Subject: Our proposal aims to enhance career guidance in education systems and training establishments. We are therefore proposing significant improvements to two teaching aids developed in LdV TOI projects which both have a wide audience with frequent and regular downloads. One of these tools is in the field of career guidance and the other in language learning by discovering different types of job (native or foreign language). We will create a system of educational links to be able to use the two tools together and will be making substantial additions to their content and functions and by adding three languages, making a total of six. Rationale: All the countries in Europe are making efforts in this field. In France, for example, the "parcours de découverte des métiers et des formations" (pathway to discovering jobs and training courses) is changing to become the "parcours individuel d'information et d’orientation et de découverte du monde économique et professionnel" (PIIODMEP) – individual pathway to information and guidance and discovering the economic and professional world) in September 2015. In Luxembourg, the Action Locale pour jeunes (an integration service within the Education Ministry) has teachers in each technical secondary school who provide training in career guidance and information about which profession to choose. In Austria, career guidance is a compulsory part of the school curriculum either as an independent subject or linked to other subjects. A recent study in Germany pointed out that about one pupil in two has problems choosing a career, independently of their level of education. But teachers do not always have the necessary tools and are often not thoroughly trained in this task. Furthermore, the written code and language barriers are often insurmountable for people with serious literacy problems and for migrants, which goes against the ambitious aim of “enabling everyone to find the right career” (the French framework agreement for a comprehensive and public career guidance service). The two tools proposed in this project can be used by a fairly wide target audience and particularly by those with literacy problems. “Zoom2Choose” is based exclusively on classifying photos and provides career guidance counsellors with results to help them help the young people in their career choices. In the tool “100 jobs”, all the texts can be read but also heard, which makes it accessible to a wider audience. The project is also useful in preventing children dropping out of school, which, in France especially, is a national priority. Young people with a strong idea of what career they want are more eager to learn and have greater incentive to achieve their goal. Description of the result: The result will be a set of free educational resources in FR, DE, EN, NL, LT and IS. The most innovative aspect of the project is that, in addition to the career guidance and help in constructing an individual career plan, it provides language exercises that introduce the different jobs. The tool is designed to be used either in the mother tongue or a foreign language, including the three most frequently studied. This project consists of: - a 2nd version of the application “Zoom2Choose”: new functions and extra content. - a new version of the tool “100 jobs brought to life”, making a total of 120 jobs which will cover all the jobs in Z2C - a system of links to use the two tools together - a teacher’s guide, with scenarios for use, to help the professionals when working with both tools together - a teacher’s training programme Web pages in the 6 languages will offer online access to the tools in the multimedia version, the possibility to download the paper version and also a self-training module with video tutorials. Consortium: It comprises 7 partners from five countries with different, proven skill sets: career guidance and disaffected pupils (GIP, ALJ, EC, FAS), language teaching (CTL EC, FAS, ADBS) creating teaching aids (EC, GIP, CTL, Rivage). Most of the partners have wide experience in international partnerships; three have already participated in one of the previous projects on which this one is based. Target audience: Career guidance professionals, teachers and trainers, particularly in languages, working with: - pupils/learners developing a career project, - disaffected pupils/learners Impact: Both the tools on which this project is based already have a huge impact, as witnessed by the references and articles on Internet and by statistics providing precise figures of how often the tools are used. The three additional languages will significantly increase the impact across Europe.
The project was conducted at a time when career guidance for pupils and young adults is an integral part of the efficacy of education and training systems. The change in job types and employment needs requires these young people to be able to make the right choices, which means changing their representations. Young people who have difficulty in class and or with social and professional integration who are offered narrower choices are less familiar with the working environment and therefore need more guidance. During the project period, Europe received enormous amounts of refugees, and in a meeting for another project, a German partner spoke of how much more career guidance younger people needed, as they also had to cope with the language barrier. Many European countries are making educational efforts to work in this field. The following are some examples: - In France, “Parcours Avenir” offers secondary school pupils aged 11 to 18 the possibility to work on self knowledge, and knowledge about training and jobs, during ordinary lessons, so that pupils can follow their own progress over the years on a digital platform. - In Luxembourg, technical high schools have a career guidance department led by specialists and teachers. Teachers do not always have the necessary tools and are not sufficiently well trained in this job. The tool developed in this project helps young people to get to know their centres of interest, to work on developing their representations while improving oral and written expression skills in their own language or a foreign one. The main aim was to produce a tool that would help a wide variety of people to: - Get to know their centres of interest - Develop their representations of various jobs - Learn to make choices - Get to know the jobs - Work on oral and written expression skills in their own language or a foreign one - Train career guidance teachers or counsellors to professional level The second aim was to update the existing tools on which this one is based to ensure that: - The technology will last over time - They can be upgraded: additional languages, real-time modifications of the content. The partnership is made up of 7 organisations from 5 countries and is based on each partner’s competences. The GIP FC de Reims (FR) focuses on methods to prevent young people from dropping out of education and on teacher training. Euro-Cordiale (LU) is an association that designs and produces teaching tools. Rivage Pro (FR) is a software editor specialised in new technology applied to education and training. The Ministry of Education (LU), with its “Action Locale pour Jeunes” programme supports the guidance and integration of the most fragile pupils. Hasselt University (BE) is specialised in linguistic adaptation. Alytus Dzukija Basic School (LT) is an inclusive education high school for pupils with special needs and offers its pupils a choice of 6 foreign languages. - Framhaldsskolinn i Austur-Skaftafellssyslu (IS) is a high school interested in developing this tool to enhance their work on career guidance. The project consisted mainly in the following activities: - Designing and developing the software program - Defining and producing new content - Translations, Recordings - Drafting the assessment questionnaire - Testing - Teachers’ guide, Training programme The project has resulted in a freely accessible platform in 8 languages, free of charge: www.zoom2choose.eu It has 2 modules that can be used together or separately: - Get to know your centres of interest: after classifying series of photos, the young people can see their centres of interest through key words which also help identify any problems with their representations. - Discover the jobs: Either on the basis of the results of the previous exercise or completely independently, learners have access to 120 job descriptions to read or listen to in the language of their choice, with vocabulary exercises. The platform is designed to be able to: - Memorise the results for further exercises - Do the exercises in one language and the follow-up work in another (useful for allophone pupils) A teachers’ guide helps teachers and trainers make the most of the tool. It is difficult to measure the impact of a tool that has only just been released. Based on assessments we have done we can see that the young people who have tested the tool say that the application is interesting (75%), useful (78%), easy to use (90%), easy to understand (90%). It helps them become aware of their centres of interest (80%), their life experiences (70%), and their abilities (55%). The platform is already up and running in all the partner countries. In the longer term, the messages received from users of the first versions of the tools suggest that dissemination will be widespread in Europe.