Funding Schemes
Thematic Commission on Funding Schemes aims at involving and influencing relevant stakeholders in the field of private and public funding for learning mobility. The workshops are an opportunity to get feedback from experts in this field, at the same time they are an opportunity to involve and influence important stakeholders, who play a role in cross sector partnerships among educational sectors, educational providers and business world. The stakeholders target groups are both from VET, higher education and the non formal training sector as well as those representing the private banking system. The aim is to set up a discussion with the relevant stakeholder in this field and derive information from their perspective. The workshop should contribute to observations and recommendations about how to organize better the funding on learning mobility, improving the cooperation between European, national and local fund, as well as between public and private sector. During the workshops, where relevant and possible, brief interviews with stakeholders will be carried out in order to clarify statements or opinions of speakers, or to go more into depth in technical and/ or strategic issues. It is envisaged to produce and publish on project web site, short videos from the interviews to Case Studies representatives and to invite stakeholders responsible for relevant initiatives to share and publish on Europemobility Network web site additional materials and videos describing their initiatives. The TC will link its workshops with existing initiatives of different network.
Recognition
Europemobility Network aims to support the European Commission in implementing the Action Plan of the Bruges Communiqué. In this context, recognition plays a prevalent role, especially concerning European transparency tools such as Europass, the European Qualification Framework, the European Credit System for VET (ECVET) and the European Quality Assurance Reference Framework for VET (EQAVET). These are reflected in the strategic objectives 4 and 8: “Developing a strategic approach to the internationalisation of I-VET and C-VET and promoting international mobility” and “Coordinated governance of European and national instruments in the area of transparency, recognition, quality assurance and mobility” Another aspect of the Communiqué is the promotion of “equity, social cohesion and active citizenship” (p.15). Since Europemobility supports a transversal approach to learning, which includes the VET but also the higher and non-formal education sector, the link between formal and non-formal learning and especially the recognition of skills and competences acquired through non- and informal learning will also be part of this Thematic Commission. Therefore, the aim of the Thematic Commission on Recognition is to identify and bring together stakeholders and key players from various fields of recognition in order to contribute to the achievement of the objectives outlined in the Bruges Communiqué.
Impact
While taking into consideration the findings of existing studies and surveys the thematic commission on the Impact of Learning Mobility aims at investigating further the impact of mobility actions on both youngsters/students and companies/hosting organizations.
With particular focus on the guidelines and framework of the existing publications, a survey will be conducted via online questionnaires, to measure the impact of learning mobility on students and the hosting organisations, especially in VET and non-formal education with particular reference to the following dimensions: personal, professional and social/interpersonal.
Cooperation Models
The objective of the Thematic Commission is to contribute to the improvement of the cooperation between the business world and the educational providers in the field of transnational learning mobility.
The Thematic Commission also foresees to promote synergies between Higher Education, VET and Non Formal and Informal Education in the field of learning mobility and the promotion of work placements abroad.
The overall aim is to promote the exploitation of existing successful cooperation models and initiate competence building processes via Europemobility Network workshops and publications. The Thematic Commission will document with Case Studies relevant initiatives based on the adoption adoption of successful cooperation models, innovative actions and procedures showcased by Europemobility Network.
The Thematic Commission on “Cooperation Models” will showcase successful initiatives, analysing their conditions and characteristics, with the purpose of documenting the impact of transnational learning mobility, with specific focus on work placements abroad, on 3 key policy areas: 1) Curriculum Development: how transnational mobility can inform decision makers and educational managers on the definition of competencies and curriculum. 2) Entrepreneurship: how transnational mobility can boost entrepreneurial education and culture and key competencies. 3) Making learning mobility an opportunity for all: raising the number of work placements abroad by ensuring attractiveness, mutual trust, easy and effective procedures
Quality
In the first year the Thematic Commission on Quality made a desk research to collect good practices from different educational sectors in the field of quality assurance in learning mobility. For each case of good practice a fact sheet was compiled. Based on the results the “Quality Observatory & Toolbox” was created, which shows good practices related to specific quality criteria, methodologies as well as indicators for quality assurance. Additionally, the information is clustered and assigned to the four phases of the EQAVET framework: Plan, Implement, Evaluate, and Review. The “Quality Observatory & Toolbox” with its related information of the fact sheets enables users to identify existing initiatives and choose those elements that are relevant for their context. Organizations which would like to set up mobility for learners can use the toolbox as a starting point to get a condensed overview about relevant elements of quality assurance in mobility and could be inspired by the criteria, methods, indicators and tools of the toolbox.
A second step was the formation of the “Benchmarking Club” for quality in mobility. The club consists of practitioners in mobility from different educational sectors and provides a mutual learning experience. Key areas of the added value of placement mobility for students, universities, and enterprises were addressed, assuming that the potential of placement mobility for the extension of cooperation between educational organisation and enterprises has not yet been fully realised. The members of the group compared their expectations, interests and former experiences in coordinating learning mobility. As a result of exchange and discussions the “shortlist of priorities to measure quality in mobility” was produced. It shows indicators, which were rated by the group as most relevant for quality assurance in mobility. Focussing on the defined indicators as a priority the club members developed specific strategies for quality improvement in mobility for their own organization.
Based on that two subgroups were created:
a) achievement and recognition of key competences, leading to more employable people
b) setting up and maintaining sustainable and quality partnerships for mobility
The subgroups serve as a peer-coaching environment where members support each other to implement their strategy for quality improvement.
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