Tags: E-Learning | ICT | Menschen mit Behinderung | WEB 2.0

According to data from the DG Employment, Social Affairs & Equal Opportunities Communication Unit, People with Disabilities (PwD) represent at least 16% of the EU working age population. More specifically, only 40% of disabled people are employed, whereas this rate is 64.2% for the non-disabled.

Within this context, if we want to achieve the employment targets established in the revised Lisbon Agenda, it is necessary to better integrate disadvantaged groups into the labour market.

Taking these arguments as a basis, PwD Employ Project aims at providing HR managers, recruitment companies and trainers specialised in HR management issues with a useful tool which will help them in the efficient recruitment of People with Disabilities.

PwD Employ Project is based on previously approved IMMI-TRAIN Leonardo da Vinci Pilot Project which aimed at promoting the efficient recruitment of immigrant workers.

Thus, PwD Employ Project will take advantage of the underlying idea of IMMI-TRAIN Project of providing HR managers, recruitment companies and trainers specialised in HR management issues with useful information and data in order to promote the recruitment of disadvantaged groups (immigrants in the case of IMMI-TRAIN and people with disabilities in the case of PwD Employ).

This way, PwD Employ Project partners will follow the same working methodology used in IMMI-TRAIN in order to elaborate a training tool for the management of HR specially focused on PwD and adapted to a more innovative learning environment as it is the Personal Learning Environment (PLE).

The PLE is a new approach to using technologies with learning purposes which comes along with the Web 2.0 concept and its characterised by promoting social networks and communities, highlighting the importance of creating instead of consuming, as well as the decentralisation of the content and control.

Hence, within the framework of PwD Employ Project we will provide HR managers, recruitment companies and trainers specialised in HR management issues with PLE based training contents on the efficient recruitment of PwD. As a result, the members of the target group will have access to different learning materials (contents, assessment, libraries, audio and video files, etc…) at the same time they interact with different institutional systems and they participate in the elaboration of the contents and knowledge.

Inveslan Spanien	ASOCIACION BALEAR DE ESCLEROSIS MULTIPLE Spanien	p&w praxis und wissenschaft projekt gmbh Deutschland	Sociedade Portuguesa de Inovacao Portugal	ISMA Lettland	National Scientific Research Institute For Labour And Social Protection Rumänien	Pontydysgu Großbritannien

Tags: CQAF | EQARF | Evaluation | Qualität in der Berufsbildung

The Barcelona European Council in 2002 set as a target to make Europe's education and training systems a world quality reference by 2010. Since then important steps have been made towards this objective. The Copenhagen declaration (November 2002) set the basis for the development of a Common Quality Assurance Framework for VET in Europe (CQAF). In May 2004 the European Council endorsed the CQAF. The CQAF builds on the target set by the European Council, and is included in the report on the follow-up of the objectives of Education and Training systems in Europe.The European Network on Quality Assurance for Vocational Education and Training (ENQA-VET, established in October 2005), is a follow up to the Council Conclusions of 2004. It provided, in some cases supported by national quality assurance reference points, for a limited number of initiatives and projects at national and European levels, which were carried out to support, test and refine the CQAF.

The use of CQAF is voluntary. The primary users are national/regional authorities, public and private bodies (including training providers) in charge of quality assurance and improvement. The need to promote a culture of quality improvement and wider participation in the ENQA VET, namely by drawing on the principles of the CQAF, was underlined by the European Ministers of Vocational Education and Training in Helsinki (5 December 2006). The application of the CQAF at national /regional systems and at training providers is reported in national and sectoral reports in the virtual community for Quality Assurance in VET (http://communities.trainingvillage.gr/quality) and in the ENQA-VET documents. For Greece, Spain and France there are nor national reports neither any other information for the application of CQAF. For Germany and Romania there have been developments, but still there is a lot to do, especially at the level of training providers.

The aims of the project are:

• To develop quality assurance in vocational training through benchmarking of quality practices and transnational co-operation.

• To promote the use of the CQAF according to the Copenhagen declaration, by identifying, comparing and exchanging quality practices in VET

• To allow practical application of the CQAF in VET through the use of online benchmarking tool and quality practice database

• To build and capitalize on previous work carried out by CEDEFOP, DG Education & Culture, ETF, Leonardo da Vinci Programme and ENQA-VET.

• To promote transnational cooperation through the operation of a thematic portal in quality assurance in VET.

The concrete objectives of the project are:

• To develop an electronic benchmarking tool, which will allow training providers in VET to online benchmark their quality approach against CQAF core criteria and database collections of good practice.

• To identify quality models and practices at institute level in VET. The analysis will include quality assurance models and practices, including procedures, criteria, indicators, mechanisms and tools of quality assurance.

• To elaborate a web based "quality sharing network" in VET, which will be based on quality profiles gained through benchmarking and will enable training providers to ad hoc search for CQAF compliant good practice matching with their internal quality process.

 

• To build CQAF capacities through establishing a "good practice centre", which will give access to online Communities of Practice (VET policy makers, VET institutes, researchers and practitioners) and quality sources.

• The development of a thematic portal that will be the main reference point for practitioners, researchers and policy makers that are looking for information for quality assurance in VET training institutes.

IDEC Griechenland	Federation of Industrial Trade Unions (OBES) Griechenland	p&w praxis und wissenschaft projekt gmbh Deutschland	FiaTest Rumänien	IFCIL Frankreich	Lernende Regionen Deutschland e.V.	Universita Florida Spanien

Tags: Informelle Kompetenzen

Learning outside the framework of institutional education is coming increasingly into the perspective of German educational policy. How do young people learn in contexts not designed for learning? What do they learn and can these skills and competencies be made visible? Acknowledgement and recognition of informal learning can help awaken motivation and interest in formal educational processes and make them more successful.

Particularly those young people whose achievements in school are insufficient to guarantee a successful start in employment will benefit. Disadvantaged young people also acquire skills in non-formal and informal settings which are relevant for vocational education and training, but which cannot be used systematically because they are not readily apparent. Making use of these competencies requires that the learners themselves recognize these and that they can be made evident to third parties.

For this purpose the precursor project "Informal Competencies and their Validation (ICOVET)" developed an interview procedure for the validation of skills and competencies, a manual, and a programme for further training which are now to be developed further, and increasingly transferred into the support systems. ICONET is an innovation transfer project funded by the European Commission programme LEONARDO DA VINCI. It includes eleven partners from seven European countries.

Deutsches Jugendinstitut e.V. Deutschland	p&w praxis und wissenschaft projekt gmbh Deutschland	Institute of Educational Sciences Rumänien	Institut Social Universite Catholique Lille Frankreich
Academus Consultadoria Formacao e Investigacao Portugal	Pontydysgu Großbritannien	Administraţia Naţională a Penitenciarelor Rumänien	Chance B Österreich	Salford University Manchester Großbritannien	IDEC Griechenland	Federation of Industrial Trade Unions (OBES) Griechenland

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Tags: Qualität in der Berufsbildung

Copenhagen declaration (November 2002) stated Quality Assurance one of the four priorities for Vocational Education and Training (VET) in Europe. In this perspective a lot of work has been already undertaken by the Technical Working Group on Quality in VET, through workshops, the results of Leonardo projects and study visits organised by CEDEFOP. The Technical Working Group has identified some key points on Quality in VET, one of them being the development of a European Common Quality Assurance Framework. The work of the Technical Working Group focuses more on Quality at policy and systems level.

In the framework of thematic monitoring groups organised by Leonardo da Vinci programme, there is theme 3: Adapting of the training supply and new training methods, the quality of training, led by ECOTEC, the UK Leonardo da Vinci Agency. ECOTEC has developed a database of all Leonardo projects addressing theme 3, giving very basic information (the summary, the partners and contact details).

Quality.net project aimed to build on the work already carried out by the Technical Working Group on Quality and by the Thematic Monitoring Group 3 and proposed the valorisation of existing quality practices and approaches at institute and project level, through the development of a sustainable portal, an advanced information system / showcase of quality models and approaches and the networking of stakeholders.

The project consisted of the following phases:

Analysis: Identification and review of quality models and practices at institute level and project level. The analysis included models, practices, approaches and methodologies including procedures, criteria, indicators, mechanisms and tools of quality management and quality assurance. The analysis examined also issues related to quality of adult learning, training in SMEs, e-learning, distance learning, gender equality in training, and social inclusion.

Development of a portal and an information system: Following the analysis, Quality.net developed an integrated and dynamic portal including an information system / showcase of different quality models and practices, developed in the framework of Leonardo projects or developed by VET centres and institutes.

The information system offers the following services: categorisation of models and practices according the different elements of the European Common Quality Assurance Framework, review of different systems, self-evaluation and peer review tools, selection and integration of different elements, etc.

The information system is used by VET policy makers and practitioners and contributes to the improvement of quality of VET, according to the Copenhagen declaration, through the exchange of best practices. The portal allows the communication between different stakeholders with discussion forums.

Networking: Quality.net project organised a series of networking activities for Leonardo promoters and VET policy makers and practitioners, in view to facilitate the best practices exchange and valorisation of project results. The networking activities included organisation of conferences, workshops and exhibitions and the operation of a communication platform in the portal.

The development of a sustainable portal and the networking activities ensures the valorisation of Quality.net, but also of other projects regarding quality in VET. Other valorisation activities included organisation of conferences and workshops, production and distribution of leaflets and the development of a project web-site.

The partnership involved OBES, ACADEMUS, IDEC, KNOWNET, P&W Project, Reykjavik University, Swedish Telepedagogic Knowledge Centre.

Partner institutions represented various types of organisations (VET providers, Universities, research centres, social partners) and interests in the subject of quality of training.

Federation of Industrial Trade Unions (OBES) Griechenland	IDEC Griechenland	p&w praxis und wissenschaft projekt gmbh Deutschland	Academus Consultadoria Formacao e Investigacao Portugal	Reykjavik University Island	Glasgow Caledonian University Großbritannien	Swedish Tele Pedagogic Knowledge Centre Schweden