The meeting of the international Easy ECVET project, held in Kokemäki on 4-6 October, brought together eighteen representatives of vocational education and training institutions from Belgium, Spain, France and Denmark. The Easy ECVET project aims to strengthen the recognition and validation of learners’ competences acquired abroad as part of their qualifications, to share good practices and to develop a common assessment methodology for the evaluation of competences acquired during a mobility period. In order to assess and make visible the competences, the project has worked on, among other things, the Open Badges.
Cinnamon rolls fascinated the guests
The first day of the meeting was spent presenting the project and the results already achieved. The guests were also treated to a delicious lunch at the Ruukku educational restaurant. The guests were amazed and delighted by the National Cinnamon Roll Day, so much so that they even asked for the recipe for the bun dough.
Workshops and well-being
On the second day of the meeting, participants held workshops to review the evaluation documents used by each partner organisation during the mobility period and to draft a common document based on them.
After presenting the results of the workshops, further good practices were shared. Jukka Vierimaa, Sataedu’s study counsellor, explained Sataedu’s way of personalising each learner’s study path and the support measures available to the learner. The guests were amazed at how much Sataedu invests in the well-being of its learners. They were also interested in how time-consuming and laborious it is to provide individual support to each learner. However, the participants felt that the investment was clearly worthwhile: a well-being learner is more likely to study until the end of his or her qualification.
Pierre Touillon, project coordinator from the French organisation CCCA-BTP, shared their experiences with the Open Badges. The visual appearance of the Easy ECVET badges and how and by whom the badges are awarded to learners who have completed a mobility period were also discussed.
Successes and positive feedback
On the last day of the meeting, the guests who had worked in groups were given a tour of the different fields of study at Sataedu. In the spirit of the ongoing Wellbeing Week, the guests were also able to watch a learner floorball tournament. In the afternoon, the piloting phase of the project’s results was discussed: how to test the results, what the testing should achieve and in what timeframe.
Before the end of the meeting, the three days’ events were summarised, and participants were given the opportunity to provide written feedback on the meeting. In particular, it could be mentioned that the feedback showed that the participants were 100% satisfied with the way the meeting was conducted and organised. Go Sataedu!
The work on the Easy ECVET project is still ongoing and the piloting should start later this year.
Text: Ida-Maria Mäkiranta