Duration
36 months
General approach/description of the project
The N.E.T.WORK project operates in the tourism welcoming sector where there is a long tradition of transnational training and staff mobility.
The main objectives of N.E.T.WORK are:
- To provide a shared framework for the development and testing of ECVET;
- To define, validate and recognise meaningful and measurable elements of qualifications (learning outcomes and units) which will be valid for all the partner countries. These will be identified based on the analysis of existing training pathways in the chosen areas of qualification; and
- To enable comparison of qualifications using ECVET and their recognition within the formal systems.
Systematically building on existing methods and practices which are already in use in the partners’ countries, the project aims to design specific operational tools to facilitate the common definition, delivery, recognition and validation of modular training pathways. These will be tested in order to identify their strengths and weaknesses in supporting credit transfer and accumulation, mobility and employability.
In an experimentation phase, the partner countries will test how the units of learning outcomes defined according to the ECVET system fit into the current qualification profile and in the current way of teaching, learning and assessing. This experimentation phase will be monitored and evaluated.
Target group
N/A
Dissemination
The final conference of the project took place in December 2011 in Italy.
The final project report is forthcoming.
Transfer And Accumulation
It seems that the assessment culture widely differs from one partner to another. N.E.T.WORK partners decided that the assessment approach established at national level would be kept. However, specific agreements between competent institutions to assess and validate the common units of learning outcomes will be developed.
N.E.T.WORK partners aim at assessing and validating the results of the mobility period according to a systematic approach by the competent institutions from the partners’ countries. This systematic approach would be made possible by a prior attribution of weight to learning outcomes and units of learning outcomes.
Units of learning outcomes
The approach adopted by N.E.T.WORK with regard to the development of units of learning outcomes is based on the analysis of the job profile of receptionists and central tasks related to this job profile.
To develop units of learning outcomes, N.E.T.WORK adopted the following method:
- Description and selection of the job profiles to be tested by N.E.T.WORK;
- Setting up of a transnational comparative matrix offering an analytical description of the national training pathway corresponding to the qualification of the selected job profiles;
- Analysis of common activities of training pathways in terms of knowledge, skills and competences;
- Development of operational guidelines for the construction of units of learning outcomes. N.E.T.WORK partners agreed on the elements necessary to describe the units of learning outcomes; on the procedures for the description of these elements and on operational tools that would help for the construction and definition of the units of learning outcomes.
Each partner set up a comparative table of learning outcomes, organised by units. On this basis, partners selected units of learning outcomes that were common to the four different partners.
The countries involved in N.E.T.WORK represent a variety of qualifications systems and are at different stages regarding the coordination of their national systems with ECVET (or in other words “ECVET readiness”): France and Slovenia represent an advanced situation where units of learning outcomes are already used; In Italy and Portugal, the situation regarding “ECVET readiness” is less clear at this stage, but strong emphasis is put on experimentation.
The project used a common matrix to compare the job profiles, the job profiles ‘activities and the training pathway of each partner in order to guarantee an ongoing comparison between the situation of the different partners and to enable the adoption of a common definition for the identified learning outcomes.
ECVET Points
N.E.T.WORK partners have not developed yet an operational approach to allocate points to units of learning outcomes. As set out in the ECVET recommendation, ECVET points will be allocated to the qualification as a whole and then to its units, according to the relative weight of the units within the qualification.
To be able to assess the relative weight of units, N.E.T.WORK has put online a questionnaire, asking employers about their assessment of the degree of importance of the learning outcome for the performance of an employee. 442 responses from the parther countries have been received. The survey will be be one source of information for the allocation of ECVET points to the defined Units.
Consolidation of partnerships in formal agreements
N/A
Partnership
Project Promoter:
Centro Italiano di Studi superiori sul turismo e sulla Promozione Turistica, Italy
Partners:
Association France-Europa, France
Center Republike Slovenije za poklicno izobraževanje, Slovenia
Consultis - Consultoria empresarial, unipessoal, lda, Portugal
Federazione delle Associazioni Italiane Alberghi e Turismo, Italy
Provincia di Perugia, Italy
Sviluppo & Competenze, SV&CO S.r.l, Italy
Lead organisation contact details
Website
http://www.ecvet-network.eu
Vademecum for ECVET implementation
Final Report
Consult the article on the projects' approach in the 6th issue of the ECVET Magazine
The documents about NETWORK project method to describe units of learning outcomes can be found in the toolbox
Newsletter nr. 5, March 2011
Newsletter nr. 4, October 2010
Newsletter nr. 3, June 2010
Newsletter nr. 2, February 2010
Newsletter nr. 1, October 2009
Consult the N.E.T.WORK presentation on their approach to testing ECVET as made during the 4th pilot projects seminar in February 2010
Consult the description of the N.E.T.WORK project in the first issue of the ECVET Bulletin, p.14