Launched in November 2021, the project addressed the need for career pathways for those seeking to develop skills for future employment and the need for VET organisations to provide new learning opportunities for individuals to acquire these skills. It also addressed the need, identified by Cedefop, for new tools for careers and employment professionals to support adults (especially those with low skills) in identifying new skills and employment possibilities.
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My CAREER PATHWAY WEB PORTAL
Have you visited the Career Pathways Web Portal? The Web Portal Career Pathways provides access to Labour Market Intelligence based tools for unemployed adults and those seeking new employment to explore potential new jobs based on their skills and to enter vocational education and training for skills updating.
On 26th June, ACP organized a dissemination event for the international Erasmus + "Career Pathways" project.
We shared with a group of adult educators, adult students, career guidance technicians, and school directors the final version of the "My Career Pathways Web Portal", as well as the other resources produced by the project's partners.
On 20th June, FORAVE and TecMinho, organised another dissemination event for the international Erasmus + "Career Pathways" project.
The workshop, to share the final version of the "My Career Pathways Web Portal", as well as the other resources produced by the project's partners, was aimed at adults, teachers/trainers, career guidance technicians, and school directors, and was held at Escola D. Sancho I, in Vila Nova de Famalicão, for a group of over 50 people.
Partners in the ERASMUS + “Career Pathways” project, TecMinho and Escola Profissional FORAVE organised an online workshop during which participants had the opportunity to explore the functionalities of the “My Career Pathways Web Portal” platform and the other resources produced by the project's Portuguese, Spanish and Greek partners.
Ana Silva Dias, the project coordinator from TecMinho in Portugal, and Graham Attwell, the project creator from Pontydysgu in Spain, presented the Career Pathways project at the 6th International Congress on Social and Educational Inclusion (CIISE 2024). The event took place on May 24-25 at the Sarriko Faculty of Economics and Management, University of Bilbao, and was conducted in a bimodal format (both face-to-face and online).
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UPV researchers conducted three workshops during May 2024 in different VET schools—both public and private—scattered across the three provinces of the Basque Autonomous Community. In Gipuzkoa, we partnered with Don Bosco VET School to conduct a series of sessions in both Basque and Spanish during the second and third weeks of May. In Araba, we visited Molinonuevo Egibide and Arriaga Egibide VET schools. In Biscay, we teamed up with Txorierri (May 31th) and Santurtzi-Calasanz (May 20th) VET schools and conducted a session in each center.
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On 14th May, UPV attended the annual Innotecs conference, an event dedicated to knowledge sharing and collaboration between educational and research organizations dedicated to innovation in VET education. Current annual conference was celebrated in Andra Mari VET school in the Basque town of Galdakao.
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Three online workshops were conducted in April of 2024. The online events focused on the engagement of young professionals, unemployed adults and VET (Vocational Education and Training) providers and staff with the ‘My Career Pathways Web portal’, the overall functionality of the project’s platform and its associated tools.
Read more »
The Erasmus+ project "Career Pathways" has been actively engaging communities across Portugal, Greece and Spain through a series of community events aimed at promoting vocational training, employment opportunities, and career guidance. These events brought together professionals from various sectors including education, and employment services to explore and discuss the advancements of the "My Career Pathways Web Portal".
Following the second meeting of our project´s Monitoring Committee, FORAVE and Tecminho met with the Education Municipality Office of V.N. Famalicão.
During the meeting, the “My Career Pathway Web Portal” platform was shared with a group of experts, who are in charge of working on the new VET Training Diagnosis for the Local Education and Training Network, and future cooperation was discussed.
The event was held on November 27 and more than 20 professionals, including vocational training teachers and LANBIDE staff, attended and participated. LANBIDE is the Basque Employment Service of the Basque Government, which offers people who are looking for their first job, those who are unemployed, those who wish to rejoin the labour market or those who are working and want to change their job, accompaniment and guidance in the job search process.
Following the first meeting of the Monitoring Committee of the Erasmus+ project “Career Pathways”, held last March, in which we had the participation of the representatives from companies, employment agencies, career guidance, universities, and VET associations, FORAVE organised, in cooperation with TecMinho, the second working session, which aimed to present the progress already made on the “My Career Pathways Web Portal”, based on the project objectives and the feedback obtained from the members of Monitoring Committees in each partner country.
After the successful conclusion of the 1st Community event for the 'Career Pathways' project, which took place online last May, and was attended by representatives from the labor market, public and private educational institutions, and governmental bodies in the tourism sector, IDEC and Active Citizens Partnership collaborated once again to organize the 2nd Community session. The primary focus of this session was to delve deeper into the career pathways within the tourism sector in Greece. The discussion primarily centered around the digital tools developed by the project to facilitate the entry or redirection of businesses into the tourism labor market.
TecMinho and the “Career Pathways” Erasmus+ project will be hosting the Webinar “CAREER PATHWAYS AND GREEN SKILLS”, to be held on the 26th of May, from 11:00 to 12:00 CET (10:00 – 11:00 Lisbon time).
O projeto está a desenvolver percursos profissionais para o emprego futuro, trabalhando em conjunto com organizações de educação e formação, empregadores e profissionais de carreiras e emprego.
Last month, our partner organisation the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) shared the activities and objectives of ‘Career Pathways’ during CINTE's international conference.
CINTE wants to consolidate and project into the future the knowledge generated around innovation and social and educational inclusion through the latest trends, methodologies and theories carried out in this field of research.
With more than 140 participants, the International Congress on New Technologies and Education aimed to create synergies that would enable the creation of networks of researchers, professionals from social and school organisations, and with society, promote the transferability of the knowledge achieved, share networking experiences, and generate several publications with a high scientific impact that collect reflections, debates, good practices and challenges on the subject.
Our webinar, an associated event of the European Vocational Skills Week 2022, showed the urgency of using smart tools to visualise data to access ‘good jobs’. The smart tools we are developing, working together with education and training organisations, employers, and career advisors, will allow adults to access near real-time data on future jobs and green jobs.
[20.JUNE.24]
FORAVE and TECMINHO organized a “MY CAREER PATHWAYS WEB PORTAL” Multiplier Event
The workshop, to share the final version of the “My Career Pathways Web Portal”, as well as the other resources produced by the project’s partners, was aimed at adults, teachers/trainers, career guidance technicians, and school directors, and was held at Escola D. Sancho I, in Vila Nova de Famalicão, for a group of over 50 people.
The online tool that connects the needs of the labour market with adults looking for better jobs, showing possible paths and opportunities for increasing skills and career planning, was tested with the group throughout the session, with room for questions and clarification of doubts.
[6.JUNE.24]
TECMinho and FORAVE Organised Online Workshop
Representatives from the education sector, vocational schools, job centres and career advisors had access to digital tools designed to navigate the job market, improving skills identification and providing useful information for skills improvement and career development.
[14.MAY.24]
Innotecs Conference 2024
Multiplier Event
On 14th May, UPV attended the annual Innotecs conference, an event dedicated to knowledge sharing and collaboration between educational and research organizations dedicated to innovation in VET education. Current annual conference was celebrated in Andra Mari VET school in the Basque town of Galdakao.
During the congress we had the opportunity to present the main features and project results of the Career Pathways project to a well-attended crowd of multiple VET teachers, researchers and professionals. We also had the chance to hand informative flyers about the project. During this presentation, we had the invaluable assistance of our colleagues from FORAVE.
[MAY.24]
Workshops
UPV researchers conducted three workshops during May 2024 in different VET schools—both public and private—scattered across the three provinces of the Basque Autonomous Community. In Gipuzkoa, we partnered with Don Bosco VET School to conduct a series of sessions in both Basque and Spanish during the second and third weeks of May. In Araba, we visited Molinonuevo Egibide and Arriaga Egibide VET schools. In Biscay, we teamed up with Txorierri (May 31th) and Santurtzi-Calasanz (May 20th) VET schools and conducted a session in each center.
All events were held in person and, in total, were attended by more than 200 job-seeking individuals and professionals. The goal of these workshops was to share and test the tools of the My Career Pathways Web Portal to improve the platform using the feedback gathered from the testers through a survey (one type for job-seeking individuals and a different one for VET professionals). Testers were reminded to keep the surveys open in a new tab so they could answer the questions while testing the platform.
To do so, the UPV team agreed to implement a schematic approach to the session, which would be divided into three parts and would use a PowerPoint presentation to guide all the explanations. First, a general introduction to the project was given, highlighting the general goals and objectives of the project. Having previously established which tools would be more interesting for each target group, our researchers and testers would go through the corresponding sections and tools one by one, ensuring nobody was left behind. Our PowerPoint presentation would show a screen capture of the current tool being examined at all times, helping testers identify the correct section of the portal.
On the one hand, job seekers focused on tools designed to enhance their job opportunities. Thus, they had the chance to create their own digital CV with their available skills and according to their job expectations. Once this section was explored, the testers learned how to modify their skill levels in the selected competencies, as well as add or remove others, using the “My Skills” tool. Moreover, in the “Career Pathways” section, job seekers explored the different pathways proposed by the platform, allowing them to compare their proficiency with the skill requirements of various jobs across different industries, both green and traditional. Furthermore, the job seekers explored the available courses. Finally, the open educational resources were presented, and the testers were allowed to thoroughly study their articles, videos, quizzes, and reflection questions.
On the other hand, VET professionals focused on sections related to academic and career guidance such as Labour Market Data and Green Economy and Occupations. In the first section, the professionals could use the LMI provided by Cedefop. After an extended explanation, we aimed the scope at the regional data of the Basque Autonomous Community, which might be of greater interest for making guidance and public policies adjusted to the evolution of the Basque economy. The professionals also had the opportunity to explore the Occupational Information Network by O*NET to acquire various types of information about new green jobs. Finally, the open educational resources were presented, which the experts had the opportunity to explore.
According to the results collected from the surveys, it is generally concluded that the platform has great potential to be useful for both job seekers and VET professionals. Thus, more than half of the job seekers and professionals would recommend this platform to their peers. Overall, the respondents believe that navigating the website is not difficult even without assistance. However, the VET professionals regret that the LMI data presented still retains considerable complexity, even when using graphs, and they request a more intuitive design. At the same time, the job seekers hope that more courses will be added in the future and that tools will be implemented to make specific job offers known. The translation inconsistencies on the website have also been an existing problem during the testing phase, which the testers hope will be resolved soon.
[26.JUNE.24]
Active Citizens Partnership organized a “My Career Pathways Web Portal” Multiplier Event
[April.24]
Online Workshops
Three online workshops were conducted in April of 2024. The online events focused on the engagement of young professionals, unemployed adults and VET (Vocational Education and Training) providers and staff with the ‘My Career Pathways Web portal’, the overall functionality of the project’s platform and its associated tools.
The primary objective of these workshops was to demonstrate to participants how to use LMI (Labour Market Intelligence) data and tools, in order to enhance their professional development and overall teaching practices.
In the first workshop participated the Public Thematic School of Higher Vocational Training of Egaleo, while the subsequent event involved the Higher School of Tourism Education of Crete. The third workshop session was conducted with the participation of the VET Centre of Central Greece in Macedonia.
After the introductions and initial presentation of the project and its objectives, the events focused on the dissemination of the platform and its tools, that aim to support the professional career paths of both students and educators. After a detailed presentation of the platform, participants were invited to interact with the online portal, exploring potential employment avenues aligned with their skills sets using LMI tools.
The sessions were also included a section during which the participants learned how to create and refine their own digital CVs based on their existing experiences, while leveraging the ESCO (European Skills, Competences, Qualifications and Occupations) framework, which facilitated the comparison between job opportunities within the “green” job sector. Subsequently, attendees were taught how to adjust their skills levels using the ‘My Skills’ tool and identify additional competencies necessary for their desired roles.
Moreover, participants saw how to navigate labour market data: this included research based on specific employment sectors and broader market trends, using filters by country and region.
Following this comprehensive introduction to the platform and its functionalities, students (and professionals) were encouraged to actively explore it, create their own digital CVs, adjust their skills levels and access pertinent labour market data, tailored to their career interests.
Based on feedback surveys that were distributed post-event, both young professionals and educators reached a consensus regarding the efficacy of developing an online CV as the most effective and efficient tool. This approach offered individuals the opportunity to generate seamlessly a polished, professional document, even without prior experience.
In the end, participants expressed their satisfaction for the overall platform and the LMI tools, particularly appreciating the swift assessment of their skills, their development level and the real-time updates provided. This feature rendered platform an engaging means for conducting comprehensive evaluations of job requirements and qualifications leading towards employment opportunities.
[24-25.may.24]
Career Pathways presented at the CIISE 2024 Conference in University of Basque Country
Ana Silva Dias, the project coordinator from TecMinho in Portugal, and Graham Attwell, the project creator from Pontydysgu in Spain, presented the Career Pathways project at the 6th International Congress on Social and Educational Inclusion (CIISE 2024). The event took place on May 24-25 at the Sarriko Faculty of Economics and Management, University of Bilbao, and was conducted in a bimodal format (both face-to-face and online).
CIISE’24 focused on strategies to reduce social exclusion, aiming to explore alternative approaches and foster collaboration for building more inclusive, innovative, and reflective societies. The presentation and discussion of the Career Pathways project addressed issues surrounding the creation of new and improved job opportunities for individuals with fewer qualifications.
During the session, the Career Pathways Portal was showcased. This platform connects labor market needs with adults seeking better employment, illustrating potential pathways and opportunities for skill enhancement and career planning. The session included an interactive component, allowing for questions and a robust debate.
[27.NOVEMBER.23]
COMMUNITY EVENTS IN SPAIN
The event was held on November 27 and more than 20 professionals, including vocational training teachers and LANBIDE staff, attended and participated. LANBIDE is the Basque Employment Service of the Basque Government, which offers people who are looking for their first job, those who are unemployed, those who wish to rejoin the labour market or those who are working and want to change their job, accompaniment and guidance in the job search process.
Gorma Román, María Orcasitas and Itsaso Biota dynamized the event. Itsaso was in charge of the initial presentation, and María and Gorka made the presentation of the project and the tool, consecutively.
Most of the attendees showed great interest in learning about the uses and opportunities offered by the tool, as they consider it very useful for their students. Some people offered to test the tool with their students and give us feedback on what they and their students could consider as improvement tips. After the event we received feedback from some people, but we still need to contact them again so that when the tool is more refined they can test it again.
LANBIDE staff also showed great interest in participating in the project. They consider interesting the possibility of combining the information from their vocational training courses with the tool. It is still to be studied how we could give access from the tool to LANBIDE courses.
[22.MAY/28.NOVEMBER.23]
COMMUNITY EVENTS IN PORTUGAL
Following the first meeting of the Monitoring Committee of the Erasmus+ project “Career Pathways”, held last March, in which we had the participation of the representatives from companies, employment agencies, career guidance, universities, and VET associations, FORAVE organised, in cooperation with TecMinho, the second working session, which aimed to present the progress already made on the “My Career Pathways Web Portal”, based on the project objectives and the feedback obtained from the members of Monitoring Committees in each partner country.
The webinar took place on the 28th November and the main topics covered were the “My Career Pathways Web Portal”, the new features implemented in 2023, the provision of data on jobs and skills by sector and geographical area based on online job advertisements by region in the 28 European countries, and the consultation and debate on new features to be created.
In general, the Monitoring Committee considered the platform a very useful tool for career guidance and was very clear about the functionalities they expected from it, giving important inputs related to attractiveness, agility, and AI transformational power on the achievements of the several tools that will be created for job seekers and career advisors, as well as specific training.
As an immediate result of the meeting, FORAVE and TecMinho were invited by the Education Municipality office to make a presentation of the Career Pathways platform, to a group of experts that is in charge of working on the new VET Training Diagnosis for the Local Education and Training Network.
In this project, several tools will be developed based on data and information from open databases, which analyse the current labour market situation, and the present and future skills requirements in different jobs; provide career pathways to training and employment for unemployed and people at risk of unemployment; provide data to employers, policymakers, managers and vocational education and training providers on skills and training demands related to national and regional markets, and train career advisors from public employment services in the use of the digital tools developed.
[MAY/14.NOVEMBER.23]
COMMUNITY EVENTS IN GREECE
After the successful conclusion of the 1st Community event for the ‘Career Pathways’ project, which took place online last May, and was attended by representatives from the labor market, public and private educational institutions, and governmental bodies in the tourism sector, IDEC and Active Citizens Partnership collaborated once again to organize the 2nd Community session. The primary focus of this session was to delve deeper into the career pathways within the tourism sector in Greece. The discussion primarily centered around the digital tools developed by the project to facilitate the entry or redirection of businesses into the tourism labor market.
Conducted online on November 14th, 2023, the 2nd Community session addressed various topics, including the project’s objectives and an overview of the tools created thus far. IDEC, during the event, gathered feedback and suggestions for improvement from tourism experts in Vocational Education and the labor market. Active Citizens presented a detailed overview of the online platform, ‘My Career Pathways Web portal,’ highlighting its integrated aspects and overall progress. Additionally, they presented the ‘Online job adverts’ feature, based on data collected from jobs categorized by sector. The ultimate goal was to assess the practicality, realism, and user-friendliness of the tools, evaluating whether they provide valuable information and support, and if they effectively meet the needs of the end-users.
Throughout the event, Community experts provided valuable input on the functionality of the tools. They also shared improvement suggestions, such as reducing the overall categories to three, incorporating EQF levels as a reference, and presenting the top 5-10 required skills instead of a dashboard presentation. General feedback emphasized structuring levels based on skills rather than educational levels, with a parallel connection to the realistic needs of the labor market. Regarding the upskilling process, it was noted that a degree is required, but clarity is essential in depicting the pathway from which level the degree becomes necessary.
Lastly, expert participants offered suggestions on broader topics related to the tourism industry, discussing the need to include job descriptions in various positions within the public and private tourism sector, so that the interested parties are well aware of the offered jobs and their specific requirements.
[26.MAY.23]
Webinar"CAREER PATHWAYS AND GREEN SKILLS"
TecMinho and the “Career Pathways” Erasmus+ project will be hosting the Webinar “CAREER PATHWAYS AND GREEN SKILLS”, to be held on the 26th of May, from 11:00 to 12:00 CET (10:00 – 11:00 Lisbon time).
During the Webinar, we will present tools that allow individuals to create their CV, based on competences (using ESCO descriptors), explain how to use the tool to get new skills and training and to get better jobs.
The Career Pathways tools will allow individuals to create their own career paths based on skills, to access available green jobs. They will understand the path to upskill or re-skill to access those future jobs. The Career Pathways tool will present different pathways and trainings that lead them to progress to better and higher paid jobs. Using visualization tools, it will be possible to get an idea of the most in demand green jobs today and up to 2030.
The aim will be to deepen the understanding of the importance of the “Career Pathways” project tools as instruments to link labour market needs and adults looking for better jobs in the green economy.
The Erasmus+ “Career Pathways” project is promoted by TecMinho in collaboration with a European partnership of entities from Portugal, Spain, and Greece and aims to develop and test new tools that help adults to access the labour market by providing worked information/”intelligence” on the skills that the labour market wants now and in the future. These tools are specifically targeted at all adult jobseekers and those seeking training to increase their skills for the “good jobs”. Support tools for the development of career paths will also be developed for career counselors, employers, training centres and regional policy makers. The aim is to develop career pathways to future jobs and green jobs, working together with Education and Training organizations, employers and career and employment professionals.
The Webinar “CAREER PATHWAYS AND GREEN SKILLS” will take place entirely online, in English Language.
PROGRAM
10:00 – 10:10
Career Pathways and the Green Jobs General View
Ana Dias (TecMinho, PT)
How to build your Career Pathway
Links with training and jobs Manuela Guimarães (FORAVE, PT)
Future green jobs using visualization tools
Graham Attwell (Pontydysgu, SP)
George Bekiaridis (Active Citizens Partnership, GR)
10:40 – 11:00
Q&A and debate
Participation is free of charge, with previous registration (limited spots).
[17.MAY.22]
Webinar
"CAREER PATHWAYS AND GREEN ECONOMY"
Our webinar, an Associated Event of the European Vocational Skills Week 2022, showed the urgency of using smart tools to visualize data to access “good jobs”. The smart tools we are developing, working together with education and training organizations, employers, and career advisors, will allow adults to access near real-time data on future jobs and green jobs.
Thanks to the 50 participants and to the 7 speakers from TecMinho, Forave, IDEC, Universidad del Pais Vasco, Pontydysgu, and Active Citizens Partnership.
Presentations
» CareerPathWays ERASMUS+Project, TecMinho
» Sustainable Development Goals in Education, Universidad del Pais Vasco
» Green practices and green skills in Greek SMEs, IDEC
» Career Pathways and the Green Digital Transition, Pontydysgu and Active Citizens Partnership
» VET and Green Skills/Green Jobs, Escola Profissional FORAVE
Video of the Webinar
Under the scope of the European Vocational Skills Week 2022, TecMinho and the “Career Pathways” Erasmus+ project will be hosting the Webinar “CAREER PATHWAYS AND GREEN ECONOMY”, to be held on the 17th May, between 11:00 and 12:00 CET (10:00 – 11:00 Lisbon time).
The webinar aims to promote a lively debate on how the Green Economy is a good example of how adults can up-skill or re-skill to access “better” jobs.
The webinar is targeted at Adult jobseekers (unemployed or looking for new opportunities), VET providers, trainers, career guidance professionals, employers, regional policy makers, and all those interested in the topics covered by this event.
The shift towards more sustainable and greener economies is reshaping labour market demand and supply. This increases the importance of building skills and new career pathways throughout life to bridge skills gaps, support labour market transitions and foster social inclusion.
A key challenge is how to make the best use of evolving skills intelligence/information in a rapidly changing world, and how this intelligence/information can be accessed.
The webinar is part of the Erasmus+ project “Career Pathways” promoted by TecMinho, which includes a partnership of European institutions from Portugal, Spain and Greece.
The Erasmus+ project “Career Pathways” aims to develop and test new tools to help access the labour market and intelligence on skills that the labour market seeks now and in the future. These tools will be aimed at adult job seekers, training seekers, Education and Training providers, career guidance professionals, employers and regional policy makers.
The objective is to develop career pathways to future jobs and green jobs, working together with Education and Training organisations, employers and career and employment professionals.
The event “CAREER PATHWAYS AND GREEN ECONOMY” will be held online, in English Language.
PROGRAM
11:00 – 11:10
Career Pathways – General View – Ana Dias (TecMinho)
11:10 – 11:40
Sharing Good Practices on Green Skills and Green Jobs
VET and Green Skills/Green Jobs – Manuela Guimarães (FORAVE)
Green practices and skills in Greek SMEs – Niki Zafeiropoulou (IDEC)
11:40 – 11:50
What are Green Skills and Green Jobs? “Career Pathways” and the green digital transition
Graham Attwell (Pontydysgu)
George Bekiaridis (Active Citizens Partnership)
11:50 – 12:00Q&A and debate
PARTNERS
Project: 2021-1-PT01-KA220-VET-000025802
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.