Our colleague Elina Tovagliaro demonstrated her skills at SwissSkills 2025 (Swiss vocational championships) in Bern!
For her participation in SwissSkills 2025, Elina designed a special project at the Nanolino daycare centre. The focus was on the children, their ideas and their joy in creating something themselves.
The children built a sailing ship together, a project that wonderfully encouraged their curiosity, creativity and cooperation. They were able to sand down boards, sink screws, paint, sew and decorate independently, contributing their individual skills. Elina's goal was to design a project that focused on the children's intrinsic motivation and strengthened their self-efficacy.
As a specialist, she accompanied the process pedagogically and reflectively, documenting everything in a video diary that recorded the ongoing development of the project. Based on Jean Piaget's developmental psychology, a learning space was created in which the children could gain their own experiences through active doing, trying and observing. They understood connections not simply through explanations, but through their own actions, by sawing, screwing, sewing and designing. This enabled them to build cognitive structures, better understand cause and effect, and strengthen their confidence in their own abilities.
On 17 September 2025, Elina presented the project to a jury of experts in Bern.
It was an enriching experience that showed me how participation empowers children, deepens education and brings community to life. Every single child's voice is so incredibly valuable!
