SEPR visited Koning Willem I College (KW1C) in Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands on 30-31 January 2024. Emmanuel Colin, Head of Technical and IT Professions Department at SEPR and Sylvain Zennaro, Mobility Expert and pedagogical Coordinator at SEPR were hosted by Auto-CoVE project managers Tessa van Zeeland and Eline Sledsens and Toon Bertens, Automotive Teacher, who is especially in charge of the hydrogen vehicle development in Auto-CoVE 2.0.
The aim of the visit was to reinforce the relationship between our VET institutions, visit the school and its facilities, realize the differences and similarities in mobility and automotive departments, exchange of knowledge and good practices in different educational methods.
Our colleagues from SEPR summarize their visit as “rich, constructive and inspiring”! While visiting the whole school to obtain an overview in general, they discovered many other information in their focus, in the mobility department. Their visit included the mobility workshops for cars, motorcycles, industrial vehicles such as trucks, and meeting with Thieu van den Elzen, Director of Mobility and Logistics.
Auto-Cove project agreed to budget around 9 % out of budget for purchases of necessary and relevant device and material which support the study module development work in each partner organization. For most of the organizations, the necessary equipment for this development work is a hybrid or fully electric vehicle. In case of SEPR, our Automotive Department has already chosen and purchased a hybrid vehicle with all the ADAS accessories for its learners and teachers training. Besides, our Automotive Department decided to purchase another training material with our remaining budget. To this end, this visit was organized to enable SEPR to explore a Hydrogen Vehicle model (maquette) at Koning Willem I College and to share theoretical knowledge about hydrogen technology between peers.
In addition to visiting the Koning Willem I College, our colleagues from SEPR had also the opportunity to meet another Auto-CoVE partner, Electude International in Nuenen in the Netherlands, with the hospitality of Jeroen Smetsers, Educational Consultant at Electude International which supports e-learning and produces e-learning material in vehicle sector. In the Auto-CoVE 2.0 project, the role of Electude, as e-learning specialist in vehicle sector, is to guide vehicle sector teachers. The aim is to create the developed transnational study modules directly in the digital form on Electude’s e-learning platform by using their technical support and e-learning tools and to support all VET-providers in the digitalization work during the whole project. In this respect, Electude International presented their platform to our colleagues and the visit continued with the exchange of ideas about the teachers’ digital and technical skills and the educational solutions to facilitate lessons.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or EACEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
Prepared by:
Auto Cove 2.0
SEPR
SEPR and AutoCoVE 2.0
Société d’Enseignement Professionnel du Rhône – SEPR is a vocational training centre created in 1864 by a business manager active in the field of silk in the City of Lyon, and member of the St. Simon ideology.
SEPR trains around 5000 learners each year in 6 excellence hubs:
- arts & crafts and design: cabinetmaking, jewellery, fashion design, rare trades (in order to preserve confidential trades such as upholstery, shoemaking, clockmaking…)
- catering and catering trades: butchery, bakery, pastry, cooking, service…
- visual communication and graphic chain: photography, graphic design, printing…
- beauty, health care and social professions: hairdressing, aesthetics, social work, dental prosthesis, pharmaceutical assistant…
- commerce and trade: seller, florist, storeman…
- technical and IT professions: automobile, electricity, electronics, topography…
SEPR offers training from EQF level 2 to EQF level 7, within different pathways: apprenticeship/dual education; full-time study and continuous training, including upskilling and reskilling. SEPR comprises 450 teaching and not-teaching staff.
SEPR is the first vocational education and training (VET) centre of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes area and one of the biggest in France. The Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region aims to become a national and even international reference for hydrogen mobility. For example, 80 % of French hydrogen companies are located in this region. 119 stakeholders are currently working on this topic here: 55 companies, 26 research labs, 8 local authorities. The Region receives European funds for that, through the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF). It has also a big project called ‘Zero Emission Valley’, supported by the former minister of ecology, which aims (within 5 years) to:
– Create 20 hydrogen stations
– Have a fleet of 1000 hydrogen vehicles
– Replace 4.3 million litres of diesel
– thus avoiding 13,000 tons of CO² emissions.
These regional strategical development objectives make also SEPR’s participation in Auto-CoVE project important. That’s why SEPR is eager to pilot and later implement especially hydrogen-related, but also all other study modules, developed in the Auto-CoVE 2.0.
Before Auto-CoVE starts, SEPR has already been a partner of Erasmus+ KA2 Project called as IDiVET (2020-1-FR01-KA226-VET-095619) which is led by the French Association for Automotive Trainings (ANFA – Association nationale pour la formation automobile). Its objective is to provide teachers and trainers with insights from transnational examples and to enable them to capitalize on their COVID-19 experience to develop innovative digital practice. Since Auto-CoVE project also focuses on bringing innovation through education as a starting stage, the relevance of previously mentioned project is significant.
This project has recently conducted a deep skills-gap-analysis in the sector by collaborating with companies and VET institutions. At this stage, SEPR participated in this research process, together with French Association for Automotive Trainings (ANFA – Association nationale pour la formation automobile) which made a major contribution to our analysis by sending the surveys to VET schools and companies all over France. After this step, the project aims to develop 17 training modules for marketing, maintenance and service of vehicles. These modules will be produced in digital form and the teachers from SEPR Automotive Department will be testing these modules.
The Auto-CoVE 2.0 relies on already existing regional and international collaboration among the partners. Like this visit made by SEPR in Koning Willem I College and Electude International in the Netherlands, meeting with the partners of Auto-CoVE 2.0 consortium enables SEPR to enrich its knowledge, to broaden its horizons and to present itself at international level. SEPR feels quite honored to be the partner of this project which aims at developing automotive teachers’ and students’ both technical and pedagogical digital skills.