Experiences beyond our familiar boundaries enable us to challenge ourselves, learn new things and grow. Our European neighbours offer such experiences, with their diverse economic, social and environmental landscapes, and different languages, cultural traditions and histories. Despite this rich variety on our doorstep, does the FE and skills sector make the most of the opportunities available for its learners and its workforce?
The landscape of vocational and technical education across Europe – including within the European Union – is complex, with different education systems and policies across nations. However, many of the challenges are similar to those facing our own FE and skills sector. Our European counterpart, The European Training Foundation, treats green skills as a priority and there is a shared focus on employer engagement in shaping an industry-ready workforce. Sharing effective practice and innovation, building partnerships and collaborating in these areas can help us, as a sector, to improve our own approaches and deliver against our government’s ambitions to drive clean growth, address skills shortages and break down barriers to opportunity.
At an institutional level, there is also a competitive edge to be gained by considering how international partnerships and experiences might benefit learners and staff alike. On a much broader scale, global issues such as the development of skills to manage the climate crisis and the upskilling and reskilling of people affected by conflict cannot be tackled in isolation. They require a collaborative, cross-border approach.
Higher education (HE) institutions in the UK have long benefitted from collaboration and partnerships with our European counterparts. Universities have been particularly active in receiving EU funding through programmes like Horizon Europe, driving success in research and innovation. Before the UK left the EU, universities’ use of the Erasmus programme to provide students with overseas exchange opportunities was widely known across HE. Less well known, and significantly underused, were the broader opportunities available under Erasmus, expanded to Erasmus+ in 2014, both for learners and organisations across our wider education system and beyond.
Erasmus+ offers a variety of opportunities to individual learners and educators in vocational and technical education settings and in adult education. These range from studying or taking a traineeship abroad, to short exchange experiences and professional development opportunities through training or networking periods abroad. There are also opportunities for organisations and employers to engage in development and networking opportunities and to support policy development. These are all ways for our sector to innovate, improve and build fruitful partnerships – often with funding support. Through my role as an evaluator of Erasmus, I had the privilege to observe first hand examples of vocational and adult education European partnerships, from tackling inclusion and mental health to digital innovation or intergenerational learning.
While the UK has not had access to Erasmus+ since it left the EU in 2020, ongoing negotiations could soon enable us to benefit. If this becomes a reality, the FE and skills sector must take full advantage of the wide range of opportunities for shared learning, collaboration and influencing. In the meantime, we must seize opportunities that exist outside of programmes such as Erasmus+. For example, it is fantastic to see collaboration and fruitful competition through events such as EuroSkills, organised by WorldSkills Europe, which is happening this year in Denmark. I am pleased to support this as part of the UK delegation. Ultimately, when we come together to address shared challenges and embrace overseas partnership opportunities, we build our own capacity to be a world-class FE and skills system that delivers for learners, communities and the whole nation.
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