Previously we have given you a pretty good outline of the LTT activities in the Netherlands of the VET Circle partnership. The Dutch Foundation of Innovation Welfare 2 Work (DFW2W) was the host for sixteen delegates from Bulgaria, Turkey, Macedonia and Greece. The blended mobility was also an activity that leads to the achievement of the project objectives. Below Part 2, with more dutch good practice, VET-Circle tips and tricks on how to establish a good connection with the companies and how te motivate the students to get workplacements in companies:

An Employers Perspective

Dutch Employers are looking for sustainable potential. The employment rate of Dutch recent graduates is currently higher than 90%! The percentage of Dutch early leavers from education and training at 8.0% is lower than the EU average of 10.7%. It is also below the Europe 2020 average target of 10%, and exactly at the national target of 8%.

Introduction Passport to Success

TheVET-WBL Passport is a Learners Diary. The main purpose of the Learners Diary will be to support learners working, during their work based learning period. The VET-WBL Passport, c.q. Learners Diary, is based on the WBL guide. The framework of the WBL Guide is integrated in the learners activities, with tips and tricks, some animation and graphics and a journal.

The VET-WBL Passport (Learner’s Diary) is divided in three parts:

1. Details intern /apprentice/Company/Supervisor;
2. Work-based learning Validation based on Occupational Standards;
3. Journal Learner

The principles of the Passport to Success
Congratulations on completing your Pre-assessment and selection for your internship/apprenticeship. Now you can start your work based learning period. This is a short guide to your passport of success. The principles for success are:

1. Positive attitude
2. Effort at work
3. Cooperation with your supervisor and tutor
4. On time
5. Personal presentation
6. Cooperation with colleagues

Each journey start with one step (step 1).

The passport is connected to the WBL guide and use a passport c.q. diary format. The students can fill the work-based learning activities in the journal (Learner Diary). The aim is to reflect and have an perspective on the Work based learning period through the eyes of the student. The idea of the learning diary is that as tool of reflection, it helps the student to assess what she/he has learned during the work based learning period. This obviously helps the teachers and tutors, too.

The aim of the learning diary is to summarize, analyze and comment on activities during the work based learning period as a sort of passport to success.

We anticipate that the Learners Diary will be able to be adapted for use across a range of sectors (as a Passport to Success)

Dutch Good Practice; Superschool

In 2009 Eric van ’t Zelfde became director of one of the worst schools in Rotterdam. A school with only 34 new student registrations, dramatic exam results, tired teachers and crime. Van ’t Zelfde tackled the problems off the beaten track. No less than 56 teachers left, 34 of whom in his first year as director. He introduced the ingenious rule of conduct ‘you behave yourself’, which is brilliant in its simplicity. He expelled a number of students against the law and had to answer to the judge. After several years, his school began to score at or above the national average. From the worst school in the Netherlands to one of the best schools in the Netherlands in five years.

How to create a Workplacement?

Part III: Coming Soon

More about our Dutch LTT will be shared with you in Part 3!

The training activities in the Netherlands on May 8-12th 2023 was hosted by Pieter van Schie, director of the Dutch Foundation of Innovation Welfare 2 Work (DFW2W). Sixteen delegates experienced the LTT, which was held in Leiderdorp and was aimed at enhancing on the one hand the potential of the participants for work based learning schemes and professional organisation of workplacements on the other hand. The blended mobility was also an activity that leads to the achievement of the project objectives. Below Part 1 in which we have outlined and showcased the Dutch Good Practice ‘ComOn’, VET System presentations, a VET-Circle Guide and tips and tricks on how to establish a good connection with the companies and how te motivate the students to get workplacements in companies:

Project ComOn – Dutch Good Practice

On Monday May 8th, Pieter van Schie, director DFW2W outlined the agenda with all the learning, training and teaching activities. A start was made with a good explanation about the difference between Holland and The Netherlands. Click this link to watch this excellent and funny video.

The first day we kicked off with Good Practise ‘Project Comon’. The VET Circle partnership has delegates from Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Macedonia and they were very impressed by the organisation and market between employers and students. It’s interesting to see how the VET education systems can anticipate on a project like ComOn. For more information about the preparation and arrangements around this ‘Comon’ marketplace, see the link of the ComOn presentation below:

VET Circle Work Based Learning Guide

The VET-WBL Guide was also presented to the delegates. This is a comprehensive good practice guide detailing the steps towards setting up and running a work based learning programme for schools and companies in accessing employment or employability training.

The WBL guide includes information about the VET systems in the partnership countries, statistics of the youth unemployment rates and leavers from Education and Training in the European Union and the VET-WBL countries. Further it provides examples of good practice and work based learning templates, student, tutor and employer surveys, partnership agreements and service user consultation tools.

We have carefully described the definition and outline of the structure of the work-based learning activities regarding the ‘VET business partnership for WBL’ skills qualification, and the assessment criteria for identifying this as a good practice of work-based learning. The aim in this guide is to provide an overview of theoretical perspectives on Work based learning education, support for young people, schools and companies out there. This Guide is for schools and companies, finding the identifying ‘good practices’, to use this knowledge to be able to innovate and have impact. We anticipate that this will likely include training, self-education, and practice by doing.

Through a couple of articles we have summarised the VET ingredients of each of the VET Circle Partner country partners. Please click the links to get the VET Systems better explained:

• Dutch VET System
• Greek VET System
• Turkish VET System
• Bulgarian VET System
• Macedonian VET System

The Dutch Welfare State, Employabillity and Entrepreneurship

A couple of facts of the Dutch Welfare state:

* Population Netherlands: 18 million

* The Netherlands is the most densely populated nation in Europe ((800 persons per square mile.

* 371,000 open Dutch job vacancies

* The Dutch economy is booming, but the downside is that there is a major shortage of personnel. Our economy is already bigger than before the corona crisis. On the labor market there is a lot of demand for employees, so much that there are shortages. There are 126 vacancies for every 100 unemployed.

* In the Netherlands, 800,000 people are no longer able to do their work in whole or in part.

* Overall, 38% of Dutch adults (25-64 year-olds) have a tertiary education, similar to the OECD average of 39%.

More information is showcased in the Prezi presentation below (in PDF):

The training activities in the Netherlands om May 8-12th 2023 will aim at enhancing on the one hand the potential of the participants for work based learning schemes and professional organisation of workplacements on the other hand. The staff training in Netherlands will also be an activity that will lead to achievement of the project objectives. The experts from Netherlands will train the participants so that they learn how to establish good connection with the companies and how te motivate the students to have a practical placements in companies. Read more what we will do at Area071 below:

Dutch VET Circle Programme

Last week the second Transnational Project Meeting of ECVET for Digital Publishing Partnership was organised in Sevilla, Spain. Third Sector International hosted the meeting the 3^rd and the 4^th of March in the Cartuja area, where the very well-known Expo took place in 1992.

EFDP DFW2W Video Tour

What is EfDP doing in Sevilla?

The project is developing materials that will respond to the demand for digital skills within the publishing industry and related sectors by developing course curricula for a suite of new ECVET based Digital Publishing qualifications. The project EfDP is creating a course that will correspond to EQF Level 5.

In the meeting several points were addressed by the six partner organizations. One of the main points addressed were the different assessments for each learning unit. These assessments will be the way to evaluate if the learners are correctly absorbing the knowledge of the course content also developed by the partners. The learners will have to overcome these different units to get the accreditation created by the EFDP project.

Another main point of the meeting was the development of the course content. The project leader reassured the methodology to create and develop each content unit to successfully create a course that will cover all the subjects and give the proper information to the learners in this digital publishing course.

Next Stop EfDP Project: Italy

Finally, some administrative and technical issues were also pointed out. The next transnational project meeting will be in Italy around the end of June 2022.

Stay tuned for more!

The project ‘Alliance for Green Entrepreneurship’ (AGE) will address adult learners and will work on fostering sustainable entrepreneurship education by creating a specialised, learner-driven educational materials and resources, dedicated to the development of competences for creating circular economy models, green start ups and digital enterprises for promoting social innovation and strengthen the third sector entities.

AGE Objectives

The specific project objectives of the ‘Alliance for Green Entrepreneurship’ are:

• To enhance the evolution of ecofriendly mind-sets among individual learners by strengthening the educational offer and providing opportunities for building skills in the field of green entrepreneurship;
• To raise awareness about the existence of specific tools for development of green start-ups, such as the ECO Business Model Canvas (for circular economy) and numerous best practices in Europe that could be reproduced in other countries;
• To support green entrepreneurship education through the elaboration of an OER as tangible outcome, offering a specific guide for the development of circular economic model for 3rd sector entities, in particular based on
  initiating green enterprises and innovation;
• To raise competences, exchange and disseminate good practices related to education to green economy and training on sustainable entrepreneurship among educators, mentors, trainers within adult educational entities;
• To support quality improvements and extension of the offer of learning opportunities tailored to individual learners, thanks to establishing cross-sectorial cooperation among various stakeholders.

2-Day Meeting Sofia

On January 20th-21st 2022 the AGE partnership kicked off in Sofia, Bulgaria. Denitsa presented the time line of the 2-year project.

The project will produce 3 tangible outcomes that refer to – research report on the state of the art of green entrepreneurship and sustainable education in the partner countries, educational content on topics relevant for teaching sustainable entrepreneurship, OER
that will gather the necessary information and will be an interactive resource for adult learners interested to develop green start ups and to become entrepreneurs thanks to the model of circular economy. – testing phase of the outputs ( local work) Learners having entrepreneurial idea relevant for green economy will be able to test the educational materials and deliver feedback on their improvement and userfriendliness.

The partnership ‘Alliance for Green entrepreneurship’ (AGE) is co-funded by the Erasmus Plus Programme of the European Union.

The project ‘Creating VET Business Partnerships for WBL’ is a partnership with Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Turkey, The Netherlands and North Macedonia. One of the aims is to provide an overview of theoretical perspectives on Work based learning education, to support young people, schools and companies out there. Our project starts with making overviews of the VET Systems in each partnership country. On January 24th-25th 2022 we have our transnational project meeting in Skopje. That’s why we publish our sixth project article in the VET-WBL Series, which covers the Macedonian vocational education and training system.

‘Creating VET Business Partnerships for WBL’ Introduces

The ‘Need to Connect’ project kicked off in Reykjavik, Iceland, on January the 18th 2022. The Need to Connect (NTC) project objective is to fight loneliness, empower and connect young mothers (18-30 years of age) trough arts training and building a sustainable national community platform in all partner countries. 

European Partnership Empowering and Connecting Young Mothers

The NTC project is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. The NTC project will develop a curriculum and training program based on the results from the Need-analysis. The project focuses on given the young mothers the opportunity and capability to have impact and help other mothers in similar situations. The overall objective is to raise awareness of issues among young mothers in Europe, to develop curriculum and training program that can be used as a tool for empowerment and connection by all interested parties, and to build up a national sustainable community, a platform for young mothers, that will be managed by young mothers after the finalization of the project.

Six Partners

The partnership is formed by six entities: GEOSS from Slovenia, CESIE from Italy, Happiness Academy from Bulgaria, Consultoría de Innovación Social from Spain, Vilnius University from Lithuania and ofcourse the Dutch Foundation of Innovation Welfare 2 Work from the Netherlands. The Need to Connect project includes three project results, six multiplier events, one learning, teaching and training activity and a final conference.

Needs Analysis

Next step will be the needs analysis of young mothers in each partner country. A needs analysis is a formal, systematic process of identifying and evaluating training that should be done, or specific needs of an individual or group of employees, customers, suppliers, etc. Needs are often referred to as “gaps,” or the difference between what is currently done and what should be performed. The project uses the methodology of a Needs analysis to define and gather information on the situation of young mothers in partner countries, gaps in service/support to young mothers and getting a better understanding of the needs of the young mothers participating. The needs analysis will also be used as networking, reaching young mothers and introducing the project to stakeholders.

Let’s get started! 

The Dutch foundation of Innovation Welfare 2 Work is very pleased to announce that we have been recognized as a official SBB accredited training company on 5 January 2022. The accreditation has been issued for the training: Personal counselor specific target groups level 4.

We train Professionals – SBB Accreditation

The Dutch Foundation of Innovation Welfare 2 Work (DFW2W) is a accredited independent, non-profit organisation, based in the Rotterdam Region (Papendrecht, South-Holland), which supports professionals (e.g. European institutes, municipalities, councils, provinces, governments, employment agencies, training providers, youth work organisations, non-profit organisations) and young people (aged 14-35) to reach their full potential in the fields of (youth) employment, traineeship, education, social innovation, mental health, social inclusion and (young) entrepreneurship.

DFW2W is accredited and specialized in guiding specific target groups (incl. trainers, youth workers and personal supervisors):

• Guiding, activating and supporting participants in the areas of living, working, learning and socializing
• Drawing up a guidance plan or plan of approach (target-strategy-desired result)
• Attending supervision, aimed at the personal development of the student
• Guiding participants in strengthening their own strength and responsibility
• Guidance on intervention with regard to unforeseen situations and crisis situations
• Activities and coordination aimed at promoting and monitoring quality assurance
• Participate as a junior researcher in European projects (means that the intern goes under supervision to transnational meetings, learning mobility, work-learn training and/or multiplier events in Europe)
• Following European training days focused on empowerment and inclusion
• Evolution and progress reports on the support offered (via Deming Circle, among others)

Our DFW2W Team

The partnership Ecvet for Digital Publishing (EfDP) held their first transnational project meeting in Leiderdorp (The Netherlands) at Area0071. The partnership is developing a suite of new credit-based Digital Publishing qualifications within the context of the European Qualification Framework (EQF) and related processes for European Credit Transfer for Vocational Education and Training (ECVET). A series of serious decisions was made about the content, criteria and assessment of the EfDP units.

Dutch Host Meeting Area071

The Dutch transnational project meeting took place on October 7-8th 2021, in Leiden / Leiderdorp, Zuid-Holland. It was the first time the partners saw each other face-to-face. The 2-day meeting went very smooth and important topics were discussed, like:

• Recognition and Accreditation:

Each partner provided an update on initial engagement with Quality and Curricular agencies in their respective countries. It is clear that by the explainations that the pathways towards accreditation is very complex and can be very long in the partnership countries. The possibility of recognising the course through an existing college is considered by the Dutch and the Spanish partners.

• Training Activities

As much of our staff training is now delivered virtually as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, currently we have decided not to hold staff training events.

• Project time Table

Currently the partnership is not requesting an extension for the EfDP project… ; The new end date we agreed on was 2022, December 31st.

• Dissemination:

A pack with an updated logo, font choice and branding colours is produced: (Digiblox concepts 1 and 2, on the right)

• Learning Outcomes and Assessment Criteria (see EfDP Units)

EfDP Units

The EfDP project focused intensively during the Dutch meeting on the development of the outcomes and assessment criteria, in order to create a suite of new credit-based Digital Publishing qualifications within the context of the European Qualification Framework (EQF / ECVET). The project EfDP aims creating a course on EQF Level 5. Partners will need to research national QF levels. DFW2W will develop the Digital Marketing units for ECVET for Digital Pubishing. Each partner will have a different unit to formulate and manage. The following units are divided to each partner:

• Capacity London: Production
• Capacity Ireland: Content
• 3Si: Design
• DFW2W: Marketing & Distribution
• Villa Montesca: Business Models

In general the EfDP partnership started on day two in Leiderdorp by reviewing the draft Learning outcomes and Assessment Criteria which were developed by the partners. It was noted that there was some variance between the levels, which prompted a decision for Capacity London to re-write these so that there is some consistency. We discussed pairing units in such a way that they complement each other, so that potential students would find the qualification more appealing. Nonetheless, it was decided that all learners will need to take Unit One: Content, as it is critical to their understanding of the digital publishing process.

The partnership decided to focus on audio-books and e-books primarily. However, we will be working on crafting assessment criteria that will include digital magazines as a task, since this is particularly beneficial to Design Unit 3. As part of Unit One, Content, we will also present a short introduction to digital publishing and this will be designed to fill in the gaps and enhance a students’ understanding of the sector. Students will also be able to learn about entry level roles available in the digital publishing industry.

Vocational Level

To follow up on our points discussed, the partnership agreed that this qualification should be vocational in nature. As a result, we encourage partners to ensure that their Learning Outcomes addresses job roles and skills relevant to their specific unit. In the introduction, we will frame the qualification and explain what digital publishing is. Besides explaining the differences between e-books and digital magazines, it will also explain the differences between different types of publications such as trade books and academic journals. Also included will be an explanation of the industry, what the editor does, and the workflow / framework.

Unit (Digital) Marketing and Distribution

This unit provides learners with insight into key Marketing and Distribution processes, techniques and campaigns, when to deploy these and for what purpose, for what job roles. Learners will also understand the models, workflows, techniques involved in producing e-books and audiobooks, including how to make digital publishing products accessible for print-impaired audiences. The learner will also understand what metadata is and how it is used. Currently we are updating assessment criteria, including the soft and hard skills needed.

The ReConnect data analysis has the aim to develop a new pedagogical approach. The presentation by Pieter van Schie went through the ReConnect data, which has been collected through two methods of inquiry; focus groups and questionnaires. The quantitative data analysis steps we have done are data validation, data editing and data coding. Watch the Data Analysis MP4 video, on which we have based our new developed training programme for better digital teaching and learning.