Education and Training

VI-TRAIN (“Virtual Training for Traditional Crafts”) is an Erasmus+ project, number 2020-1-AT01-KA226-VET-092635 co-financed by the European Union that commenced in June 2021. Its defining purpose is innovative digital training for traditional endangered crafts, especially aimed at maintenance and repair of historic buildings. The two-year project, extended to complete in September 2023 because of COVID-19, aims to: identify appropriate means of distance learning for the training of craftspeople (manual work); identify appropriate means of online co-operation in training, taking into account functionality, GDPR and data security; to determine criteria for adopting digital solutions; develop and test a virtual/3D-crafts training system by using sensors and VR/AR; develop and test a virtual/3D-buidling damage identification training system; investigate and test options overcoming restrictions, e.g. movement sickness; develop a train-the-trainer system for application of selected tools in training of traditional crafts.

MRA is the Hungarian partner, working with: Burghauptmannschaft Österreich (Austria), IMC Fachhochschule Krems GmbH (Austria), Národný Trust n.o. (Slovakia), ECQA GmbH (Austria), UBW Unternehmensberatung Wagenhofer GmbH (Austria), the Asociación Española de Gestores de Patrimonio Cultural (Spain), the Secretaria Geral da Presidencia da República (Portugal) and the Universidad del Pais Vasco / Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (Spain).

Contributing experts: Graham Bell (project leader), Barbara Fogarasi, Júlia Katona, Attila Vámos-Hegyi

The brief description of the VI-TRAIN project:

Cultural Heritage (CH) is in the focus of the European Union as motor for employment, economic drive and development. In order to guarantee longevity & usability of European
Heritage it is inevitable to keep up with the requirements of society like new technology and digitisation.
The Covid19 crisis added some urgency to the issue as training organisations strongly suffer from restrictions and new rules, which are threatening traditional education and training activities. Especially in regards to hands-on-training, where instructors need to get really close to learners in order to teach practical skills.
The consortium of VI-TRAIN takes on the challenge of developing innovative training for traditional/threatened crafts and handling of building damages, which will boost the digitalization of training in (built) Cultural Heritage. A big focus is given to crafts that are almost nowhere trained any more. Lots of those crafts do need a lot of experience and guidance by experienced craftspeople. This training in particular will be boosted by various digitalization support.
The anticipated objectives of VI-TRAIN are:
• to identify appropriate means of distance learning for the training of craftspeople (manual work),
• to identify appropriate means of online cooperation in training, regarding functionality, GDPR and data security
• to derive success criteria for highly accepted digital solutions
• to develop and test a virtual/3D-crafts training system by using sensors and VR/AR
• to develop and test a virtual/3D-buidling damage identification training system
• to investigate and test options overcoming restrictions, e. g. move sickness,
• to develop a train-the-trainer system for application of selected tools in training of traditional crafts
Participants of the courses developed in VI-TRAIN can obtain a European certificate by undergoing a certification process provided by ECQA, which is an internationally active organisation specialised in certification of skills and competences.
VI-TRAIN nicely enriches the offer of The European Heritage Academy (EHA), which will be in charge of delivering VI-TRAIN training courses after completion of the project. EHA is situated at Charterhouse Mauerbach, the future EU Competence and Community Centre for Architectural Conservation, being set up during INCREAS, a Pilot project for Cultural and Creative Industries, Finance, Learning, Innovation and Patenting for Cultural and Creative Industries (FLIP for CCIs-2).

Erasmus+ 2014-2020; Project number 2020-1-AT01-KA226-VET-092635 (2021-2023)

The European Commission support for this project does not constitute an endorsement of the contents of this project, which reflects the views only of the authors. The Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.