What motivated you to get involved in the SEED project?
As Katapult we want to share our knowledge on public private collaboration in vocational and professional education. In the Netherlands our network consists of over 450 of these public-private networks. As such, Katapult has been involved in supporting the Centre of Expertise Smart Sustainable Cities in Utrecht and other partnerships in the region in multiple phases of the project. Additionally, Katapult has recently been involved in upscaling and connecting six public-private partnerships in the region of Utrecht, in a program called GeLUK (luck), to stimulate a sustainable and healthy living environment. Katapult coordinates and stimulates knowledge sharing on a national level to help existing public-private partnerships (PPS) upscale for more impact. However, upscaling you do not just do at a national level. Sustainable energy is a European challenge, and this is why it is not less than logical to be involved in SEED as Katapult. Our aim is to stimulate public-private partnerships across Europe and within this project we try to promote this way of working, while also sharing our networks across Europe through the Community of Practice for the Centres of Vocational Excellence. In this way, we try to help SEED reaching out to the wider community. We were very happy to see this working out in practice during the conference in Valencia, where we managed to mobilise the broader network to come to conference and make connections.
What do you think would be the most rewarding experience you could have as a partner in the SEED project?
As Katapult we are responsible for the quality assurance of this project. To this end, we designed a quality assurance plan to ensure quality monitoring and quality indicators, provide the partners with tools and formats, cross assessments and external evaluation. We try to facilitate as much mutual learning as possible within our work package, as we think it is a great way of ensuring quality and impact. This year we for example organised peer reviews to review each other’s regional development plans for the CoVE, which helped the different regions in getting an outsider perspective on the activities and strategy they like to pursue. We were also in the lead of getting an external review for the project. This reviewer attends our SEED conference in Valencia last summer to see the project in practice and interview the different participants. This real outsider perspective gives us great conclusions and recommendations to address in the last two years of the SEED project (and beyond).
What are your expectations for the project?
In the first two years of the project, we have used the time to get to know each other as regions, develop the regional plans and as Katapult we have contributed to clarifying what a public-private partnership / Centre of Vocational Excellence exactly is. After two years we feel confident these concepts are clear and regional development plans are ready.
Now comes the important phase of implementing concrete, hands-on activities that involve VET stakeholders, teachers, and students while encouraging close collaboration with industry. Our expectation of the project is that in this phase we will manage together to implement these activities and learn from and copy each other’s best practices.
Also our hope from the Katapult’ side is that the project and the activities will be sustainable. In public-private partnerships it is important to get long-term commitments from stakeholders to maintain the networks and ensure that our project deliverables remain practical and useful even after the project ends.
What strategies is the project using to ensure the sustainability of its results?
During our last project meeting in Kozani, together with our Greek partner CluBe, Katapult organised a workshop on ensuring sustainability of the results of SEED (see attached picture). Every public-private partnership is different and every participating region in SEED is different. This is why there is not just one answer on how to ensure sustainability after a project. In the workshop we tried to present multiple ways to ensure sustainability of your PPS, by sharing on possible business models, dissemination and new funding opportunities after the project. Together with all the attendees we brainstormed on what activities of SEED we would love to see continue after the project and possible strategies on how to make sure activities make this impact. In the end this fed into one Master Plan of sustaining SEED in the long-term! This topic will be on the agenda for our upcoming meetings as we want SEED to be a long-term movement!
What advice would you give to future partners in similar projects?
Try not to reinvent the wheel. Within Katapult we now have more than 10 years of experience in public-private partnerships in the Netherlands, and through the Community of Practice for the Centres of Vocational Excellence we are gaining more and more experience in public-private partnerships across Europe. Key message is that when you are pioneering it is important to seek advice from other people working in public-private partnerships. Usually, activities you are developing have been undertaken or tested in other projects, so instead of reinventing the wheel we try to stimulate open-source knowledge sharing within our Katapult network. So, when you are developing a project, be it in sustainable energy or a different sector that has links with sustainable energy, reach out and learn from us, instead of figuring it out on your own.