Enhancing the quality of teaching and learning in vocational education and training

Projects are used to develop innovative solutions to problems, the implementation of which is ensured through project management (PM). In the business context, PM is therefore becoming increasingly important. A study by DB Research (2007) forecasts that project-based business will account for 15 per cent of value added by 2020.

Nevertheless, this development is only being taken into account hesitantly in vocational education and training. On the one hand, there is a lack of teaching materials suitable for the classroom; on the other hand, there is no specific qualification embedded in teacher training. To facilitate the introduction of PM in schools, the University of Bremen and the GPM German Society for Project Management e.V. have developed teaching materials. In the context of vocational education and training, PM is both content (project management) and form (teaching and learning within a project) to ensure the quality of project-based learning.

Based on real-world project assignments, learners are prepared for their future careers.

Following the previous EU ‘PIA’ project with the Eastern European partner countries Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Turkey (as well as Switzerland in an advisory capacity), the PM teaching concept is now also being transferred to the southern European countries of France, Italy, Portugal and Spain as part of the EU project ‘PIA2’.

The aim of the project is (1) to disseminate the concept in the partner countries both horizontally across various sectors and vertically across different forms of vocational education and training. Furthermore, (2) entrepreneurship plays a major role in the project work. Consequently, as part of the project, the PM teaching concept is not only being transferred to the partner countries, but is also being expanded to include entrepreneurship as a learning component within PM.