Auto-Cove consortium started strong co-operation already at the application preparation phase.
Omnia, as project coordinator, contacted several already existing co-operation colleges in Europe, where we knew that vehicle education in one of their strongest education fields. With many of them Omnia had done mobility co-operation in many technical fields, but especially in vehicle field, already for years. It appeared that need for this kind of big common development project is real and acute and it was relatively easy to find suitable VET-provider partners from Omnia’s extensive international partner network. Such already known trustworthy long-term co-operation partners for Omnia in Auto-Cove project are Tartu Rakenduslik Kolledž, Jakob Preh Schule, Koning Willem I College, Kaunas Kautech and SEPR. Only Latvian Ventspils Tehnikums from secondary level VET-partners was not familiar to Omnia beforehand, but they had had an intention to write their own KA2-partnership application about development of vehicle technology and asked their long-term partner, Tartu Rakenduslik Kolledž as their partner. Then they hear about Auto-Cove project intention and asked in case they could join the consortium.
When secondary level VET-providers were selected, each of them checked their already existing company partners and tertiary level VET-provider partners. German Jakob Preh Schule has a long co operation tradition with this project’s German polytechnic partner: FHWS and they recommended Omnia to ask also FHWS in this project. Omnia agreed eagerly, because FHWS research know-how in electric vehicle sector is exactly, what we needed into this Auto-Cove project. In this way soon also business life and higher education VET-providers were selected. It was also easy to attract Finnish research centre VTT into the consortium because VTT was already partner in Finnish National CLEMET-project, from which Omnia received the idea to expand its efforts to this European-wide Auto-Cove development project.
When mutual trust was already existing fact between VET-providers on both, secondary and tertiary levels and they selected business partners, with whom they had already worked for a long time, negotiations about specialisations and contributions for Auto-Cove project were easy to start.
Very delighting aspect is the intended co-operation between two very experienced research companies in Finland and Germany. They decided to plan in co-operation two focus areas for research in Auto-Cove project. In first of them they intend to find out, what is needed for vocational education and in seven European countries and how to transfer technological facts via innovative future oriented vocational laboratory-training courses and kits.
Contents for these courses and kits would be battery charging technologies (conductive & inductive charging, fast charging), battery technologies (monitoring, ageing characteristic, low- and high temperature features), fire safety of High Voltage batteries in electric vehicles, power electronics (used in traction drives, chargers and DC/DC converters), vehicle to grid technologies (using EVs as home storage) and modern simulation technologies.
Each partner considered carefully, what their strongest expertise is (both in vehicle field and project administration) and who the key persons in their staff are the most suitable and valuable for this project. Based on this information we shared the responsibility areas for each partner in this project. In co operation we planned a tray of 17 study modules for students and 10 training courses for teachers, where all topics are different but belong tightly to the topic: modern vehicle technology and servicing vehicles equipped with it. At the same time, we shared responsibilities of Work packages: Management, R & D, Study modules and Training courses, Quality and Risk Assessment, Impact and dissemination and mobilities.
It was also decided at the preparation phase that we need to commit an influence study from pedagogical aspect in this project. An independent researcher was identified for this task from Omnia. She promised to commit influence study among the staff: Vehicle teachers and company representatives in the end of each study module piloting week (= 5 times in the project). Also, the students, who will take part in student mobilities in this project, will take part in the same influence study after their mobility periods.
To be able to find out needs from working life, we have planned to utilize two very appreciated and experienced research institutes; VTT, in Finland and FHWS TTZ-EMO in Germany. In this way we cover the present situation in both: Nordic (Finland and Baltic countries) and Mid-European (Germany, France and The Netherlands) countries. Also, the expertise of two research institute is different: VTT is specialised in all kind of smart mobilities, Germany especially in Electric vehicle technology studies. Both expertise areas are essential to draft a qualified skills-gap-analysis for the foundation of project study modules and training course development work.
To enable effective information collection in all seven partner countries from vehicle sector service and repair side, a study plan and questions and target groups have profoundly been considered. The study is focused on company representatives and vehicle teachers in VET-sector. The first target group talks about skills-gap need at vehicle workshops and in modern vehicle and spare parts sales and the second target group: Vehicle sector teachers, talks about the skills-gap in vehicle teachers but also about vehicle field curriculums for students. Collected and analyzed data will be provided to project’s VET-institutes to act as a foundation for the vehicle technology curriculum development work in Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, and Germany.