Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung (BIBB)

Promoting transparency and mutual trust

There is clear survey evidence that more companies providing apprenticeship places ("training companies") would enable apprentices to complete a placement abroad if it fitted in with the specialist content of the apprenticeship, and if it could be made transparently clear what apprentices learned abroad (cf. KÖRBEL/FRIEDRICH 2011). According to a study in the automotive sector, German companies have reservations about phases of transnational mobility for apprentices, citing the lack of functioning recognition procedures, the consequent unavoidable duplication of learning and the need to catch up on missed work upon returning to part-time vocational school (cf. MoVE-iT 2007; REGLIN/SCHÖPF 2007).

What is called for is transparency and better comprehensibility of vocational competences and qualifications throughout Europe. Currently training providers and training companies still have great difficulties in comparing competences transnationally and transferring partial qualifications from one national system of initial vocational training to another. Although numerous one-off pragmatic solutions exist, in Germany has not yet been implemented  a systematic approach that improves the transparency and recognition of vocational competences.

ECVET and EQF, instruments for transparency

The European Qualifications Framework for lifelong learning (EQF), which acts as a reference framework and an instrument for translating qualifications, and the European Credit System in Vocational Education and Training (ECVET) for the individual recognition of prior learning have been developed as a set of tools which enable vocational competences to be described in a way that is comprehensible Europe-wide, regardless of the duration of training or the institution or context in which it took place. At the heart of this approach is the emphasis on learning outcomes, i.e. "statements of what a learner knows, understands and is able to do on completion of a learning process" (European Parliament and Council 2008). The outcomes of learning are assessed without reference to how and where the learning took place; the crucial thing is which knowledge, skills and capabilities a person has acquired. Under the EQF and ECVET, learning outcomes and the grouping of these into units of learning outcomes form the basis for the structured description of vocational qualifications. The use of the EQF as a "translation instrument" between national qualification systems enables training providers to describe units of learning outcomes in a way that is understood internationally and across education systems, allowing them to be integrated into any given national vocational education and training (VET) context.

In practice the testing of ECVET procedures, principles and instruments has been a priority for a number of years, both at European and national level, in the Leonardo da Vinci programme of the EU Lifelong Learning Programme. The European project and product database ADAM holds details of more than a hundred projects all over Europe that have meanwhile engaged with the description of learning outcomes, the tailoring of units of learning outcomes, the examination and documentation of learning outcomes and the allocation of points and transfer of learning credits (cf. www.adam-europe.eu/adam/thematicgroup/ECVET). Project results available to date show that the emphasis on competence-based learning outcomes can bring about lasting improvement to the quality of transnational training phases. Particularly in IVET it can help with aligning periods spent abroad more precisely to the structures and specialist requirements of IVET in Germany.

Building trust that learning promises will be kept

With regard to the exchange of apprentices, a further significant element comes into play, namely the necessity for mutual trust between the sending and receiving partners that "learning promises" will be kept and that learning outcomes can be verified. Prerequisites for the building of mutual trust include agreed quality assurance mechanisms and clear communication about the contents and level of the intended learning outcomes. In a Memorandum of Understanding, partners set out their procedures for quality assurance, assessment, validation and recognition as well as the awarding of credit for learning outcomes. As a key component of same document, the units of learning outcomes are defined in the form of a learning agreement.

Top of the page

Definition of units of learning outcomes

To implement the learning outcome approach in a transnational learning mobility system, this initially entails defining units of learning outcomes which state the expected learning outcomes and acquired competences on completion of the stay abroad. There are no generally binding rules specifying the size or the scope and substance of a unit of learning outcomes. They should be structured and organised coherently in relation to the overall qualification, i.e. neither unduly detailed nor unduly wide-ranging. To ease the credit transfer process, they should be constructed in a way that enables the learning outcomes contained in the unit to be assessed and validated discretely (cf. European Parliament and Council 2009). The definition of units of learning outcomes can be based on a variety of approaches. By way of example, mention is made here of three projects with an ECVET funding priority, each of which elected to use a different method.

Units of learning outcomes can be defined, for example, on the basis of a comparison of similar occupational profiles in the partner countries and the identification of similarities. In the Leonardo da Vinci project "Skilled Mobile European MASTER" (SME MASTER) the project partners identified ten competence fields for the occupational profile of the Master Baker, which together represent the "common core" (core qualification profile) in the sense of a "lowest common denominator" (cf. www.sme-master.eu; on the follow-up SME Master Plus project, cf. SPERLEBWP 4/2011.)

Another possibility is to focus on differences between occupational profiles and to harness the "added value" of these for the acquisition of supplementary qualifications during IVET, as implemented by the Schleswig Holstein Chamber of Agriculture in its "Forestry Experience" transnational mobility project in 2009. The German regulation on initial vocational training as a Forest Manager does not include any training on large forestry machines. Forestry enterprises and operators, on the other hand, are increasingly demanding that IVET at least lays the foundations for qualified work with large forestry machinery. In the partner country Sweden, German apprentices were able to take a course leading to a qualification, in which they acquired knowledge and skills to operate large forestry machines, and tested them out in practice in Swedish forestry enterprises.

A further method for the definition of units of learning outcomes is the identification of comparable or identical work tasks. This was the option selected in the chemical sector mobility project "CREDCHEM", where the work area was the "chemical laboratory" (www.credchem.eu/). The basis for the definition of units of learning outcomes here are not the individual occupational profiles - which in some cases are very different in different partner countries - but the real world of work in the laboratory and production. Starting from technological foundations of work processes that are comparable across Europe, such as plant operation, process monitoring, analytical methods etc., the project partners formulate units of learning outcomes which represent a complete occupation in one country, whereas in other countries they only reflect parts of an occupational profile and/or useful supplementary qualifications (cf. CREDCHEM 2010, p. 2).

Top of the page

Competence-oriented description of learning outcomes

In the framework of a learning agreement, the sending and receiving institution define together with the learners, in concrete terms, which partial qualifications and competences transnational trainees have acquired at the end of the period abroad, and how exactly the acquired competences will be examined and documented. In Germany, the numerous nationally regulated initial and further training regulations, which are based on action and work processes and accompanied by framework curricula, already provide a good basis for the identification of occupation-typical work tasks and fields of activity, and the competence-oriented description of learning outcomes.

Results from the innovation transfer project "MOVET - Modules for Vocational Education and Training for Competences in Europe" have been firmly embedded in the initial vocational training practice of the participating project partners. Working with partners from Denmark and Finland, the ECVET approach was used to develop three units of learning for the field of automation technology which, in Germany, are components of initial vocational training as a Mechatronics Fitter. All apprentices of the participating project partners in all three countries can now complete these learning units. The units of transnational learning offered in Germany consist of a 2-week school-based phase and a one-week workplace phase.

As a core element for the description of learning outcomes, MOVET used a competence matrix for Mechatronics Fitters (cf. FLACKE/MÜLLER/SCHELTEN 2010, p. 17) to show which stage of competence development the units of learning outcomes offered by the participating partners corresponded to (cf. Table).

Table: Describing a competence area in terms of steps in competence development

Source: based on LUOMI-MESSERER/MARKOWITSCH 2006, p. 41

For the operationalisation and formulation of the detailed learning outcomes, MOVET makes use of a "taxonomy table". This makes it possible to describe the breadth, depth and level of knowledge, skills and competences that comprise a learning outcome unit, expressed in terms of verbs such as "know" "explain" "select", "analyse", "assess" and "design" (cf. www.gomovet.eu). At the end of any given unit the apprentices take an examination which is administered on the basis of guidelines drawn up internally within the project for the validation of learning outcomes. This provides a means of crediting the learning outcomes achieved in another country towards the apprenticeship in Germany.

Top of the page

Validation and weighting of learning outcomes

In line with the practice of the MOVET project, it is up to the partner institutions to agree and apply appropriate methods for examining the acquired learning outcomes in compliance with their own national and sectoral provisions. In practice, therefore, a variety of assessment methods are used. These range from professional discussions on the completion of written assignments, practical tasks and simulated work assignments, to documentation of learning outcomes based on observation by the receiving body. Documentation of the competences acquired abroad in an individual credit certificate or in the Europass Mobility that was introduced throughout Europe in 2004 (cf. http://europass.cedefop.europa.eu/) not only improves the process of awarding credit for a partial qualification within initial vocational training but sets out clearly which additional competences transnational trainees have acquired. Another tried and tested transparency instrument exists for the documentation of individual foreign-language skills, namely the European Reference Framework for Languages (cf. http://europass.cedefop.europa.eu/LanguageSelfAssessmentGrid/en).

Credit points can represent an additional source of information for the recognition process in the home country, in the manner of a "European currency unit". They underpin the qualitative statements of learning outcome descriptors with information on their relative quantitative significance. In other words, ECVET points express the "weight" that a unit carries towards the qualification. A unit can also be valued in terms of a varying number of credit points in different countries.

In the EVOC project (www.evoc.fi), the participating partners from Finland, Germany and Sweden have developed a common ECVET-based unit of learning for the childcare sector, which can be completed in any of the three countries. Taking the different assessment systems in the participating partner countries as a starting point, it was agreed in a Memorandum of Understanding that every receiving partner would assess the students' attainment and that the sending institution would accept this assessment. The project developed learning-outcome-focused evaluation criteria and documentation grids for this purpose. The Europass Mobility was chosen as an official European document to confirm the learning outcomes. Furthermore, the partners agreed to award and transfer credit points. In Finland the credit points achieved were noted on the students' qualification certificates.

Top of the page

Outlook

With regard to the area of transnational mobility, the National Agency "Education for Europe" carries out numerous activities to support German education and training actors in the application and further development of the learning outcome approach. These include target-group-oriented information events, the preparation of practice-oriented materials and the promotion of cooperation and exchange of experience, e.g. within a thematic monitoring framework. Furthermore the National Agency has established the ECVET National Coordination Point (NKS-ECVET) on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research ).

Tasks of the ECVET National Coordination Point

The NKS-ECVET supports education and training actors in the following activities:

• Developing a common understanding of learning outcomes and units of learning outcomes, and developing a common terminology 
• Developing practice-relevant ECVET instruments 
• Developing standards and criteria for the assessment and documentation of learning outcomes 
• Applying quality assurance mechanisms 
• Disseminating examples of good practice 
• Promoting dialogue and exchanging experience.
  

Other information and useful links at www.ecvet-info.de

The feature common to all the test and pilot projects presented here, and many others, is that the participating partner institutions have each developed a functioning concept for the acquisition and award of credit for learning outcomes in the context of transnational mobility measures for their sector or a particular occupational field. The goal must now be to continually develop the results of successful projects into a systematic set of instruments which is transferable to other sectors and occupational fields, thus making them usable for a broad target group. This process can be substantially supported if, at national level, courses and occupational profiles could be described in terms of competences and learning outcomes in future. In this way the option created with the revision of the Vocational Training Act 2005 of spending up to nine months of initial vocational training abroad could be put into practice and utilised efficiently

Top of the page

Literature

• CREDCHEM - Entwicklung und Erprobung eines Leistungspunktesystems zur Verbesserung der Mobilität im Chemiesektor, Zwischenbericht vom 27.09.2010
• EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND COUNCIL: Recommendation on the establishment of a European Qualifications Framework for lifelong learning. Brussels 2008
• EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND COUNCIL: Recommendation of the establishment of a European Credit System for Vocational Education And Training (ECVET), Annex II. Brussels 2009
• FLACKE, L.; MÜLLER, M.; SCHELTEN, A.: Bericht der wissenschaftlichen Begleitung zum Innovationstransferprojekt MOVET. Munich 2010
• KÖRBEL, M.; FRIEDRICH, W.: Verdeckte Mobilität in der beruflichen Bildung. Bonn 2011
• LANDWIRTSCHAFTSKAMMER SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN, ABTEILUNG FORSTWIRTSCHAFT (LAF): Forestry experience and language training-program, Leonardo da Vinci mobility project DE/09/LLP-LdV/IVT/281216. Bad Segeberg 2009
• LUOMI-MESSERER, K.; MARKOWITSCH JÖRG (eds.): VQTS model. A proposal for a structured description of work-related competences and their acquisition. Vienna 2006
• MoVE-iT: Overcoming Obstacles to Mobility for Apprentices and Other Young People in Vocational Education and Training. Final Report. June 2007 - URL: http://ec.europa.eu/education/moreinformation/ doc/moveit_en.pdf (accessed 25.05.2011)
• REGLIN, T.; SCHÖPF, N.: ECVET im Automotive-Sektor. Nuremberg 2007
• BWP 4/2011

Top of the page

Erscheinungsdatum und Hinweis Deutsche Nationalbibliothek

Publication on the Internet: August 9, 2011

Creative Commons License

Content on this page is licensed under the Creative Commons License "Attribution: Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Germany". Further information on this is available on our Creative Commons page (de).
 

Last modified on: August 24, 2011