The kick-off meeting of the ECVET-Lab project gathered representatives from all 7 organisations of the consortium in Valencia (Region of Valencia, Spain) on 15th and 16th of November 2016. The event was co-organised by NOVOTEC and Fundación Equipo Humano to build a common understanding on the project objectives, activities and results. The responsibilities and roles of each partner towards the completion of tasks was discussed and fine-tuned from the proposal and Erasmus+ regulation baseline.
Along the presentation, the project leader, NOVOTEC, emphasised the participative approach of the project for obtaining high quality results, by involving grass-root actors such as private laboratories, universities, vocational training centres and public authorities. The partners discussed about the best way to enrol laboratories in the 25 European countries they can reach, in order to obtain their good environmental practices. They also discussed about the most convenient strategies for calling local laboratories to participation in each of the three focus groups that will take place along the spring 2017 in Spain, Poland and Cyprus.
Some different understandings about the means foreseen by the project to achieve the expected goals were also discussed. For example, the target audience of the resulting training course on environmental management could be addressed to both, lab technicians or lab directors, as they both share responsibilities in this field. After arguing for the best strategy, the partnership agreed on addressing the training course to laboratory technicians.
Also, EUROLAB flagged some of the risks that the project might encounter along the gathering of best practices throughout Europe, and the partners discussed about some strategies to mitigate them.
The communication strategy of the ECVET-Lab was presented by Fundación Equipo Humano, together with several logo proposals. Project partners agreed during the meeting on the corporate identity that can be seen today in the project website.
Finally, MMC presented some examples of training platforms they created in the past, that could inspire the design of the one foreseen for the ECVET-Lab in 2018.
The kick-off meeting was also a moment of trust building among partners, where informal relations were established along a cultural programme and partnership dinners. These moments were crucial for partners to better identify their complementary capacities, and to prevent possible risks during the project execution.
In all, the kick-off meeting resulted in an intense work session where the partners set the rails for an effective, fruitful and enjoyable cooperation towards the achievement of the ECVET-Lab project objectives.
