The General Assembly of the European School Heads Association (ESHA), the coordinator of MicroVET was organized in Oslo in April, 2023. Over 40 representatives of school heads from 25 European countries had the opportunity to learn about the project Microvet and they were asked to become actively involved. After a short introduction by Judit Horgas, one of the ESHA MicroVET Ambassadors, about what microcredentials are, the participants were asked to form groups and each group worked on answering a question based on their professional experience.

Using the cooperative method of world café, participants could then move to other groups, contributing to other topics.

The first question was:

WHAT COURSES WOULD YOUR STUDENTS LIKE TO TAKE THAT YOU CANNOT PROVIDE?

The representatives of European school heads created a long list, e.g. vocational skills to be integrated in mainstream education from building skills to gardening and various soft skills from parenthood education to anger management and critical thinking. It was clear that the participants were aware of a lot of skills that are essential for a youngster, but are not formally taught at school and are therefore not certified.

The second question was:

WHAT SKILLS WOULD YOU LIKE YOUR TEACHERS TO LEARN?

The list created in this group was even longer, as representatives acknowledged a lack of various skills that are very necessary for teachers nowadays, but are sadly left out or not emphasized enough in teacher training. Racial literacy (the ability to identify someone being treated unfairly because of their identity), digital technologies, information about the current generation, collaboration and co-creation are some of the skills that were mentioned.

The third question was:

WHAT SKILLS DO YOU TEACH YOUR STUDENTS THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO CERTIFY? CAN THESE BE LEARNT ONLINE?

As the Microvet project offers the possibility to create short courses in any topic that is relevant for any profession and provide a certification for it, this was an important question to ask to assess the needs. The representatives collected a wide range of topics from etiquette, health and safety, media literacy to financial literacy and project management – just to mention a few from the list. The conversation proved that this was a real need and the participants were very interested.

The fourth question was:

CAN YOU RECOMMEND COURSES/PROVIDERS WE SHOULD APPROACH?

The Microvet project will provide not only courses developed by the project partners, but will also invite outside providers who are willing to give their courses for free. Therefore, the representatives were asked to use their considerable network and recommend good examples. Many suggestions were made and representatives also called attention to various successful open-source online materials and systems from the Icelandic flipped classroom to trainings on how to recognize fake news and the courses provided by the National Autistic Society (UK) and Scottish Autism about children with additional support needs.

The overall feedback the participants provided after the workshop was overwhelmingly positive and ESHA is looking forward to receive further recommendations from its member organizations.