Cove Hackaton on IoT, Green Economy and Society

Platforms of Vocational Excellence are one of the most important initiatives of the European Commission for the period 2020-2027 and represent the engine for the transformation and development of vocational and technical education and training, in line with all the changes in the modern economy and society. The Centres of Vocational Excellence initiative was launched in 2019 when the European Commission selected only 5 pilot projects from all over Europe for funding: Talentjourney, DIHUB, Exam 4.0, PoVE Water and DeuS.

The concept of vocational excellence focuses on a holistic, user-centred (learning person) approach in which vocational and professional education:

• is an integral part of the skills ecosystem that contributes to regional development, innovation and smart specialization strategies.
• enables the participant in education/training to acquire professional and key competencies and offers him/her high-quality education/training; builds innovative forms of partnership with the work sphere; offers teachers and trainers active involvement in professional development, uses innovative teaching methods, mobility and works following international strategies.
• is part of the research, education, innovation – in close cooperation with other educational sectors, the scientific community and companies.

The main reason we organized the hackathon was to provide a unique experience for learners to collaborate and work among themselves and with company experts and tutors in an international environment to:

• help to develop an entrepreneurial mindset and the skills necessary for knowledge transfer and start-up activities, so that they can fully exploit the innovation potential of their research;
• connect learners and labour market;
• connect learners, tutors, company experts as co-workers to share ideas, experiences, knowledge and skills;
• implement work-based learning, hands-on project;
• establish international connections/network;
• learn how to develop a project from the very beginning to its finalization (Steps in project development);
• gain/increase and develop meta and green skills.