For the first time in the now seventy-year history of VDT e. V., we are receiving substantial EU funding for an own project: our strategic partnership "ESSENCE" within the framework of the EU's Erasmus+ program has been accepted!

This is what it is about:

The funding relates to an international project in which we are working with seven other organizations from Europe to develop a European qualification for sound specialists at EQF level 5 for the live event industry. It follows on from the SQQ7 project that we have been working on in the IGVW for some time.

Our project partners are the Austrian Theathertechnical Society (OETHG), the Academy of the OETHG, the Erasmushogeschool Brussels (EHB, Belgium), the professional association STEPP (also Belgium), EurAka (Germany), the IGVW (Germany), the foundation OSAT (Netherlands) and the Vereniging voor podiumtechnologie (VPT, also Netherlands). In order to be able to manage a project together, many trips are necessary, both for our own working group meetings and to be able to discuss and present the results of our work in larger groups outside our core team. Without funding, this would not have been financially feasible, which is why we are really happy about the award!

More important than ever

The application states, among other things: "Our goal is to address the shortage of personnel in the current labor market and to counteract the migration of qualified professionals to other industries in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. In doing so, we aim to fill existing gaps in vocational training in live sound engineering, further develop and improve sound engineering education, and promote transnational mobility of workers and students and intercultural competence." In the meantime, we see that the outflow and insufficient number of young professionals is indeed tearing a big gap in the already beleaguered event industry. Our project therefore remains highly relevant.

Kick-off at the Tonmeistertagung

Although we received the approval only a few days ago, we will try to hold a kick-off meeting with the project partners at the Tonmeistertagung in early November. If you can imagine working on the project until the beginning of 2024, please contact us by email or at the Tonmeistertagung. We are looking forward to this great large-scale project with VDT in the project management. We would like to dedicate a huge thank you to Jörn Nettingsmeier, who developed the project idea, inspired the partner associations and wrote the ninety-page project application and brought it through the application process. Thank you very much for this great achievement!

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