1. Objectives

The objective of the “EU Water Challenge VET Labs” is to involve European VET learners and
trainers in identifying innovative nature-based solutions (NbS, hereinafter) to mitigate the
effects of floods and improve the retention of water within an imaginary European city, named
‘Metropolis’. Both learners and trainers will participate in the first international VET awards to
respond to this key societal challenge in the water management sector.


The company that will be launching the challenge will be Agbar, part of the international group
Veolia, committed to the ecological transformation. ‘Metropolis’ is invented and developed by
the company which includes a number of combined features from a typical city in Denmark,
Belgium and Spain together so that to emulate our different environmental contexts in one
single identikit city.


Therefore, VET participants will need to be creative to solve a real-world need by applying the
challenge-based learning (CBL) approach and other open innovation methodologies applied to
VET, while gaining deeper knowledge and the necessary skills to thrive in a changing world.

The specific objectives (SO) are the following:

  • SO1: To develop innovative NbS through VET education by bringing together VET learners, teachers and schools around a European competition;
  • SO2: To contribute to achieve 21st century skills (transversal, personal, language and digital) among participants through solving together a real-world challenge in the water sector;
  • SO3: To raise awareness among similar companies of the potential of VET as the educational path upon which to build and create real life solutions;
  • SO4: To improve the quality of VET with the use of CBL methodologies between VET schools and the business sector;
  • SO5: To facilitate the access of companies to creative talent from European VET schools.

The expected results and outcomes are the following:

  • Increase interest of VET learners and trainers in the environmental challenges that Europe faces with regards to the future of water management in urban areas
  • Train and develop transversal skills for VET learners and trainers during the process of creativity of NbS;
  • Increase visibility of talented VET students for the water companies as pools of future employees capable to respond to real challenges;
  • Achieve a European-based manual of innovative NbS generated to be integrated in VET curricula classroom of water related studies.

Benefits for VET schools:

  • Direct contact with an innovative company
  • Incentives to acquire future skills
  • Visualise talent of students and staff
  • Training in innovation and creativity for staff

Benefits for the Company:

  • Formal and open innovation increases the market growth
  • Attraction of young talent
  • Open innovation among employees leads to an increase of company’s profits

2. Partner organizations:
Coordinator: Fundació BCN Formació Professional (Barcelona)
Partners: Mercantec (Viborg) – 6 students + 1 teacher

De Wijnpers (Leuven) – 6 students + 1 teacher

INS Esteve Terradas (Barcelona) – 6 students + 1 teacher

Escola de l’Aigua (Water School of Barcelona, ES) as repr. of Veolia

3. VET fields of specializations:
The project will focus on the following VET fields of specialization related to the water sector:

  • Energy & Water (eg. Water Management/Water Treatment; Renewable Energies/Energy Efficiency, etc).
  • Security & Environment
  • Biotechnology
  • Mechatronics

4. Implementation:
The project will be structured in 6 main phases led by one partner each, including transnational meetings (Ms), project activities (As) and results, as well as learning/training/teaching activities (Cs) both for students and teachers.

News:

  • International Metropolis awards ceremony
    The EU Water Challenge VET Labs final awards gala was successfully held, an event organized within the framework of the Erasmus+ project.
  • 3rd transnational meeting of the European project KA2 EU Water Challenge VET Hub
    The third project meeting took place on April 18th and 19th. During the meeting, the results of the Prototype VET Lab were presented. The workshop was held in February, where participating groups worked on real prototypes to provide solutions to the Agbar challenge on how to improve water management in the metropolis robot city.
  • New phase of the EU Water Challenge.
    Together with Xarxa FP, we are currently in Viborg where the three teams of the EU Water Challenge are working on their prototypes with the help of experts in 3D printing and prototyping, the projects are shaping up to be able to test them.
  • 2nd transnational meeting of the European project KA2 EU Water Challenge VET Labs
    The partners met on December 12 in Leuven (Belgium) for the second meeting of the project organized by the project partner De Wijnpers. 
  • Creativity VET Lab at the EU Water Challenge VET Lab
    This October we celebrated the Creativity VET Lab in Leuven, the second innovation activity within the EU Water Challenge VET Lab project. The 3 teams must solve the Aigües de Barcelona challenge: How do we improve water management through nature-based solutions to achieve greener and more sustainable cities? All these ideas will have to be prototyped at the next meeting in Viborg. Let’s continue!
  • Creativity VET Labs- EU Water challenge:
    The week of the Creativity workshop will take place from the 2 to the 6 of October, in which all teams will work to generate ideas in order to respond to the challenge launched by the international company Veòlia (Aigües de Barcelona).
  • EU Water Challenge VET Labs
    Last Tuesday, 2nd, we started our new project: EU Water Challenge VET Labs. We also enjoyed the meeting with our EU partners on this new project. It will be a FPLab Metropolis scaled internationally with innovative pedagogy, ecological thematics and FP at the centre of everything. Thank you very much to our partners, let’s do this!

For further news: https://www.fundaciobcnfp.cat/noticies/

On Social Media: #EUWaterChallenge #WaterChallengeVETLab #EUWaterChallengeVETLabs

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This communication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.