The erasmus+ - project "Coastline"

In 2020, the "Coastline" project will be launched, which aims to improve learning mobility and the exchange of pupils as well as trainees in a framework of partner schools within the European Union. One of the mains goals is, to promote the development of personal skills. We are pleased that the project has already been approved for two years.

In addition to our school (TBZ), the project "Coastline" initially comprises three partner schools, two in Spain and one in Portugal, which are all located in coastal regions (Coastline). These schools are subject to regional economic and social changes. Examples of this are the closures of shipyards in the 1980s and 1990s, or the current situation of the steel industry, with an effect on entire professions as well as vocational trainings.

A team of teachers from different areas of the TBZ will therefore set out together to explore the wide range of cooperation opportunities with these three schools. A new trend in career orientation is also being considered: the so-called job shadowing, which originally comes from the USA and means, that you follow a teacher during his/her job routine for a limited period and thus get an insight of how foreign teachers work.

A questionnaire and observation sheet has been developed for the project with the following criteria:

1. Testing job shadowing in terms of its suitability as a central method of exchanging best practice and cooperative development of professional education.
2. Examination of the transferability of job shadowing to other occupational schools and partner countries.
3. Development of preparatory measures to organize the mobility of trainees.
4. Analysis of learning content at partner schools for the development of additional qualifications within the framework of the planned mobility of the trainees.
5. Analysis and comparison of the applied vocational didactics concepts within the participating schools.
6. Investigation of the possibility of establishing the learning field concept under the use of learning situations (= project-shaped, process- and task-oriented learning in problem-related situations of occupational reality) as a connecting didactic concept, between the participating teachers and for further use beyond this mobility.

After evaluating the questionnaire, the cooperation agreements between the TBZ and the partner schools will be concluded – with mutual recognition of learning outcomes. The Coastline project aims to prepare the entire process and helps to consolidate communication and exchange between the participating schools.

The erasmus+ - project "Taccle VET"

Improving Skills and Competences of VET teachers and trainers in the age of Artificial Intelligence

AI is particularly important for vocational education and training as it promises profound  changes in employment and work tasks. There have been a series of reports attempting to predict the future impact of AI on employment producing varying estimates of the number of jobs vulnerable to automation as well as new jobs which will be created.  The implications in VET lies in changing tasks and roles within jobs, requiring changes in initial and continuing training for those ones in work as well as those ones in training for a job. There is an urgent need for young people to be equipped with a knowledge about AI meaning the need for teachers and trainers to be similarly equipped is imperative.Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be defined as a computer system that has been designed to interact with the world in ways we think of as human and intelligent. Ample Data and cheap computing and AI algorithms mean technology can very quickly. The economic power of AI cuts across all economic and social sectors including education.

The project develops innovative methods, pedagogies and learning materials in the form of Open Educational Resources  to support the effective use of Information and Communication Technologies to provide initial training and continued professional development for VET teachers and trainers in Artificial Intelligence.

The project will seek to support VET teachers and trainers in extending and adapting open curriculum models for incorporating AI in vocational education and training. Furthermore the project will develop an Open Online Course in AI in education in English and German open to all teachers and trainers in VET in Europe. The course materials will be freely available for other organisations to use for professional development. 

The erasmus+ - project "Kart"

Together with schools from France, Italy, Malta and Spain we want to develop more practical and international lessons for dedicated car mechanic students. In addition to this, we would like to make the topic ‘electric mobility’ more tangible for our students. For this purpose, our schools applied for an Erasmus+ joint project to start in the school year 2018/2019. The goal of the project is the planning and manufacturing of an electric kart by each school, charged by different energy sources. As the other schools rely on approved energy sources, we want to have a try at energy harvesting. Here, the electric energy is generated by pressure. This principle is known from the piezo igniter in lighters.

These exchanges are planned for the three years of the project:

During the project the current students are involved in the manufacturing process. Furthermore, we build an electric vehicle for future use in class.

For information and application please contact Mr. Kirschner (kart@tbz-bremen.de). 

For the latest news please visit the project homepage.

So far, the following companies support our project:

• BMW Niederlassung Bremen (https://www.bmw-bremen.de/de/home/)
• Weser-Ems-Bus (https://www.weser-ems-bus.de/weseremsbus/view/index.shtml)
• Bremer Eildienst (https://www.bremer-eildienst.de/)