Award given for Realto platform

The Swiss Society for Applied Research in Vocational Education and Training (SGAB) has awarded its first Vocational Education and Training Prize for the Realto platform. SFIVET professor Alberto Cattaneo was among the recipients. The ‘At the Heart of Apprenticeships’ exhibition, which was another SFIVET project, had also been nominated for the prize.

Bild Preisverleihung SGAB
FLTR: Prof. Dr. Jean-Luc Gurtner (Uni Fribourg), Prof. Dr. Susan Müller (Uni St. Gallen), Prof. Dr. Nadia Lamamra (SFIVET)
SGAB-SRFP

Researchers at the Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), the University of Fribourg have been working on the Realto platform with SFIVET researchers led by Professor Alberto Cattaneo for several years. This platform facilitates communication between the three learning locations (vocational school, host company and branch training centres). They have now won the first ever recognition prize from the Swiss Society for Applied Research in Vocational Education and Training (SGAB-SRFP)for their work.

At today's online meeting of SGAB, the prize of CHF 5,000 was presented to Professor Jean-Luc Gurtner from the University of Fribourg on behalf of the whole team. The SGAB prize will be awarded every two years for the purpose of recognising projects that make a significant contribution to the transfer of high-quality VET research into practice. The prize is sponsored by SFIVET, the University of Zurich and the University of Teacher Education Zurich (PH Zurich).

A bridge between learning locations

The free online tool Realto is intended to bridge the gap between vocational schools and the workplace. At school, theoretical concepts can be illustrated using examples taken from the workplace training experiences of learners. At the workplace, in turn, workplace training experiences can be recorded through various media and used for reflective activities. Teachers can, for example, ask learners to take photos at the workplace in relation to a given topic. These photos can then be used at the vocational school. At the same time, learners can use Realto to produce learning documents that may be presented to workplace trainers at host companies for assessment.

Other nominated projects

Also nominated for the prize was Vocational education and training trainers, key persons in the professional socialisation process, a project developed by SFIVET professor Nadia Lamamra. In this project, various means were used to popularise research and share knowledge. This included a report, several articles written in layman’s terms and specific activities. Finally, an interactive exhibit was organised to present the results of this project and previous research findings. This interactive exhibition shows what an apprenticeship can be like – from the moment an apprenticeship contract is signed to the moment when learners obtain their vocational qualification. The third nomination went to the University of St. Gallen for the project ‘Entrepreneurial Thinking and Action at Vocational Schools in Switzerland - Effective Teaching of Entrepreneurial Skills’, which was directed by Prof. Dr. Susan Müller.