Cluster Countries
Within this project some active partners are guiding other countries that are not directly involved in this project. These countries are called “cluster countries”. The main task of the partners that are in charge for cluster countries is to inform relevant stakeholders, to involve them into important ongoings within this project and to disseminate results of the project.
The ibw – Institute for Research on Qualifications and Training of the Austrian Economy mentores the countries Slovakia, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Hungary and the Principality of Liechtenstein. The contacts could be made through personal or official channels that the ibw gained from former projects, events or international meetings. All these listed institutes were pleased to get in contact with the project and were helpful to support parts of the working tasks, e.g. the survey. But not only the working parts are supported; the contact with all these institutions underlines the network character of the project. Synergies could also be used in other projects, like the consulations seminars held by BIBB – Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung.
For the Czech Republic we could get in touch with NUOV – National Institute of Technical and Vocational Education. Due to the excellent contact to this institute it was possible to bring NUOV as associated partner into the project.
The Hungarian Observatory for Educational Development is the contact for Hungary. The Observatory is hosted by the National Institute of Vocational Education (NIVE) – a co-ordinator of vocational education and training (VET) development and research.
Slovenia is involved in the project by their National Institute for Vocational Education and Training. In Slovakia we communicate with the Slovak Observatory of VET.
In Liechtenstein we have contact with the AAB – Amt für Berufsbildung und Berufsberatung. It is a legal body that is responsible for the apprenticeship training in this small country.
As an example I want to present you the situation of VET in the Principality of Liechtenstein. Liechtenstein is a small country with about 35 600 inhabitants. Due the size their VET system cannot be compared with other European countries. Although they have a University and secondary schools with VET orientation there is no system of secondary higher VET schools or colleges. The VET system in Liechtenstein concentrates very much on apprenticeship training with an obligatory training in enterprises and part-time VET schools. Within the training enterprises they have to have IVET trainers available who should be skilled in their occupation as well as in pedagogical issues. For their pedagogical know-how they can attend a training that is not obligatory. In 2008 Liechtenstein had 1194 apprentices trained. By a total number of 32 500 employed people we can speak about a rate of nearly 4 per cent of apprenticeship training.
