which are co-financed by the Operational Programme for Employment, Training and Education (POEFE) and, therefore, by the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training and the European Social Fund (75,000 € of dedicated budget in each of the two courses), some priority lines of work have been defined.
For this reason, the event also included the dissemination of good practices and models developed in the previous year in the three Aragonese provinces. Among them, the work carried out by the CPIFP Corona de Aragón and Bajo Aragón together with the IES Miralbueno, the University of Zaragoza, 4×4 Project, Talleres Florencio and the Parque Tecnológico del Motor de Aragón in Electrical Hybridization of vehicles with thermal engine, with which students have been motivated to know all the phases of construction of a vehicle, affecting the possibility of converting it into a hybrid.
Other shared experiences have been the LEOC project that joins the CPIFP Los Enlaces and Lion Rig Studios in the development of a tool that allows teachers to update the traditional contents in new technologies, or the one carried out by the IES Salvador Victoria de Monreal del Campo and Cryosphera SLP, which has worked on an ice generator for ammonia.
Initiatives such as the "Wine Women Experience" of the Joaquín Costa de Cariñena Secondary School, which has sought to promote the professional agri-food family, or Canfranero 3.0, thanks to which the San Alberto Magno Secondary School of Sabiñánigo and Biello Aragón have joined forces with town councils, counties, Renfe and Adif, as well as companies from the area and the Government of Aragón itself to create an interactive model with 3D design, QR codes and Arduino technology to get to know the cultural and artistic richness of the territory, in order to get to know the cultural and artistic richness of the territory,
Finally, the Pedro Cerrada Secondary School in Utebo also took part, whose students, together with four companies, have carried out the necessary reforms to transform a vehicle with an internal combustion engine into an electric one.
The afternoon session, addressed to the coordinators of the innovation projects of the 2019-2020 call, was opened by the Director General of Innovation and Vocational Training, Toni Martínez Ramos.
Creativity and innovation
During the conference, participants were also able to listen to experts in creativity and innovation such as Ana Hernández, José Ramón García Aranda and Esther Borao, general manager of ITAINNOVA.
At the same time, and taking advantage of the celebration of the day, the educational community has highlighted the opportunity that the implementation of the Digital Campus A.0 and the importance it may have for the future of Aragonese education.
Campus A.0 is conceived as a network of Aragonese centres in which studies and cycles related to new technologies are taught, as well as a Teacher Training Centre where the transversal digitalisation skills are worked on and a centre for orientation and entrepreneurship.
The Digital Vocational Training Campus, with its decentralized campus concept, will be the key piece in the piloting and dynamization of the vocational training system in Aragon, whose main agents are the two national reference centres in the area of Commercial Logistics and Transport Management (CIFPA) and in the area of environmental management (CPIFP San Blas de Teruel, which is in the process of qualification), the network of Integrated Vocational Training Centres made up of the CPIFPs Los Enlaces, Corona de Aragón, Movera, Escuela de Hostelería de Teruel, Bajo Aragón, Pirámide, San Lorenzo and Montearagón, as well as the Escuela de Hostelería de Zaragoza, the Escuela Superior de Diseño de Aragón and the Centro de Tecnologías Avanzadas, a national reference centre for image and sound.
This meeting is part of the European Week of Vocational Training, which is held between 14 and 18 October, and in which there are scheduled more than a thousand events throughout the Union, including central events, which will take place in Helsinki. The EU's aim with this initiative is to highlight and communicate the importance of VET.
Vocational Training in Aragon has reached 25,000 students this year, 25% more than five years ago, and the latest student surveys highlight a gradual improvement in the employability index, which reaches 85% six months after completing a degree. In the Community there are 102 centres supported by public funds that offer vocational training courses for 23 professional families.
Source: Aragón_Hoy
Podcast Radio - SER (Hoy por Hoy Zaragoza): Innovation in VET (1) / Innovation in VET (2)
