This year’s network meeting ‘Handwerk (be)wirkt – Internationale Projektarbeit im Handwerk’ took place on 3 and 4 June at the invitation of the German Confederation of Skilled Crafts (ZDH) in the context of the SCIVET Synergy project and the Agency for Business and Development operated by the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ). The approximately 80 participants engaged in intensive discussions on how to strengthen international vocational education and training cooperation and development assistance in the skilled crafts sector in view of the current challenges. For the first time, representatives of skilled crafts organisations came together with skilled craftspeople who are interested in working on international projects.
Network meeting 2024
Participants of the network meeting 2024. Picture: Mone Küsel
In various workshops and panel discussions, representatives from politics, skilled crafts organisations and the skilled crafts sector discussed the central questions in development cooperation and international vocational education and training cooperation and developed possible solutions. The focus was on challenges, perspectives and funding opportunities in the context of the tight budget situation and the changes to the Skilled Labour Immigration Act.
The network meeting also offered the opportunity to deepen the discussions initiated at the event over dinner and to bring together different stakeholders in order to optimise international cooperation projects and conduct them more smoothly.
Pictures: Mone Küsel