Abstract:

Apprenticeship in Greece consists of a school year during which the educational time rotates between the school classroom and the real working environment. This structure has been initiated by law in 2013, allowing students of Vocational Schools of Secondary Education (EPAL in Greek) and Institutes of Vocational Training (IEK in Greek) to obtain experience in their field/ specialization in the context of real working environments, under the supervision of a tutor assigned by the company. Apprenticeship is guided by the school teachers and VET trainers, following the formal curriculum objectives and leading to specific certification. The Institute of Educational Policy (IEP) designed and implemented a blended (online and face-to-face) Teachers/Trainers Professional Development (TPD) program in a National level, addressed to teachers of technical specializations intending to get involved (or already have got) in Apprenticeship at their schools. The total duration of this program is 39 hours (18 face-to-face and 21 online), including core modules such as: (M1) Institutional framework for Apprenticeships, (M2) Apprenticeships Curriculums, (M3) Health and safety at work, (M4) Basic Principles of Adult Education/ Innovative Teaching Approaches in Vocational Education and Training, (M5) Counseling and Career Guidance and Information, (M6) Entrepreneurship. An additional module (M7) of Best Practices has also been included, where teachers are asked to develop their own didactical scenario for Apprenticeship. Two phases have been completed during 2018-2019, while a third one is currently running (until April 2020), thus, more than 2.500 people have been benefited from this TPD program. This paper aims to describe the TPD program and the implementation phases that have been completed, which consist of the first large scale blended TPD program concerning Apprenticeship in Vocational Education and Training in Greece. The authors focus on the e-learning part of the total blended learning experience. Moreover, results from the TPD program evaluation are being discussed.

Keywords:

Apprenticeship, blended learning, VET, e-learning, national level.