Commission reveals 12 winners of VET Excellence Awards

The European Vocational Skills Week is ongoing across Europe and beyond from 16 to 20 May. Organised by the European Commission every year, it is an occasion to celebrate best practices in Vocational Education and Training (VET), bringing together everyone involved – from local, to national and regional authorities, students, teachers and education and training organisation stakeholders – to showcase the benefits VET offers to young people and adults alike. This year’s sixth edition focuses on ‘VET and the Green Transition’, supporting people to acquire the necessary skills for the green transition, in line with the European Green Deal.

At the VET Excellence Awards ceremony yesterday, the Commission announced the winners of this flagship prize in different categories. An accountancy apprentice from Greece, the Piedmont Region in Italy, and a Swedish tree care programme have received the European Vocational Skills Week Excellence Award 2022, along with 9 other award winners.

This year’s winners

The Commission awarded 12 prizes in four categories and one special mention to apprentices, projects, companies and regions, from the EU, neighbouring and neighbourhood countries, who have successfully used VET to build a greener, more digital and more inclusive society.

The award winners include:

• Evangelos Pouftas, an apprentice with an accountancy firm in Greece, who demonstrated the key role of apprentices in accelerating the digital transition of small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), by helping the company’s clients to digitalise their work, such as setting up online services to remain competitive, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and increased remote working.
• The Piedmont Region of Italy, with the support of the European Social Fund, promoted to young learners a culture of sustainability in food production and consumption along the agri-food chain.
• The ‘Veteran Tree Management Skills Certification’ project of Stiftelsen Pro Natura. This Swedish programme, funded by Erasmus+, is designed to raise the standard of the caring for trees that have an exceptional value for nature conservation, landscape or culture, known as ‘veteran trees’.

Quinta reunión ministerial de la UpM sobre Empleo y Trabajo

Further award winners are:

• AKMI S.A., Greece
• Programme ‘Working inclusion and equal opportunities for the most disadvantaged’, ALMI BILBAO S.A.L., Spain
• Cyclades –  5^th Evening Vocational High School of Patra, Greece
• Environmental and Agricultural Education in School, Georgia
• Prof. Dr. Linda Clarke, University of Westminster, United Kingdom
• ÖBB Infrastruktur AG, Austria
• Otto Stöckl Elektroinstallationen GmbH, Austria
• Riga State Technical School, Latvia
• Virtual Dawn, Finland

In addition to the prizes in the different categories, a special mention went to Ukrainian partners who, along with the European Training Foundation, have been reforming their education and training systems, focusing on qualifications, the future of skills in key economic sectors, and governance arrangements to modernise the system and to bring it closer to the system in the EU.

More information: European Commission – Press release