Dear colleagues and friends of FIAP,

As the year draws to a close, we are once again sending out our traditional newsletter with a brief review of 2025. For us, it was an active and exciting year, but also a challenging one, as the conditions for small organisations in the international project business are not necessarily getting any easier. However, this makes it clear to us time and again how important good networks and reliable partners are and how, even in difficult times, cooperation can lead to many positive outcomes.
This year, we have gained many new partners at local, national and international level. Many of these partners come from countries that are facing much greater problems than we are in Germany due to current political developments. We would like to thank these partners for giving us new perspectives that ground us, and we look forward to developing solutions together with them.

In this respect, we would like to thank all our long-standing and new partners, look forward to 2026 with confidence and look forward to new projects and activities.

We wish all friends, network partners and supporters of FIAP a peaceful and healthy Christmas and a confident start to the new year 2026.

Gelsenkirchen, 15 December 2025

Silke Steinberg, Rüdiger Klatt, Romina Große & Hartmut Neuendorff

FIAP Annual Review 2025 – A look back at an active year

Despite many challenges, 2025 was a year full of inspiration, cooperation and innovative projects in vocational training for the Research Institute for Innovative Work Design and Prevention (FIAP). We are pleased to present the most important activities and successes in this annual review.

New networking opportunities in the field of XR/VR
The Metaverse project offers FIAP the opportunity to continue exploring the potential of XR technologies in education. In March, a workshop for vocational school teachers in Andalusia was held to develop ideas for new teaching applications, which were then implemented by the teachers and have been in use since the summer. The international Metaverse Academy meeting also took place in March, resulting in many spin-off collaborations, particularly with our partner CXI in South Africa. In July 2025, FIAP supported the launch of the EU-funded METAVERSE Academy network. The aim of the network is to connect universities, vocational training institutions, companies and learners across Europe in order to make free training in XR/VR and digital learning formats accessible in vocational education. (FIAP e.V.)

Innovative ideas and youth development
The career orientation event in May 2025 at the German School in Athens, initiated by the German-Greek Chamber of Commerce (AHK Greece) & FIAP, focused on green career paths. Together with the German Embassy in Athens, AHK and FIAP supported around 300 students in grades 10 and 11 in discovering new perspectives in vocational training. (FIAP e.V.)

Particularly noteworthy is the award given to three teams of students for their “green business ideas” developed during this event – a strong sign of entrepreneurial spirit, sustainability and future skills among young people. (FIAP e.V.)
The programme is to be continued next year with other schools in Greece.

Strengthening international vocational training cooperation between Greece and Germany
Another topic was the joint examination of challenges in vocational training between Germany and Greece. In May, the Future4VET project held a conference in Athens focusing on discussions about prospects, qualification requirements and opportunities for the future of VET (Vocational Education and Training) – an important step towards promoting international exchange and strengthening joint structures in vocational training. (FIAP e.V.). The Deputy Minister in the Greek Ministry of Education formulated a roadmap for Greek-German vocational training cooperation, which is now to be implemented in cooperation with the new German Ministry of Education, Family, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth.

GreenVOCnet: green technologies for CO2 reduction and AI as a driver for digital education
In May 2025, FIAP presented new developments in the GreenVOCnet project on artificial intelligence as a driver of innovation in vocational education at a CEDEFOP conference. A model developed in the project uses AI to adapt MOOC courses (Massive Open Online Courses) to the needs of teachers and support them in integrating green technologies into their teaching. GreenVOCnet thus contributes to the modernisation of vocational education and training. (FIAP e.V.)

GreenVOCnet: Vocational education and training between research and industry
FIAP also made its mark in the autumn. On 29 October 2025, a capacity building workshop on XR & AI for “Green VET” was held in collaboration with GreenVOCnet and the Metaverse Academy, together with Spanish partners AICIA and KEYTER int. – another practical milestone in the field of digital vocational education and training. (FIAP e.V.). The collaboration with Spanish, Slovakian and Greek partners focuses on the exchange between vocational training, universities and companies. Thanks to committed partners, this exchange works extremely well in the Andalusian ecosystem. Next year, the project will focus on establishing these structures in other countries and regions.

Collaboration with the City of Gelsenkirchen
In addition to our many international activities, we were particularly pleased this year to support the city of Gelsenkirchen and local vocational training stakeholders as part of a study. Together with colleagues from the Institute for Work and Technology (IAT), this study addresses challenges and potential in the fields of career orientation, language support and migrant economy. A particular highlight for us was the interviews with committed stakeholders in the city.

We look forward to an equally exciting and effective year in 2026!