A documentary-style episode from Hamburg on vocational excellence, inclusion and SMEs
Check out the episode website
In this episode I try something new: a documentary-style montage recorded live during a WIN4SMES event in Hamburg. Instead of one long sit-down conversation, this episode moves through soundscapes, field notes, participant voices and short interviews to give a more immediate sense of what an Erasmus+ Centre of Vocational Excellence project looks like on the ground. WIN4SMES focuses on workplace innovation in SMEs, and the project’s different national pilots are working on themes such as inclusion, entrepreneurship, newcomers and skills development.
Across the episode, I speak with the coordinator team about the training programme, hear from participants working with agile methods, design thinking and AI in vocational education, and zoom in on two of the particularly strong COVEs from the project. One from Hungary uses an entrepreneurship camp to support highly talented young people in developing business ideas. Another from Lithuania works with hotels and restaurants to create real job pathways for young people with disabilities. The result is a more atmospheric and people-centered episode about how vocational excellence is actually built in practice — not only in policy papers, but in classrooms, workshops, company relationships and human lives.
Time codes:
00:00 Airport opening
01:25 Arriving and introducing the training programme w/Anna Maria Czarny
06:43 Meeting the training classes
11:40 The Partner Dinner w/Maëla Barcon
15:34 Introducing day 2
19:13 The Hungary COVE - Supporting Entrepreneurship w/Tamas Rettich
28:20 The Lithuanian COVE - Young People with Disabilities w/Egle Lizaityte
48:16 WIN4SMES - Status and where it is moving w/Max Hogeforster
01:01:55 Farewell and outro
