Grenzüberschreitende Verbundausbildung im Handwerk

Introduction of the Team LaWA-ECVET

The main focus of the Team LaWA-ECVET is on putting the European Credit Point System for Vocational Education and Training (ECVET) into concrete terms and testing it. Considering the current recommendation of the European Commission tools are tested which will support the recognition of competencies gained during a long term stay abroad. Therefore partners perform comparative studies of professional profiles. Furthermore the benefit of a long term stay abroad is focused. It is determined with the help of reports from apprentices and surveys in European companies.

LAWA and ECVET are mutually beneficial –
Final Report October 2009

The final results of the GVA project were presented and discussed with a special event in September 2009. About 80 representatives of the crafts and skilled trades, vocational colleges and politics found themselves together in Köster’s Möbelwerkstätten (furniture workshops) in Altenberge. The main issue at the event was the lifelike portrayal of vocational education completed abroad by young people and answering questions about the cross-border vocational education and training. Individual project results were presented by project staff on information stands and questions were answered. Koester’s furniture workshop served as an appropriate backdrop of this event as it illustrated the varied workday in the crafts.

The results of the ECVET Group were presented and discussed at the event. Under the direction of FBH the ECVET group carried out primary areas of work for the documentation of learning outcomes that are acquired by apprentices during their stays abroad. Recommendations of the European Credit System for VET (ECVET) were taken up and utilized for altogether 9 long-term stays abroad within the project’s time with a total duration of 17 month. In consultation with businesses, apprentices and project partners the following products have been developed in the context of ECVET:

GVA Checklist
This checklist provides concrete, practical help for apprentices, (craft) enterprises and vocational colleges around the planning, implementation and follow-up of long-term stays abroad.
Training and teaching agreements
Sending and hosting businesses and schools must make arrangements about the learning outcomes that are to be completed by the apprentices as part of the stay abroad. The training and teaching agreements are document templates for those agreements.
Logbook
On behalf of aptitude assessment methods, such as those raised by the ECVET, the logbook serves as tool for the valid documentation of learning outcomes. At the same time it supports the communication between apprentices and businesses during stays abroad.
Certificate
The official recognition of learning outcomes acquired abroad in terms of adoption of individual contents of the final examination is currently not legally possible in Germany. At the same time both apprentices and enterprises express keen interest in the validation and certification of learning outcomes that are beyond the typical educational outcomes. That concern was addressed in the development of the certificate.
Comparison of Professions
Using a specific methodology for curriculum analysis differences with regard to contents were identified between exemplary German and French professions. These differences constitute arguments for long-term stays abroad of apprentices, because they show professional added value that could be learned by the apprentice in the hosting company.

The discussion of project results and products during the closing event reflected particularly strong interest on the part of the crafts and skilled trades. Thus, the communication between science, the EU education policy and practice, will perhaps in future arrange for further cross-fertilization of learning and working abroad - GVA - and the European Credit System for VET - ECVET. This is particularly true for the implementation of further long-term stays abroad by apprentices who are supported by the Münster Chamber of Crafts and Skilled Trades and the work on GVA follow-up project.

GVA with distinct benefit for all participants – May 2009

Within the project GVA different apprentices have spend part of their apprenticeship abroad. So fare apprentices in the branches carpentry and metal work participated. Some of the joint cross-boarder vocational education and training was co-ordinated between German and French companies. All companies involved stress the general benefit of long-term stays abroad (e. g. increase of inter-cultural competencies) as well as the professional benefit. The professional benefit has been analysed in a comparison of professions. Therefore French counterparts of the German professions “Metallbauer” (metal worker) and “Zimmerer“ (carpenter) were identified and professional differences have been analysed with the help of a special grid. It is shown that even closely related European professions benefit professionally. With other words: French and German apprentices benefit already professionally from long-term stays abroad. The comparison method and the results are explained in the paper “Vergleich von Berufsbildern”.

The ECVET-system (European Credit Transfer System for Vocational Education and Training, in German: Europäisches Leistungspunktesystem für die Berufsbildung) should support the recognition of knowledge, skills and competencies, which apprentices gain abroad. Hereby the professional mobility – across system and country boarders – should increase. Current recommendations of the EU commission, regarding the implementation of the ECVET system, have been taken up, to support crafts companies with the organisation and implementation of long-term stays abroad. Within this context different tools have been developed:

The Logbook was developed in close co-operation with crafts companies, apprentices and inter-national project partners. It serves apprentices in documenting their experiences and learning results, which they gain abroad. Open categories and questions guide them. In terms of validation, sending and hosting companies can comment on the Logbook. In addition friends and colleagues of the apprentices can follow up the Logbook. The technical realisation of the Logbook – as an online blog – was realised by the Team E-learning.
The LaWA Certificate documents professional and personal benefits apprentices gain while they are abroad. In close combination with the Logbook it should support the documentation of learning results which often are gained during long-term stays abroad (and which are stressed in the Logbook already) in future. Certainly free space for additional and individual learning results is available. The certificate will be completed by the hosting company in coordination with the apprentice, and will be signed by both parties. Hence it gains an official character and constitutes a valuable enrichment of the vita res. the application credentials of an apprentice. It can also be seen as a possible add-on to the EUROPASS mobility, as it facilitates a differentiation of levels of learning results and admits to inter-cultural and personal competencies.
The LaWA Checklist is a support tool for all participants of joint cross-boarder vocational education and trainings and takes up, for example, typical activities which are necessary in the process of recognising apprentice’s learning results.

Currently, the results and products of the project, especially of the Team ECVET, are discussed with Polish VET experts. Results of a meeting in April 2009 will have some influence on the further development.

In order to optimise past activities of the project teams, developed instruments have and will be evaluated and the transferability of the results will be fostered.

LaWA-Framework is shaping up – June 2008

One benefit of long term stays abroad – in the opinion of companies and apprentices – is the possibility to learn technical methods and operations, which are not or to a lower extent taught at home. In order to identify such technical benefits chosen professional profiles from France and Germany are compared by their curricula.

Due to different general conditions for learning and working at home and abroad the main challenge for participants within the European vocational education and training is the recognition of competencies gained abroad. Therefore standards and mechanisms will be tested, which help to support such a common recognition. These activities are based on the current recommendation of the European Commission regarding ECVET. Templates to support necessary agreements around stays abroad of apprentices are drafted.

To identify the benefits of GVA from the apprentice’s point of view, a Logbook was designed for apprentices to document their experiences.

In addition, to identify the surplus, restraints and supportive factors of GVA from the company point of view, Norwegian and Germany companies were surveyed.

You will find more detailed information concerning all results under Products.