At Esplora Interactive Science Centre we are constantly looking for opportunities for cooperation and mobility across Europe. Esplora considers that exchanging best practices and experiences is one of the finest ways to increase employee capacity and provide them with further training, and it also keeps our Core Ideology and Operations up to date. This makes Esplora more relevant, practical, and competitive with respect to other non-formal VET education providers across Europe. Key Action 1 projects offer the possibility for Science Museum staff members, and other participating organisations, to reskill, upskill and become more knowledgeable and competent in various areas.
The Future Economic Forums’ Future jobs report lists the following as the Top 10 Skills for 2020: Cognitive Flexibility, Complex Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, Creativity, People Management, Coordinating with Others, Emotional Intelligence, Judgement and Decision Making, Service Orientation, and Negotiation.
With this Erasmus+ project entitled Fostering 21st Century Skills through STEM, 13 employees from Esplora had the great opportunity to visit four science centres around Europe. The first mobility training was hosted at Esperimenta in Heilbronn, Germany in February 2022. Throughout this training mobility, the five participants were not only given information on how the Science Centre operates, but they were also given a guide on how Heilbronn prepared for hosting the 2022 Ecsite Conference which was held in June 2022. Esplora greatly benefitted through this training since the 2023 Ecsite Conference will be hosted in Malta by Esplora. By discussing with several professionals’, the various logistics necessary for the planning of the annual Ecsite conference, our team became better equipped to plan for the 2023 Conference.
In May 2022, a team of three employees attended a training mobility at the Ciência Viva Science Centre, in Lisbon, Portugal. Throughout this training, the team consisting of two explainers and one science communicator, acquired various skills in how this science centre operates. The three Esplora members became familiar with the institution and their networks and projects. In addition, the participants became familiar with the school activities, outreach events and education programmes which are offered by Ciência Viva. In addition, discussions related to the centre’s operation throughout the pandemic, and their communication and marketing strategies were held.
In October 2022, another three employees coming from administrative, public relations and marketing teams, went for a three-day training at the Dolni Vitkovice Science and Technology Centre in Ostrava, Czech Republic. It was an interesting mobility, given the location of this centre and the history of its place, which had served as a factory for black coal mining and production of raw steel between 1828 and 1998. The team from Esplora was given tours around the centre and nearby landmarks. They had the opportunity to observe a press event for the launch of a temporary event entitled ZooM. Throughout this event, they met with the United States ambassador for the Czech Republic and also exchanged information for further future collaboration.
The last training mobility took place at the AHHAA Science Centre in Tartu, Estonia. This training was targeted mostly at the planetarium sub-field of Science Centres, and its use in non-formal education. Both Esplora and AHHAA Science Centre have a planetarium and so this training gave the chance to participants to get to know how other centres operate and make use of their planetarium. For this training, two employees who operate the Esplora planetarium acquired new knowledge such as troubleshooting and maintenance. Apart from this, they also gained new skills in live show content development which can be adapted for our own use, enriching our planetarium outputs.
Feedback received from all participants was very positive and encouraging. Esplora will surely continue applying for such Erasmus+ Training Programmes and will equally recommend such ventures to other Science Centres. One such benefit is the ability to meet professionals in the various fields, in our case, those pertaining to the public engagement with STEM and Science Communication fields. The benefits are two ways since the ideas and practices coming from both the host and Esplora are being shared and merged. Due to the latter, staff from both parties are enriched with new skills and a broader understanding of interconnections between non-formal education and vocational training, as well enhanced positive interactions with people from different backgrounds.
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