The 6th edition of the annual SIF – SKILLMAN.EU INTERNATIONAL FORUM 2020 with a focus on redefining the future of learning, was held on December 10 and 11, 2020, in collaboration with IVETA, AER, EAPRIL and the European Training Foundation.This year, due to the current challenges posed by COVID-19 and the impossibility of mobilizing a large crowd to attend the event, SIF was hosted online in a two-day event format. More than 600 attendance registrations were received and in the last months, thanks also to the interest shown for the conference, the Skillman network has welcomed 250 new members!The Skillman International Forum had a time coverage of 18 hours, with a rich agenda of various events and activities focused on the concept of excellence in TVET. The first day was officially opened with Giovanni Crisonà, leader of the Skillman network, Joao Santos, Senior Expert at the European Commission, Georgios Zisimos, Senior Officer on EU Education policies at the European Training Foundation, Daniele Bassan, Project Manager at Centro Ricerche Fiat and Alexa Joyce from Microsoft corp. The session was moderated by Julian Ng, Vice-President of IVETA Europe.The following roundtable showcased different experiences from the world about priority challenges on excellence that countries are facing nowadays. The moderator Stefano Merante (Skills Development / TVET Programme Officer at ITCILO)coordinated the different overviews presented from Bangladesh, Madagascar, India, the Philippines, Pakistan, China and Europe, which were very well received by the audience.The afternoon started with a number of simultaneous pavilions that touched on relevant issues closely related to excellence: from the digital transformation of learning to the topic of accessibility and inclusiveness in TVET, mobility, transnational learning, and the presentation of the Skillman self-assessment tool.The day ended with the Skillman Ethical Skills Awards ceremony that recognized the best examples of excellence in 2020, followed by a series of pitch presentations in which various European projects were shared and, finally, an open discussion of good practices and lessons learned in TVET around the world.The second Day started with sessions dedicated to the skills needed in the 21st century, showcasing different scenarios at an international level. Some parallel sessions were then coordinated, focusing on professional development for TVET trainers and teachers, new mobility services and the human-machine relationship in the manufacturing sector. Along with them, presentations of the JRC SELFIE tool, CEDEFOP VET toolkit for tackling early leaving, the new Europass tool and the ESCO database were also promoted. An exciting and practical session followed up related to the possibilities emerging from the use of augmented reality in Industry 4.0. In the afternoon, short presentations of the Skillman Global CoVEs were shared, involving Italy, Greece, Germany, Spain and Austria and to conclude the event, the official publication of the Peer Learning Clubs position papers was coordinated by Maria Elena Romanini (Skillman Senior Project Manager), who also led the final discussions and conference takeaways.
