Background European Business Baccalaureate Diploma (EBBD) was created in a Comenius Multilateral Project in 2010-2013. The diploma responds to the needs of graduates, since their competences vary depending on the country and the student. Because of this it is difficult for working life to employ and for the institutes of higher education to admit the students. The diploma covers the competences in the area of business and administration but also the skills and competences needed for working and studying abroad. Diploma was developed for young students in school education and several schools are implementing it in six countries. An association EBBD e.V. was established before the Comenius project for the cooperation of business educators and for the accreditation of EBBD programs. After the previous project it has occurred that also in the adult education, where informal and non-formal learning is validated, there is a need and interest for adopting this kind of diploma. Additionally the feedback from European Commission in the previous project was that the diploma and the accreditation process are too complicated. This opinion is shared by the schools, which have been accredited. Objectives Project’s main objective is to develop the diploma to suit also non-formal and informal learning and simplify the accreditation process. By developing the diploma criteria to be based on learning outcomes and by writing them as competences, the structure of the diploma will be simplified. Additionally other requirements of the diploma will be modified to be more suitable for all target groups. The competence requirements of the institutes of higher education will be implemented in the diploma's requirements. The diploma’s development work will also take into account the future needs of working life. Important objective in the project is the dissemination of the understanding of the competence based learning and the dissemination of the EBBD diploma. Through dissemination and the large network of the partnership the diploma will be more recognized by European schools, the students, working life and higher education institutes. Partnership The project partnership includes seven upper secondary vocational colleges, one university and two associations. Most of the schools are also adult or apprentice educators in the field of business and administration. They are all implementing the diploma at the moment in school education. The university will work as the evaluator of the products (diploma and accreditation process). The association of Vocational educators, EfVET, will work with dissemination and the association EBBD e.V. owns the accreditation process and is needed for the development process. Events A national dissemination event for schools and teachers will be organized in each partner country. The Dutch partner will produce the training material for the training events in English language for the common understanding of the learning outcomes and for the assessment of the competences. Other parts of the events will be in national language. Round table discussions will be organized in the two EfVET conferences for dissemination of the diploma. Project management Each partner has a specific area of responsibility within the project. The coordinator ensures that each partner knows the budget as well as the content and time schedule of their tasks in good time beforehand. Google Drive -tools are used for the development, reporting and planning work to ensure that each partner has direct access to all the documents, which are being developed and produced within the project. The use of Google Drive -tools guarantees that each partner knows how the project work concretely proceeds. There will be altogether six transnational project meetings. Results and impact The project's main result is the renewed diploma which is suitable for all. It is also simple and easy to implement. Secondly the accreditation process will be simplified and it can be implemented by using web tools. Simplified diploma with possibilities to validate also non-formal and informal learning and user friendly accreditation process will attract new schools to implement EBBD. The result of the dissemination and training events is that the EBBD is known in Europe among the vocational education, high level institutes and working life. That will improve the mobility of the graduates of secondary level business education. Their admission to higher education and employment will also be improved. In long term the diploma gives to Europe a tool for comparing competences between countries and graduates. It also enables student exchanges between schools and unifies Europe so that people can more freely move from one country to another for work or study purposes. The EBBD is concept, which can be transferred to any other field of vocational education in the future.
European Business Baccalaureate Diploma (EBBD) is a diploma, which was developed within previous Comenius-project in 2010-2013. The need for this kind of diploma was born because of the objective in many EU-countries, that the whole generation should get upper secondary education. In vocational education and training (VET) this has caused that the level of students’ skills and competences differ greatly. Therefore, companies and the institutions of higher education find it difficult to recruit VET students. In this situation, the best students have felt the need to stand out and demonstrate their skills and competences on an excellent level. The main objective was to improve VET students’ employability and possibilities to further studies. To support this the project aimed to enhance the attractiveness and relevance of VET to meet labour market needs, to support transparency and recognition in EU, disseminate best practices of assessing key-competences and the use of learning outcomes in curricula, enlarge the target group to adults and thereby validate non-formal and informal learning and to simplify the accreditation process. Eight partners are vocational colleges in business and administration and six of these have also adult education. University in UK educates vocational teachers, has broad expertise on VET and was the product evaluator. EfVET is an international association of providers of vocational education and training. The association EBBD e.V. was established in Germany for co-operation of secondary level Business Education in Europe and manages the accreditation process of the EBBD diploma as well as ensures the sustainability of project results. To communicate efficiently the project had 6 transnational project meetings, 20 skype meetings, smaller work groups, emails, individual phone calls and google sites page, where all the project’s key documents are stored. For reporting the partners have sent one Interim Report, summaries of their multiplier events and cost documents. Dissemination and exploitation plan for the project was developed and partners have also written National Dissemination Plans. The project also developed a web-based customer management system. The EBBD curriculum was modified to include adults, which brought the recognition and validation of non-formal and informal learning. We also implemented the descriptions of learning outcomes on an outstanding level of competence, which have labour market relevance in Europe and qualify for higher education. We produced training materials and held seven national dissemination events, one international dissemination event and two international round tables. All this has promoted use of competence based learning outcomes in curricula and assessment and recognition of non-formal and informal learning in Europe and also internationally. The project partners in Finland, the Netherlands and Germany will start teacher exchange in 2017-2018 and teachers are able to share ideas, test and develop teaching material. Some regional educational authorities have made EBBD as a common standard and they have assisted the implementation of EBBD. The project actively disseminated EBBD among VET schools, institutions of higher education as well as chambers of commerce, companies and governments widely in Europe and also internationally. Project created Facebook page and renewed website. The partners wrote 10 articles about EBBD+ project developments to EfVET Newsletter and articles to newspapers and magazines. The dissemination has improved recognition and sustainability of EBBD label. Around 20 new schools were accredited to provide EBBD which improves schools’ internationalization and branding and thereby competitiveness. EBBD has also identified skills shortages in curriculums and increased interest for CLIL implementation. The number of EBBD graduates has increased because of the active dissemination and larger number of accredited schools and there is already evidence that EBBD graduates have easier access to higher education and quality employment. The accreditation process has been simplified. It is web-based and has been tested to be efficient for the verifier and user friendly for the applicant. In the longer-term transparency of students’ skills and competences in Europe are enhanced by common EBBD curriculum since EBBD schools have a strong community where the know-how can be transferred. This promotes teaches exchanges and student mobility. The simplified accreditation process will further enlarge the network of EBBD schools and thereby increase the students’ possibilities for better employment and further studies.