CATALYST

European VET Excellence Centre for Leading Sustainable Systems and Business Transformation

In its Pact for Skills, the European Commission points to the need to upskill and reskill people in Europe as essential for a fair and resilient recovery, but also to achieve the ambitious goals of the EU Green Deal.

In the course of our CATALYST project (European VET Excellence Centre for Leading Sustainable Systems and Business Transformation), the CSCP will support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and professionals on their sustainable transformation path.

The rapid shift towards a climate neutral Europe paired with the digital transformation is changing the way we work, learn, take part in society and lead our everyday lives. New vocational education and training (VET) skills are key to success in order to achieve the vision of European economies and societies to become more sustainable, resilient and better prepared for the challenges and opportunities of the green and digital transitions.

The Covid 19 pandemic has also had a profound impact: millions of people in the EU have lost their job or experienced significant income loss. Many people need to acquire new skills and move to new jobs in a different sector of economy. More people will need to upskill to keep their jobs in a new work environment. For young people, entry in the labour market could be challenging if not fully skilled to meet the needs of the future.

The CATALYST project will strengthen the sustainable competitiveness of professionals, students and SMEs. Upskilling and reskilling are crucial for long-term and sustainable growth, productivity, and innovation and therefore a key factor for the competitiveness of businesses of all sizes, in particular SMEs. The aim is to provide VET learners with the right skills to work more effectively and take advantage of advanced technologies. At the same time, cross-sector and cross-disciplinary partnerships will be encouraged in order to boost mutual learning and best practice exchange.  Through these “enable and inspire” components, the project partners will lead sustainable systems and business transformation in key sectors of the European Green Deal, such as food, IT and digitalisation, textiles and construction.

The CSCP will lead the establishment of a German Centre of Vocational Excellence (CoVE) to create an educational offer to tackle personal and organisational development and to embrace transformation in German SMEs. The goal of the centre will be to enable and inspire its participants to re-think and re-design business models as well as co-create and share between educational and business organisations.

The CoVEs aim to serve as ‘catalysts’ on a national, regional and European level, enable change and inspire the transformation of individuals and SMEs toward more sustainable systems and societies.

The CATALYST project was launched in June 2022. The 16 project partners from North Macedonia, Germany, Austria, Greece and Portugal have a strong vision and motivation to contribute to meeting the goals of the European Green Deal.

The project is funded by the Erasmus+ Programme.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.