Strengthening Training to Employment Pathways through competence-based IT services

1. Cleo Sgouropoulou Katerina Georgouli Strengthening Training to Employment Pathways through competence-based IT services PCI 2014 Harokopeion University, Athens Oct. 02-04, 2014

2. About the speaker Cleo Sgouropoulou • Assoc. Prof., Technological Educational Institute of Athens • Head of Department of Informatics • Scientific Director of Institute for Lifelong Education • Project Leader European Learner Mobility (ELM) • Vice-Chair of the European standardization committee CEN/TC 353 “ICT for Learning, Education, and Training” • ISO JTC1 SC36 Project Leader “Learner Mobility Achievement Information” • Convener TC48-WG3, Hellenic Mirror Committee – ICT for Learning, Education, and Training

3. ICT for Learning, Education & Training • Learning, education and training in Europe relies heavily on the growing use of information and communications technologies. • Application sectors involved include: • universities, schools and other educational establishments; • education and training authorities, policy makers • providers of professional and vocational education and training; • employment providers • software and system providers that support educational contexts; • publishers and broadcasters of educational content.

4. Standards for ICT for LET • The European society, application sectors, markets, national and regional education and training systems are sufficiently mature in the usage of ICT for Learning, Education and Training (LET) • National and European policies and strategies for the promotion and adoption of ICT for interoperable, quality products for LET • Requirement: Development of European and international Standards for ICT for LET

5. About standards • an agreed way of doing something • design references for products and processes • internationalconsensusandinstruments • provide requirements, specifications, guidelines or characteristics that can be used consistently to ensure that materials, products, processes and services are fit for their purpose • common specifications and/or procedures that respond to the needs of business and meet consumer expectations.

6. Constituents of Educational Practice Original diagram by C. Duncan

7. … within institutions and beyond QA info learner info employability info research qualifications info course info research activity info

8. ICT LET Standardisation Priorities • Interoperability and Frameworks • Development of European LET vocabularies and frameworks around which software vendors, tool producers and contentauthors may work in order to provide a greater level of interoperability and application of tools. • Provision of interoperability specs for the exchange of a range of European curriculum information initially aimed at formal education systems, but also applicable in a wider LLL context. • Development of a practical approach towards interoperability between existing and future repositories for learning whose purpose is the safe storage or delivery, and also administration and configuration management for learning objects.

9. ICT LET Standardisation Priorities • Interoperability and Frameworks • Integration with systems e.g. knowledge management systems. • Sharing of education related data, services, content and tools achieved through clearer technical agreements between all parties, without losing the value of expression typical of each European community’s language and culture.

10. ICT LET Standardisation Priorities • European Policies • Development of European standards for the realization, dissemination, implementation and exploitation of European key strategies such as European mobility and LLL (EU2020 and other communications by the EU) • Development of European data models for the description of skills and competences • Learning and employment opportunity exploration, management of individual learning pathways • Quality • Develop frameworks, specifications and guidelines to improve the quality and transparency of organisations, processes, products and services

11. ICT LET Specs and Standards development National Bodies European Bodies De jure standards TC353 R&D Specifica- tions WSLT De facto standards Users

12. ICT Specs and Standards in Edu Practice Learning object metadata Learning design SCORM Transcript recorde-portfolio Social mediacollaborative environments LOC definitions VLEs MOOCs QTI Learning object repositories, OERs EML Learning opportunity metadata

13. LOCs for building LET to Employment Pathways

14. European Requirements • The EU should become “the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economyin the world capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion”. • The achievement of this ambitiousgoal involves “not only a radical transformation of the European economy, but also a challenging programme for the modernization of social welfare and education systems”. European Council, Lisbon (Mar. 2000)

15. European Requirements • Education and Training at European level involve • the development of the European Higher Education Area (the “Bologna process”) • the enhanced European co-operation in Vocational Education and Training (the “Copenhagen process”) • synergies between both processes for the design of national frameworks of qualifications and an overarching European Qualifications Framework (EQF) for Lifelong Learning, taking into account the work done in the Bologna and Copenhagen context.

16. Towards Europe 2020 • Key role for Education Training and Youth in Europe 2020 • Smart growth: developing an economy based on knowledge and innovation • Sustainable growth: promoting a more efficient, greener and more competitive economy • Inclusive growth: fostering a high-employment economy delivering social and territorial cohesion

17. The role of ET in EU2020

18. Youth on the Move • Framework strategy with four action lines: • Modern education and training : actions to improve schools, VET, recognition of non-formal/informal learning etc. • Higher education : specific actions to make higher education more attractive / effective • Learning and employment mobility : actions to promote training & work abroad as a way to gain skills / experience • Youth Employment Framework : active labour market policies and reform of labour market rules

19. Agenda for New Skills and Jobs • Actions linked to Education Training and Youth • Implementation of ET 2020 (LLL principles, flexible learning pathways; attractiveness of VET) • Ensure that competences are acquired and recognised throughout all levels and forms of learning • Improvement of skills needs forecasting • Partnerships and common language betweenthe worlds of business, employment, education & training

20. EUinstruments & frameworks Are bringing in a stronger European and international dimension to the development of national ET systems.

21. Shift to Learning Outcomes

22. Learning Outcomes vs. Learning Inputs • Learning based uniquely on input will not respond adequately to future challenges for individuals, society or the economy. The trend is to rely, increasingly, on the identification of learning outcomes. This trend is recognised as critical in many different contexts across education and training systems.

23. EUinstruments & frameworks System Learning Outcomes Learning Outcomes Education&Training LabourMarket Learning Outcomes Learning Outcomes Individual

24. Supporting Information Systems • The European instruments and the related support services should rely upon a suitable information system, allowing to link in a coordinated way the completed documents and to make them available to their holders through the Internet • expected to facilitate submission and exchange of information among the interoperating parts, and shall be developed taking into account the opportunity of future developments, with particular reference to the integration of information services on job and learning opportunities Decision on Europass (Dec.2004)

25. The need for technical interoperability • The enhancement of learner mobility and employability is undoubtedly a high priority action item within the European Education Area. • The establishment of EU instruments and frameworks the representation of learning outcomes and related concepts as knowledge, skills, and competences, associated with learner information as well as with LET and employment opportunities provide the common basis for making learning outcome and competence orientation more tangible within the European LET and labour space.

26. The need for technical interoperability • Recording and exchange of harmonised semantic and technical descriptions of skills and competence information needs to be efficiently supported by technical interoperability standards.

27. Typology of Learning Outcomes

28. Training to Employment Pathways

29. Contexts of use of LOCs • Educational context: learning outcomes are expressed in curricula, modules, course descriptions, educational standards, qualifications and assessment standards. • Labour context: competences are embedded in occupational standards and profiles, job profiles, job advertisements, performance measurement/appraisal systems, and recruiting systems. • Guidance context: information about learning outcomes is present in educational guidance systems and competences in occupational and job information. • Personal context: people communicate about learning outcomes through curriculum vitae or personal competence profiles.

30. Instruments using LOCs • Jobs and functions are described in occupational profiles. • Occupational profiles form the basis for the qualification descriptions. • One qualification can correspond to several occupational profiles. • Qualification files describe the knowledge, skills and competences a person needs to fulfil a job or function. • VET is based on the qualification descriptions. • Programmes offering qualifications are determined by VET providers (private and state dependent). • Subject matters offered to learners are laid down in curricula.

31. Modelling LOCs • a concept of a learning outcome or competence (LOC), taken separately from other ones; • a structure (e.g. document) that contains several LOCs (learning outcomes and/or competences).

32. InLOC Information Model

33. Use case: ECVET for LLL

34. ECVET-STEP objectives • Specification of a common reference framework for the design of Reusable Units of Learning Outcomes (RULOs), covering the perspectives of different stakeholders and different contexts including formal, non-formal, informal VET activities. • Development of online services that will facilitate the ECVET process and the specification of reusable units of learning outcomes, while at the same time will allow for management of ECVET related evidence and re-use by other systems and services.

35. Reusable Units of Learning Outcomes

36. Concluding Remarks • Strengthening LET to employment pathways is a strategic priority of EU 2020 • competence orientation and competence models can be seen as one of the main drivers and facilitators of the new knowledge and information society and technology-enhanced learning as a key instrument with growing impact and usage. • much remains to be done to establish flexible learning pathways, e.g. through better transitions between VET, higher education, and professional learning, opening universities to non-traditional learners, and the validation of non-formal learning.

37. Concluding Remarks • The focus on learning outcomes and in particular the development of models and services to be facilitated by will strengthen both the integration and implementation of the European policies on linking LET to employment as well as strengthening mobility and lifelong learning in whole Europe.

38. Thank you! csgouro@teiath.gr