Text : Jan Steverink
images: Zone.college
In the Netherlands, most green VET schools offer courses for veterinary nurses. It is a very popular course, with good job opportunities. In fact, it is one of the few courses with limited enrollment (numerus fixus), so as not to overflow the labour market.
In 2020, we were granted for an Erasmus+ subsidy to connect with other providers in Europe of more or less the same courses. Together with our colleagues of VET schools Terra and Aeres, we found partners in Finland, Denmark and Slovenia. This resulted in the project Vocational Education and Training for Veterinary Nurses (VET4VN).
We agreed to work on (digital) teaching materials in English and on manuals for workbased learning.
Learning, training, teaching
One important component of Erasmus+ projects is the so-called Learning Training and Teaching Activity. Such a student activity took place in october 2021 in Helsinki, Finland, at the Taitotalo VET Centre.
10 Teachers and 29 students from the Netherlands (Aeres, Terra, Zone.college), Denmark (Hansenberg), Slovenia (BIC), and of course Finland (Taitotalo) worked on ‘Distant Learning and Coaching’ through a livestream on the topic of radiology.
Working groups
Students had already studied the theory of radiology at home. A digital Moodle platform was set up for this. Students could test their newly acquired knowledge themselves with online quizzes and assignments. All theory was picked up again in Helsinki in a short lecture by a Finnish colleague, in English, which was very well received. Afterwards, the students started working in groups to prepare a demonstration of an X-ray image for the live stream.
They wrote the script together, and determined who did what when and how. It was fanatically rehearsed. It was a nice form of peer teaching that worked out well despite the language barrier and the difference in age. Due to the good cooperation in the groups and the great atmosphere, all students performed the demonstrations of the X-rays in the livestream very well and with great enthusiasm.
Well-received livestream
The livestream was followed in several countries by a number of classes, colleagues, para-veterinarians, and some associated partners of the project. With all our experiences and feedback, we are now going to work on further developing the possibilities for the application of a live stream in distance learning.
“Intellectual Outputs”
Next to the exchange activities where students and teachers were directly involved, the project has delivered three documents that provide hands-on information on distant learning and coaching, the development of international learning units and on workbased learning. The documents can be downloaded from the website of the Network for Veterinary Nurses.
