EUROMOB: Approaches to certify skills and competences in international mobility

Euromob is an online tool that is developing in the context of the EUROMOB project with the aim to identify, measure, and recognize the skills that learners have acquired during their mobility program in a European country, with the acknowledgment of companies and education institutions.

Approximately 50 thousand young students engage in international mobility for a traineeship every year through the Erasmus+ program. The benefits of these academic activities are recognized at all levels including inter-personal and professional competencies. Students, the direct and main beneficiaries of such initiatives, become aware of the added-value for their employability and the number of applicants is increasing at a rate over 10% per year.

A key concern with regards to this type of mobility – mobility for an internship/traineeship – relates to the certification of the acquired skills and competencies. Internships/traineeships evolve in an environment that is quite distinct from traditional classroom settings. Several characteristics of traditional classroom environments are not observed in internship/traineeship activities thus preventing the use of similar assessment and certification mechanisms. In general, the following internship/traineeship activities characteristics are not observed in traditional classroom environments:

  • students are enrolled for a short period of time
  • involved in practical tasks to perform certain activities (highly practical)
  • formal assessment, written exams, and the like are not expected either welcome
  • companies, in general, internship/traineeship hosts, are more focused on results than on student assessment
  • companies are not willing to spend time on academic/educational assessment tasks

These circumstances demand new approaches to certify the skills and competencies acquired by an increasing number of students during an internship/traineeship.

The European Center in Training for Employment – ECTE,  is participating in the EUROMOB project consortium, for addresses the development of recognition of skills and qualifications with the objective of enhancing youth employment opportunities. Youth employability is considered as the main priority in Europe and the optic of the project is to reduce the breach between graduates and companies through direct recognition of skills.

Design Thinking, an effective methodology for Innovation

The most valuable companies in the world place use design thinking at the center of everything they are doing. As an anthropocentric methodology, it is the ideal tool for companies seeking to develop products and services, regardless of the market in which they operate. Domains such as the agro alimentary sector, energy, healthcare, education, and government have begun to prototype, iterate, and build more with a human-centered focus.

It may seem intimidating to consider innovation from a design perspective. However, whenever there is a tough business challenge, we can tackle it as a design thinking problem. At its core, design thinking is a powerful, repeatable process that questions everything, relies heavily on observation, demands options, and promotes experimentation. Using Design thinking effectively demands competencies in observing, interviewing, creating personas, developing storyboards, making prototypes, and testing making decision-making analyses. The acquisition of these skills for professionals of the agro-alimentary sector is a challenge for the DTRaIN project, which is co-financed by the European Commission under the Erasmus + program.

The DTRaIN curriculum development led by ECTE has been finalized and the consortium members have started developing interactive training material for ubiquitous learning.

Coronavirus: Distance learning increases dropout risk for vulnerable learners

Cedefop’s ambassadors for tackling early leaving from education and training call for further support to address the needs of learners at risk and ensure their equal access to quality distance learning.

The coronavirus pandemic disrupted the education and training of an entire generation of vocational education and training (VET) learners. Those already at risk – from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds, migrants and from ethnic minorities, learners with disabilities and special education needs – often find themselves out of school. With schools being closed, they risk falling further behind, while further disruption to their learning is imminent if distance learning is not ensured. At the same time, they are at increased risk of violence, abuse and neglect, as families and households are locked down.

Examples of initiatives from seven European countries in Cedefop’s new report show the efforts made to ensure that learning continues for all VET learners, as well as to support VET teachers and trainers who had to convert physical classrooms and working places into digital learning environments overnight.

According to the report, VET teachers and trainers face challenges such as no access to equipment and internet connection required to offer distance learning; lack of digital skills and competences to make efficient use of the platforms; poor experience in creating digital teaching content; no experience in e-learning and other distance learning pedagogies in VET, especially for teaching practical components; concerns over privacy issues, copyright and data protection.

The report also points out that learners at risk, not participating in distance education, disconnect for a longer period and may eventually drop out of their VET programme.

Prior to the pandemic, European countries had made significant progress in lowering the rates of early leaving from education and training, results which should be sustained in the post-coronavirus era. Cedefop’s VET toolkit for tackling early leaving has never been more important in supporting policy-makers and VET practitioners to prevent early leaving.

Cedefop will continue work in this field to support the European Commission, Member States and social partners in implementing the newly adopted Council Conclusions on European teachers and trainers for the future (European Council, 25 May 2020), recognising teachers and trainers as an indispensable driving force of education and training and acknowledging their commitment during the current crisis.

Applying the Learning-Outcome-based framework in achieving a professional qualification

VET systems in Europe, are facing challenges due to the fast-changing skill needs of the labor market, and to the expectations of individuals. The “shelf-life” of skills is becoming increasingly short. VET qualifications need to meet the highest quality standards and can be built on, refreshed and renewed, in order to maintain their relevance in these rapidly changing economies.

The shift focusing on learning outcomes is an important facilitator of change. The identification of the specific “Learning Outcomes”, is the core of the European credit system for VET (ECVET) for promoting transfer and accumulation of skills and competences across Europe.

According to the “Defining, writing and applying learning outcomes” of CEDEFOP, 2017, “the Learning-outcomes-based frameworks, of what a learner is expected to know, be able to do and understand at the end of a learning procedure, play an increasingly important role in efforts to improve the quality and relevance of education and training in Europe”. Learning outcomes statements help to clarify programs and qualifications intentions and make it easier for those involved – learners, teachers or assessors – to work towards these expectations. The increased transparency offered, provides an important reference point for policy-makers, making it easier to judge the match between society’s needs and the programs and qualifications offered within education and training.

Learning outcomes for different purposes

Learning outcomes statements are used in the process of qualification of professional profiles, setting qualification Frameworks for a wide range of purposes,

 Qualification profiles and/or standards 

A   “professional Profile”, is the formal outcome of the assessment and validation process of achieved Learning outcomes, that have been grouped in Units each one representing a specific qualification. Therefore, each “professional Profile”, consists of a specific number of “of learning UNITS’, each one a “qualification”. The acquisition of each of the qualifications nationally or internationally is validated with the help of ECVET, through the assessment of the achieved learning outcomes of each learning UNIT.

Qualification standards define the expected outcomes of the learning process, leading to the award of a full or partial qualification. In vocational education and training, profiles or standards normally answer questions such as ‘what does the student need to learn to be effective in employment’ and ‘what does the learner need to learn to become an active citizen, supporting basic human and democratic values?’

A qualification standard is not exclusively about promoting skills relevant to the labor market but must address a broader set of competencies relevant to life and society in general. It must also consider the changing nature of the labor market and society and clarify the role of transversal skills and competences, for example, related to communication, social skill and problem-solving.

 Qualification Frameworks

Qualifications frameworks play an increasingly important role in international, national and sector level in Europe. Learning-outcomes-based frameworks seek to increase transparency and allow for a comparison of qualifications across institutional and national borders.

A qualifications framework classifies qualifications according to a set of criteria for specified levels of learning achieved. It aims to integrate and coordinate qualifications, as well as improve the transparency, accessibility, and quality of qualifications in relation to the labor market, education, and training system, and civil society. (The European Qualification Framework February  2018)

Occupational standards

Occupational profiles or standards (5) are normally set outside the education and training system, by labor market stakeholders, but can have a significant impact on the way learning outcomes statements are defined and written.

Occupational profiles of standards specify ‘the main jobs that people do’, describing the professional tasks and activities as well as the competences typical of an occupation

 Use of Learning Outcomes in the Gardeniser qualification 

Urban Gardening is more than just planting a seed and watching it grow. It’s about growing communities, training new leaders, feeding the hungry and homeless, establishing farmers’ markets and working with youths and adults through gardening.”   In the “Gardeniser Pro” project, a “qualification profile”  based on a Learning outcomes-based course has been the outcome of the assessment of specific learning outcomes that a learner has acquired after attending the course. The course is structured on an interdisciplinary basis, where plural backgrounds are essential (e.g., agronomy, urban planning, social mediation, economy, communication), linked to 21  Learning Units that are grouped under three modules of training. Additionally, there is a work-based training period in the form of an internship. Every Learning Unit has been credited ECVET points, summing up to seven ECVET points for the whole course which has a duration of 40 hours including the internship.

Περισσότερες πληροφορίες για την εξέλιξη του προγράμματος στην ιστοσελίδα του Ευρωπαϊκού Κέντρου Κατάρτισης για την Απασχόληση (ECTE) (ecte.gr), μέσω email στο info@ecte.gr και στο Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ecte.european/)

DTRaIN – Design Thinking for entrepreneurship in revitalizing the Agri-Food Sector

The Department of Lifelong Learning, Education and Employment of the Rethymnon Regional Development Directorate and the European Center in Training for Employment (ECTE), co-organized the Kick-off meeting of the European Project “DTRaIN“, funded under the ERASMUS + 2019 Vocational Training and Strategic Partnerships and monitored by the State Scholarships Foundation (IKY).

The European project “DTRaIN” aims to revitalize the production in the agri-food sector of the partner regions by promoting the acquisition of high-level skills in the management of staff and entrepreneurs working in the agri-food sector. To achieve this, an innovative professional profile based on Design Thinking will be developed which will lead to a Certification Program in order to validate the learning outcomes that follow ECVET standards and ISO 17024.

In particular, the DTRaIN objectives are:

  • Design a Vocational Education and Training program and develop an educational framework for agri-food professionals who are willing to upgrade their skills with a new approach based on Design Thinking.
  • Design an innovative Educational Model based on an approach focused on the learner, in an open dynamic environment, develop educational material based on the educational model, and develop qualifications.

The target group and users of the training material will be professionals who will manage staff in agri-food businesses operating as trainers in their businesses as well as trainers in Initial and Continuing Vocational Training Institutions (EQF level 4 & 5).

The consortium is comprised of 7 partners from four countries; The Region of Crete (Greece) as lead partner, the European Center in Training for Employment (ECTE) (Greece), SQLearn (Greece), LDI UG – (Germany), Centro Machiavelli – CM (Italy), The Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania (MAIX) (Greece) and the University of Valladolid (Spain).