Dear Skillman members and colleagues,
We are very pleased to invite you to two new exciting webinars, organized in collaboration with the Assembly of European Regions, IVETA, the European Network of Innovation for Inclusion and EAPRIL.
“Creating Effective Innovation Ecosystems”
19 April 2021 at 10:00 CET
a webinar on how to encourage citizen participation of stakeholders in Vocational Education & Training
Innovation ecosystems: a complex set of relationships
The term innovation ecosystem derives from the analogy with biological ecosystems. These are a complex set of relationships among the living resources, habitats, and residents of an area. Their functional goal is to reach sustained equilibrium.
An innovation ecosystem describes the complex set of relationships among very diverse actors and entities, which work for technology development and innovation in a territory. Amongst others, this includes the material resources and human capital of universities, colleges of engineering, business schools, business firms, venture capitalists, industry-university research institutes, state or regional economic development agencies and chambers of commerce, funding agencies and policymakers.
Partnerships, competencies and talent
Regions are facing a paradigm shift from closed innovation and linear subcontracts to open innovation ecosystems. Value chains are becoming more interregional and a wider spectrum of stakeholders is necessary. In this context, communication, collaboration and engagement on all sides are essential to attain effective innovation ecosystems.
Ecosystems are smart when all segments of society take part to build a culture of co-design and co-creation in their area. The participation and integration of diverse collaborative partnerships is a key enabler to support and foster innovation ecosystems.
In this context, facilitating the involvement of Technical Vocational Education & Training centres (TVET) in innovation ecosystems is imperative to increase the availability of competencies and talent.
The webinar will look at:
- The elements that enable an effective innovation ecosystem;
- how regional ecosystems involve different levels of education, and in particular whether TVET stakeholders are involved.
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“Technical Vocational Education & Training and Civic Participation”
20 April 2021 at 10:00 CET
a webinar on how to encourage citizen participation of stakeholders in Vocational Education & Training
What is active citizenship?
Civic participation is a process in which people take collective action to address issues of public concern and can adopt many forms: from individual volunteering, community engagement efforts and organisational involvement to governmental support. With regard to governments, effectively engaging with stakeholders translates into better services, source ideas and knowledge, co-creation solutions and seizing new opportunities.
To achieve high-quality civic participation, it is however crucial to make sure to involve all regional stakeholders. Research shows there is a large participation gap between college students and other young people. Thus, this webinar will look at the factors that can improve civic participation of people in technical and vocational education and training, and how such multi-stakeholder strategies benefit regions.
This webinar will look at:
- Whether activities for youth participation are addressed to Technical Vocational Education & Training learners and tailored in a way that encourages participation;
- how Technical Vocational Education & Training learners and teachers can be encouraged to contribute and be visible in political arenas;
- identifying the systems which allow all segments of society to feel capable of contributing towards the fulfilment of SDGs.
