Which projects are we referring to?

1. Evaluation of two EU projects aimed at improving English Language competence as a generic vocational skill David EvansDHE Solutions LtdLancaster, UK3rd June 2011

2. Which projects are we referring to? • InterAct – Leonardo Pilot project 2004-2007 Co-ordinator VOX Norway • Office InterActors 2008-2010 Leonardo TOI Co-ordinator - EuroEd Romania

3. What were the projects about? InterActors was aimed at improving core employability skills – ICT, communication, negotiation, teamwork & English language for lower level workers in the Hospitality and Health industry Office InterActors was about improving higher level generic employability skills amongst Office based workers

4. What did we mean by generic employability skills? • Communication in foreign languages • Digital competence • Learning to learn • Interpersonal, intercultural and social competences • Entrepreneurship • i.e. skills to obtain and retain employment

5. Transfer of Innovation • Existing InterAct model • 2007 European Label Award • Office InterActors model • revisited learning objectives • new field of interest • ‘old’ & new countries • linguistic diversity

6. How did the projects work? • Groups of workers, students or unemployed people interacted over a web based platform and skype to carry out challenging vocationally focused scenarios • Each country was represented by one or two teams • There was an inbuilt competitive element • There was evaluation throughout the courses including some self evaluation • Courses typically lasted about 30 hours over 5 weeks

7. Group A - Hospitality Workers or students Migrant/immigrant/asylum seeker Younger More IT literate English mainly 2nd or 3rd language Level of English lower Softer skills lacking Group B – Health All workers Older Little or no IT skills More 1st language English Level of English higher Softer skills more developed Target Groups - InterAct

8. Group A - Entrepreneurs Students or workers in SME's or unemployed High level of ICT skills Younger Reasonable level of English language competence Group B – Consultants Students or workers in SME's or unemployed High level of ICT skills Younger Good level of English language competence Target Groups - Office InterActors

9. Target groups’ motivations priorities & characteristics • Student • Young worker • Older worker • Unemployed person • Remember the differences

10. What methodologies did we use? • Interactive observation – don’t just watch you will get less back if you don’t interact and strike up a rapport with the learners • Focus groups (a continuation of their learning) • One to one (or two to one) interviews /discussions • Forms rating scales; tick box, multiple choice, text responses. • Analysis of the platform and the blogs • Be flexible and use a variety of methods…and if one doesn’t work on a particular target group – try another!

11. Who was involved • Students undertaking the piloting • Providers – either employers or directors of colleges • Tutors • Managers • 4 perspectives on the same processes

12. The aim of the methodologies • To collect feedback…. • using a variety of methodologies • with a variety of different people • and different perspectives • at a number of different times * • during the project

13. Successful methodologies both in delivery and evaluation • Creating a biography individually or as a team • Everyone can talk or write from personal experience (efforts made by team members to get the points out were greater therefore a good way to improve English language skills is to focus on a self interest) • Evaluation • keep the self interest e.g. why did you say the things you said about yourself ? • In order to say (write) how much new English did you learn ? • Can you still say or write them now?

14. Biog - Spanish team Here we are Hello! You see those five smiles faces in the picture. We are a group of 6 teachers and staff of ISSA. (One of us wasn’t at ISSA yesterday, when we had the picture taken) ISSA was founded in 1963 in San Sebastián (SPAIN) in order to solve the problem of the need for professional Management Assistants with a high level of culture and a professional attitude in various institutions and companies. As pioneer of this university diploma in the secretarial field, ISSA has contributed to the evolution of the professional profile, which is highly valued by management teams. Nowadays there are more than 2,600 Management Assistants who have graduated from the University of Navarre who hold posts of responsibility in numerous national and international companies and institutions. You can read more information in www.issa.edu

15. Presentation - UK group Hi everyone, My name is Emily and I am 26 years old. I am part of the UK team though I am from Paris. I am based in London and I have been working for the Conran Restaurants Group as a Human Resources Officer for the last year and a half. I am really looking forward getting to know everyone on this project.uk1 Hello, I'm Arnold from London, England and I'm 21 years old. I work as a chef and have been for 3 years starting as a apprentice for the company. I presently work at the Paternoster Chophouse which is in the city next to st. Pauls Cathedral. My interests other than food are fashion, music and most of all football.uk2 Hi, My name is Matthieu, I'm 24 yrs old and I'm French. I'm working as a waiter in one of the most famous restaurant in London, "Le Pont De La Tour". I've been working there for 1 year and I really enjoy my job. I also love London and I'm happy to meet people from all over the world.uk4 Hello, My name is Guillaume D`Herouville, I worked for the Conran company for 3 years,I used to work for le pont de la tour during 2 years and 6 month , i love what i`m doing , and now i`m superviser at chop house uk3

16. Using Skype Advantages • Instantaneous • Can see who your interlocutor(s) is (are) • Therefore you have visual confirmation of effort by others (compared to say text) • Opportunities to bond more with your fellow learners (email, chat etc) Challenges • Needs coordinating (which can be frustrating and de-motivating)

17. Skype - evaluation • Sit and watch, may be say hello • Review at end of session • Ask students how they thought it went • Did they set clear objectives for the session? • Did they achieve their objectives? • Did they learn new English from their interlocutors?

18. Skype – evaluation common pitfalls • Session remains small talk • Session has no clear objectives • One side has a much higher level of English language competence (and does most of the talking) • One side is naturally shy • One person in a team dominates (may be the most competent speaker)

19. Platform • A Moodle platform tailored specifically for the project • Students had to upload assignments, negotiate and agree over the platform • Several forums allowed them to chat and blog

20. Platform evaluation • Positive + + + • Good mechanism for IT savvy students • Secure method of exchanging work, ideas and messages etc • Easy to see (in real time) who was doing the work! • Easy way of accessing the students for feedback • Negative - - - • Not so good for people not IT literate • Navigation needed to be better (IT savvy students will compare against better platforms)

21. Main reasons for using the blog • Describing the learning processes they had undergone • Self evaluation of their individual, or their teams efforts • A ‘stream of consciousness’ • A brief introduction and description of themselves

22. Blogs – the pros and cons • Positives +++++ • Good because they catch people in a more relaxed frame of mind • Can read through and extract useful comments • Less formal, so writer less inhibited • Popular form of communication because of FaceBook, twitter etc. Negatives - - - • Less formal, so less attention to English grammar (compared to a set task) • May be excluding some sets of learners e.g. older learners who are not ‘digital natives’ • Need to sift through a lot of dross

23. Specific skills learnt • English language - words etc • Listening skills • Listening to another’s point of view • Teamwork • Using a learning platform • PowerPoint • Foreign language skills – phrases • Business ideas • Equal opportunities within business • logo-creating software

24. Students comments • ‘I think I’ve never written so much in English’ • ‘For me this course was a new experience. It is a completely new way to learn new things. • ‘The main advantage of this course is that you can exercise your English by working in a fun, social and creative way on a project’ • ‘I also learned a lot of new words in English’. • ‘It was great to be able to work on my English skills in another way, as opposed to the usual read a book and discuss method’

25. Summary • A good amount of English language was learnt as a generic ‘core’ or ‘employability’ skill during these projects • Some methodologies are better than others for encouraging students’ English skills development • As an evaluator always consider your target groups …and the differences in them • Be flexible with evaluation methods and don’t just rely on one type.

26. Evaluation of two EU projects aimed at improving English Language competence as a generic vocational skill David EvansDHE Solutions LtdLancaster, UK3rd June 2011