VET School-Company Partnerships – Recommendations for company trainers

Company trainers are likely to continue to play an important role in ensuring and developing good partnerships between schools and companies. At the same time, expectations towards company trainers are not always entirely clear. The professional profile and identity of company trainers may be somewhat unclear, and the logic of production, predominant in work place training context, may collide with the logic of education, prevalent in VET schools. Furthermore, the application of modern didactic principles in work place settings is becoming increasingly imperative if enterprises are to maintain a sufficient inflow of well- trained workforce, especially in the light of the shrinking youth cohorts in Europe.

These potential or actual gaps and challenges must be bridged, if school-company partnerships are to be developed further in the future.

• Company trainers should, wherever relevant, establish close and ongoing personal and professional relationships with VET teachers. They should seek systematic and ongoing exchanges of experience and, if possible, engage in common training development activities.
• Company trainers should be encouraged to strengthen their pedagogical and didactic competences and to develop their consciousness about their professional and pedagogical role in relation to trainees.
• In addition, in order to retain and increase the attractiveness of VET training for young persons, company trainers should increase their focus on their relational competences and other personal competences such as team work, the ability to work with young people, and networking and communication skills.
• The training of company trainers should not be overly formalised and not be too lengthy. If the training requirements are too extensive it may reduce the attractiveness for companies to take responsibility for the recruitment and training of trainers. Consequently, flexible and innovative training forms should be adopted in cooperation between companies and VET institutions.Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at VET Partnership between Schools and Companies – the Role of Teachers and Trainers Lessons from a Peer Learning Activity