13.05.2020
Dear Reader,
Our main purpose in publishing these bulletins is to briefly inform you about the activities of our project. We will share our bulletins with you every 4 months during the project.
- Transnational Project Meeting
The 1. Transnational Project Meeting of the project working group consisting of representatives from the project partners was held at TŞOF meeting hall on 20th-21st February 2020. The meeting was attended by the representatives of project partners and was quite efficient for everyone involved.
Started with an opening speech delivered by Enver Yeniçeri, Secretary-General of TŞOF and Zerrin Boztaş, Deputy Secretary-General of TŞOF, the working group meeting continued in accordance with the pre designated agenda.
The meeting offered quite an efficient venue for project partners to introduce themselves and their respective organisations; review the project proposal in detail; explained the financial aspects of the project; revise the time and activity planning of the project; and examine the management, promotion, dissemination, and quality plans of the project. Leading organisations delivered presentations on the first two intellectual outputs of the project and discussed the baseline report and table of vocational competences to be prepared in this context.
They set a date and place for the next meeting and specified the dates of all activities to be undertaken until then. Representatives of the project associate, SUPSI, made a presentation on the preparation of digital training and examination materials, which broadened the horizons of the participants with respect to e-learning, a central element of the project. The meeting was followed by the distribution of certificates to the participants.
The meeting took one and a half days and was concluded in full with the return of our foreign guests to their respective countries.
The activities concerning the management, dissemination, and quality follow-up of the project have been completed. The project has started to work on the first intellectual output. For the purposes of the first intellectual output, a report will be prepared to address the baseline with respect to the inner-city passenger transportation in partner countries and the training needs of drivers will be analysed through a small-scale survey/series of interviews. These results will be taken into consideration to prepare a common table of vocational competences as the second intellectual outputs. The partner countries prepared their draft reports. However, the Covid-19 pandemic slowed down the efforts and resulted in the postponement of the survey. The efforts gained an impetus once again at the beginning of May.
A project Website (www.vocofdrivers.tsof.org.tr) and a Facebook page (vocofdrivers) were started to disseminate the project further and project progress will be shared with the public both on the aforementioned communication media of the project and via the Websites and other media outlets of the project partners.
ABOUT PROJECT
The project proposal No. 2019-1-TR01-KA202-074813 and entitled “Increasing of Vocational Competences of Commercial Vehicle Drivers” involving the Federation of Drivers and Motorists of Turkey as the leading organisation had been submitted in response to the 2019 Call for Proposals under Erasmus+ Programme Strategic Partnerships for Vocational Education and Training (KA202). The project proposal was accepted by the National Agency of Turkey, resulting in the execution of the relevant project contract between our Federation and the National Agency. The project will be implemented between 1st December 2019 and 30th November 2021, i.e. for a period of 24 months.
Coordinated by the Turkish Federation Of Commercial Drivers and Vehicle Owners; the project also involves as partners the Directorate-General of Private Education under the Ministry of National Education and TUMEDEF (Federation of All Education Associations) from the Republic of Turkey; CNA and Training 2000 psc from Italy; PONS from Spain; and IBF from Germany. In addition, a university (SUPSI) from Switzerland is taking part in the project as an associate. The greatest strength of our project stems from the involvement of partners with varying ranges of experience in the transportation sector.
The aim of our project is; to ensure that the drivers employed in the road transportation sector gain the transferrable professional knowledges, skills and competencies through the utilization of digital technologies in the trainings and examinations and to strengthen the capacity for conducting international business and the communication networks of the vocational education-training providers and other social parties in this sector.
At the end of the project activities;
- A report that addresses the evaluation of the legislation regulating the profession of the drivers employed in the road transportation sector in the project’s partner countries, the definition of their profession, the professional standards and national qualifications, trainings, examinations and certifications, the training methods and materials used during the trainings, etc,
- An analysis study where the expectations of the drivers, driver trainers and the employers in the partner countries from the vocational training,
- An analysis study where the professional standards, national qualifications and the training programs related with the professions in the EU and the partner countries are compared and the differences between them are presented,
- A competence map, training methodology and training program for the professions related with the passenger transportation, prepared in participation with all of the project partners in such a manner that will meet the needs of the parties in the sector,
- Digital training and examination infrastructure and materials prepared to be used in the pilot driver training based on the joint training program in question,
- Testing and reporting of the training methods and materials in all of the partner countries on the drivers and trainers and manuals that will provide guidance to the drivers and trainers will be prepared.
