Société d’Enseignement Professionnel du Rhône – SEPR is a vocational training institution founded in Lyon in 1864 by François Barthélémy Arlès-Dufour, an influential silk entrepreneur and fervent advocate of the St. Simon ideology. From the start, SEPR has always been dedicated to train, support and guide their learners on their professional and personal paths to find their place in tomorrow’s society.

Since its creation SEPR has trained 1 million learners.

SEPR is one of the TOP 10 largest VET centres in France, with 6 excellence hubs from EQF level 2 to EQF level 7:

• Arts & crafts and design
• Gastronomy and catering trades
• Visual communication and graphic chain
• Beauty, health care and social services
• Trade and sales
• Technical and IT professions

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SEPR has been developing international and European activities since 1989 and works in partnership with 56 training centres and organisations in 24 different countries around the world.

1. Academic partnerships and international mobility

SEPR International strategy strongly supports and implements mobility for individuals and collaborates with many European VET schools to send and host learners and staff all over Europe and beyond EU borders. According to the Council Recommendation on VET for sustainable competitiveness, social fairness and resilience, by 2025 at least 8% of learners in VET should have benefitted from a learning mobility abroad.

Therefore, SEPR strongly supports and implements mobility for individuals, thanks to internships in foreign companies, academic semesters abroad, VET staff training mobility, teaching-sessions carried out by foreign professionals. SEPR also implements Erasmus PRO with long-term mobility for graduates and learners during their training, in the framwework of the MONA project, piloted by EURO APP MOBILITY.

SEPR holds the Erasmus+ VET charter, the Erasmus+ charter for higher education and the “Good Practice” label from the Erasmus+ French National Agency.

2. Innovation towards excellence

SEPR cooperates as well with foreign VET centres for innovation and exchange of good practices. SEPR is involved in several Erasmus+ KA2 projects focusing on different issues, such as social inclusion, digital learning methodology and resources, entrepreneurship, skills competitions, etc.

Since 2022, SEPR is also involved in Centres of Vocational Excellence (CoVE), the flagship initiative of the European Commission for VET:

• as the leader of the MOSAIC CoVE, focusing on Arts & Crafts and their relation to Design and Industry. MOSAIC brings together a wide range of partners, from VET providers, universities, employers, research centres (among others) from 7 different countries, to develop “skills ecosystems” that contribute to development, innovation, and smart specialisation strategies. Its aim is to provide high quality vocational skills, support entrepreneurial activities, the diffusion of innovation, and act as a knowledge and innovation hubs for companies, while working with centres in other countries through international collaborative platforms.
• as a partner of Auto-CoVE 2.0 coordinated by OMNIA (Finland); this project includes 16 full partners from 7 countries and 14 associated partners. Automotive companies increasingly need staff who have skills in the field of green automobiles: hybrid, hydrogen and electric vehicles. This project aims to conduct a deep skills-gap-analysis in the sector by collaborating with companies and VET schools. After that, the project aims to develop 17 training modules for marketing, maintenance and service of vehicles. SEPR is a partner of the project as well as the leader of the Quality Assurance and Management Work Package.

3. Counselling and tailored training

SEPR has been involved in 2 VET pilot projects launched by the European Commission, that are now coming to an end:

• the pilot VET mobility scheme in Africa in Africa: ”SAAM” (Supporting Alliance for African Mobility), led by the Spanish VET centre SanViator and coordinated by the Spanish Mobility Provider Asociación Mundus. This project (2020-2024) targeted the development of new curricula, methodologies, technologies and management and focused on the enhancement of mobility between Africa and Europe, using job-shadowing and knowledge acquisition on internationalisation, transparency tools and educational pathways;
• the pilot VET mobility scheme Lot 1. Enlargement countries – Western Balkans and Turkey called “INTERVET WB : Internationalisation of VET systems in Western Balkans”. This project (2020-2023) brought together 14 organisations involved in VET from 14 countries (among which all the 6 countries of the Western Balkans) to introduce a comprehensive mobility scheme in the enlargement countries;

 Since January 2023, SEPR is also involved in new Capacity building projects:

• one as leader with IMPROVET-Armenia focusing on dental prosthesis and Social Care and aiming at elevating vocational education in Armenia
• one as Partner with the V2V-Albania project, that aims to improve innovation, modernization and internationalization of VET schools in Albania
• the new project VET-POWER project will start by the end of 2024. It will reinforce the links between VET and the labour market, by aligning VET curricula with companies needs in electricity sector, embed an internationalisation mindset and introduce the Work-Based Learning framework in Cameroun, Burkina Faso and Benin.

Thanks to its expertise, SEPR is able to support National and International organisations in terms of:

• Tailored training for learners, teachers and managers
• Development of new training modules for Initial and Continuous VET
• Pedagogical approaches and tools
• Work-based learning
• Placements in companies
• Internationalisation strategy.