The Keyway project aims to support the evaluation and evidence based reform and design of guidance policies and services by creating a practical system of indicators for guidance organizations to measure the impact and results of their guidance services. Keyway will:- Identify and analyze the diverse areas of impact that guidance actions have in the lives of citizens. - Define Key Indicators of Performance and Impact based on consensus methodologies so that guidance services have the needed measures to evaluate and valorize the services they provide. - Support the valorization and optimization of guidance services by developing a methodological guide to implementing KPIs. Through a variety of consensus methodologies the Keyway project will involve guidance and education stakeholders in the creation of a conceptual map of the impact guidance actions have within society. The Keyway partnership will then involve stakeholders in the identification, prioritization and selection of Key Performance and Impact Indicators to reflect the areas of impact detailed in the conceptual Keyway map. The result will be the Keyway Performance and Impact Indicator electronic database. The Keyway partnership will then support the use and exploitation of these results through a practical, how-to guide, to the Keyway methodologies and tools. Through these activities the Keyway project will involve at least 250 participants. The Keyway project and its outputs, the Keyway Conceptual Impact Map, the Key Performance Impact Indicator database and the Keyway guide to implementing KPIs will support the management skills of educators and guidance professionals, as well as promote evidence-based evaluation and valorization of guidance services. These tools will further develop existing research and also bring academic research down to the organizational and operational level in order to promote modern, dynamic and efficient guidance systems within school education. The tools and the context and information they gather will also promote professional development and a distributed leadership, offering information and indicators as a key element for reflection and improvement within education and guidance institutions. The Keyway project will provide guidance services, practitioners and other school professionals with practical evaluation tools to analyze and valorise the results and impact of school education guidance services and actions. Keyway therefore supports the professional development of school educators and professionals as well as the efficient and sustainable investment in school education guidance services.
The Keyway project aimed to support the evaluation and evidence-based reform and design of guidance policies and services by developing the Keyway set of tools for guidance organizations to measure the impact and results of their guidance services. The Keyway project connected guidance organisations and services to Key Performance and Impact Indicators. The Keyway partnership made up of diverse organisations within the field of school education and guidance (a university, a Provincial Council, research and training organisations and organisations directly providing guidance services), built upon the existing research to develop a methodology and tools to promote the practical collection and analysis of evidence indicators related to the impact and results of academic and career guidance activities. To do so, the Keyway project involved more than 250 education and career guidance professionals, both internal and external to the Keyway partnership. The Keyway partnership actively involved academic and career guidance practitioners within the project through quantitative and qualitative consensus methodologies to develop its products. In this way, the Keyway project not only succeeded in bringing together the experience in the field from the 4 countries represented by the partnership, but also additional academic and career guidance professionals and experts. The Keyway project provides tools to guidance practitioners so that they know how and why they should invest within the analysis of the impact and results of their guidance services and are better prepared to provide evidence to policy and budgetary decision-makers. The Keyway project identified and analysed the diverse areas of impact that guidance activities have on the lives of citizens with the result of the Keyway Conceptual Impact Map. The project partnership then went on to define Key Indicators of Performance and Impact (KPIs) based on desk research and consensus methodologies. These indicators (defined and supported with bibliographic references) give guidance services the needed measures to evaluate and valorise the services they provide. Finally, the project developed a Methodological Guide to support guidance services as they begin to carry out performance, results and impact evaluation with the Keyway tools. The project had the objective of consulting and incorporating the opinion of at least 40 external school education guidance experts through consensus methodologies in small group sessions and an online consultation process - in total the project involved more than 60 experts in this role. The involvement of these experts supported the quality and applicability of the activities and intellectual outputs of the Keyway project. The Keyway tools has succeeded in bringing forward the research in the field and making it available at the operational level through the Keyway tools to promote modern, dynamic and efficient guidance systems within school education. The Keyway project gave guidance services specific tools to begin the evaluation of their performance and impact. The project tested the tools specifically with professionals from 8 organisations, but also presented and contrasted first impressions of the resources with more than 120 professionals through the multiplier event practical seminars. The longer-term benefits of the project can also be seen through the innovation and incorporation of the Keyway tools and methodology within the training programmes of the project partners which directly affect school education and guidance professionals at the local and regional levels.