Mobility and Permeability – by Mechanisms or by Mutual Trust?

Author(s):

Andreas Saniter(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2013

Network:

02. Vocational Education and Training (VETNET)

Format:

Paper

Session Information

02 SES 10 C, Permeability, Social Disparities and Racial Stratification

Paper Session

Time:

2013-09-12

15:30-17:00

Room:

A-104

Chair:

Christof Nägele

Contribution

European Commission's strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth Europe 2020 foresees, besides other reforms, a flagship initiative “youth on the move” aiming at “promoting student mobility and trainees' mobility, and improve the employment situation of young people” (EC 2010). This aim, worthy any support without doubts, was accompanied by a row of recommendations to improve transparency, mobility and permeability; namely on qualification frameworks, quality assurance and credit systems in higher education (HE, ECTS) and vocational education (VET, ECVET). This proposal focuses on the last recommendation (ECVET; EC 2009); main issues are:

To formulate the content of a given national qualification in terms of learning-outcome based units, consisting of a coherent set of knowledge, skills and competencies.

The hypothesis that all learning outcomes can be gained independent of the learning environment.

To estimate the relative weight of each unit as a part of the qualification by using credit points.

To develop mechanisms to assess (in the host resp. previous learning environment) and recognise (in the home resp. receiving learning environment) the units.

Our central research question was to estimate the potentials and risks of such credit approaches on permeability, mobility and VET-systems in general. For this reason we performed two European resp. transnational studies on the impact of ECVET:

* Credits & Permeability; a survey for CEDEFOP on existing permeability mechanisms and the contribution of credit systems in all EU member states. Research revealed that permeability mechanisms can by classified using a 3-dimensional matrix; descriptors are the scope (individual, institutional cooperation, general), the basis (either formal learning only or including non-formal/informal learning, too) and the degree of accreditation (access only, exemption (partial equivalence) or full equivalence.

* AEROVET: A pilot project on the potential added value of ECVET for transnational mobility programmes of apprentices (trainees) in the European aircraft industry supported by Leonardo da Vinci. We used the elements of the technical specification of the ECVET-recommendation as a toolbox; discussing the potential added-value of them with the trainers, teachers and social partners of the sector and developed the mobility passes accordingly. Main features are the description of typical professional tasks (TPT) in terms of learning outcomes, formulated as “mobility-units”, being a mandatory part of the respective unit/TPT. Assessment is formative and performance oriented; the trainer/teacher of the previous respective host learning institution estimates, whether the trainee has supported the work, has worked under instruction, has worked under surveillance, or has worked independently on a mobility unit.

Method

Credits and Permeability: Desk-top research; Survey on the permeability mechanisms in the EU member states by semi-standardised questionnaires, 10 in-depth case studies on chosen mechanisms by interviews and work-shops. AEROVET: Development of the units by expert-workshops and work-process analyses, validation of the units by manager-WS, testing of the units within the transnational mobility programme of AIRBUS, collecting and analysing the results by interviewing the apprentices, trainers/teachers involved in mobility and the social partners in the 4 participating countries UK, Frances, Spain and Germany.

Expected Outcomes

Besides the technical results like the typology and the mobility passes sketched above was the main outcome an ambivalent view on the ECVET-recommendation: There was no evidence, that permeability in the member states is increased by credit points; this might be due to the initial state of implementing unit-based approaches or the pragmatic using of the recommendation by the national stakeholders: Often were existing mechanisms just slightly reformulated – but without any positive effects like an increasing amount of beneficiaries. Feedback received by the practitioners in the sector of aeronautics was partly positive (transparency, performance-oriented assessment), partly very critical: Especially German stakeholders from the dual system simply denied that it is possible to learn all units independent of the learning environment (e.g. line maintenance), that formal assessing of each unit would lead to additional paperwork and would be contradictory to pedagogical beliefs like holistic final assessments. And, in general, a very basic concern regarding the themes of the EU initiatives, most of them focus on technical subjects like instruments or mechanisms, what gets lost is the improvement of qualifications by developing the content and teaching methods; yielding to competent workers – that would be the basis for real mutual trust.

References

AEROVET: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/ier/glacier/learning/app/aerovet EC 2009: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2009:155:0011:0018:EN:PDF EC 2010: http://ec.europa.eu/research/era/docs/en/investing-in-research-european-commission-europe-2020-2010.pdf

Author Information

Andreas Saniter (presenting / submitting)

Universitaet Bremen

ITB

Bremen

Search the ECER Programme

Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
Search for authors and in the respective field.
For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.