PROJECT EVENTS

skillME MEETINGS took place each 6 project months in one of the participating project countries and were dedicated to discussing ongoing activities, presenting finalized outputs, planning future project steps, clarifying open questions, and networking among partners. During the project lifetime, 7 project meetings took place:

skillME partnership met for the first time at the Kick-off meeting on 20 January 2015 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The Kick-off meeting was hosted by the project coordinator, Metal Processing Industry Association of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia. Following the presentation of all partners, the project's aims and goals, main objectives, work packages, and project activities were outlined and discussed, and operative steps for the beginning of the project were set.

Following the project kick-off meeting in Ljubljana, Slovenia on 20 January 2015, skillME partners met for the second time at the second project meeting in Riga, Latvia on 15 July 2015. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the progress of the project, to construct a framework for the upcoming project activities and to present the outputs created so far in the project.

skillME participants met for the third time at the third project meeting in Zagreb, Croatia on 8 and 9 December 2015, which was attended by all project partners. The meeting lasted for two days, during which partners discussed in detail the progress of the project, outlined the main achievements, potential issues and activities to be implemented in the next project phase. The main focus of the project meeting  was to present desk research findings, which revealed the four most crucial detected skill gaps, and to give an overview of the future curricula design activities.

skillME partners met for the fourth time at the fourth project partners' meeting in Bratislava, Slovakia on 18 and 19 May 2016, which was hosted by the Slovakian project partners ZEP SR, SIOV and SPEST and attended by all project partners. The meeting was, above all, dedicated to the presentation of the progress of the curricula and training materials design, coordinating activities, and solving potential issues and questions related to it, and to gathering information and materials for the drafting of the Interim progress report.

On 19 and 20 October 2016, partners met at the 5th partners' meeting in Dubrovnik, Croatia. The project coordinator presented the positive feedback on the Interim progress report, which reflected the solid partnership and dedicated work of the project partners to achieving the best possible outputs in the project. Next, partners focused on the presentation of the designed training learning materials and set a detailed work plan for the implementation of the designed trainings in all four participating countries. 

On 9 and 10 May 2017, project partners organized the 6th project partners' meeting in Liptovský Mikuláš, Slovakia, which was hosted by the Slovak project partner ZEP SR – Association of the Electrotechnical Industry of the Slovak Republic. The focus of the meeting was the presentation of finalized, ongoing and future project activities primarily connected with pilot trainings implementation. VET partners presented the results and findings and tried to evaluate the functionality and adequacy of the implemented curricula.

The final partners meeting took place on 3 October 2017 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in the premises of the coordinating project partner CCIS. At the final meeting, partners presented the final project results pertaining to the implementation of pilot trainings. Overall, partners implemented 34 pilo trainings in the scope of 824 hours, which were attended by 462 students and workers from Slovene, Slovak, Latvian and Croatian VETs and workers from 70 metal and electro companies of various sizes. The participants were extremely satisfied with the training as it offered them a chance to gain competences in a concise form from the filed of Machine Vision, CAD/CAM, Reading Technical Documentation, and Composite Materials as key state-of-the-art knowledge essential for the industry of today. At the final meeting, partners also formed an Alliance for the Advancement of VET in the Metal and Electro Industry by signing the Alliance Founding Document. They planned their future activities regarding the Alliance, which will serve as a platform for connecting various stakeholders from the metal and electro industry. In the end, the project coordinator thanked all partners for their focused work, successful collaboration and great working atmosphere and concluded to continue with work in the same manner in the framework of the Alliance.