Background The issue of quality and quality management in VET constitutes one of the major fields for development for the last 40 years and in European Union a lot of resources have been devoted to increase the quality of VET. More than 50 different models have been developed within LLP-program, focusing on different aspect of Quality management in VET. Despite all the effort, the experiences show that it is difficult for VET-organization structuring evaluation into new improvement initiatives. The available QA guides and kits are based on a fairly traditional model which focuses on “evaluation” rather than engaging the teaching staff on incorporation of evaluative ideas into practice. The experiences of the partnership, CEDEFOP and available research shows that the perceptions of the leadership and teaching staff concerning quality initiatives is one of the main barriers. They have different answers to questions such as need for QA, suitable QA-model, implementation, evaluation and review. (CEDEFOP Leadership in VET, “The factors that matter for Quality Assurance in VET by Adrie Visscher & Maria Hendriks and LdV-project REVIMP - From Review to Improvement in European Vocational Education and Training)Overall objective The overall objective of the project “Promoting quality culture in VET “ is to support VET leadership to motivate and engage VET-teaching staff in implementation of quality initiatives at VET-institution by improving prior elaborated guidelines. AimThe aim of the project is to further develop the elaborated guidelines for VET leadership for facilitating participatory approach to ensure involvement of teachers. The guidelines will cover following aspects according to EQAVET quality cycle; how to: a) create awareness of quality assurance ideology and benefitsb) engage staff in selection of Quality assurance modelc) plan the evaluation process of QA finding with the teaching staffd) review and plan for improvement of the VET-activitiese) promotion of a shared vision on VET-educationThe above guideline will be complemented by best practises from participating countries and from the 39 best practise projects from QALL network, complemented by checklists. Result The project “Promoting quality culture in VET” aims to further develop prior elaborated guidelines for VET-leadership which enable them engaging and motivating teaching staff regarding quality initiatives 4 different cycle phases (planning, implementation, evaluation and review). The guidelines will be developed on the bases of EQAVET quality cycle in an interactive form and also in printed and electronic form in languages. It will be supplemented by best practises, practical advice and examplesThe impact The impact of the project will be a) empowerment of teaching staff with regards to quality initiatives in VET-organisation b) enabling VET-organisation in overcoming the present barriers in utilization of evaluation result of QA-initiatives in review and improvement c) facilitating the work of EQAVET in monitoring the impacts of their quality models and indicators in VET-organisation at EU-level.
The issue of quality and quality management in VET constitutes one of the major fields for development for the 40 years and in European Union a lot of resources have been devoted to increase the quality of VET. More than 50 different models have been developed within LLP-program, focusing on different aspect of Quality management in VET. The available QA guides and kits are based on a fairly traditional model which focuses on “evaluation” rather than engaging the teaching staff on incorporation of evaluative ideas into practice. Folkuniversitetet Uppsala and partners has since 2009 been carrying out several projects within LLLP and Erasmus+ in order to translate EQAVET indicators to a realistic and simple model and instruments for quality improvement in VET. During the 3 first project the partnership realised different and many times contradictory expectation of quality in VET. Decision makers used quality measures as evaluation of VET policy while VET managers at providers level used quality as justification for public budget they received. At the same time teaching staff expressed a dissatisfaction with all quality masseurs since it was equal to extra bureaucratic administrative work which had little or no impact on teaching process in the classroom. When we did the piloting activities on self-assessment during “From NQAVET to EQAVET”, we could see that the assessment of quality at institutional level differed between management view on the level of quality and the opinion of teachers. This gave us the enough justification to initiate a project that develop guidelines which help the VET managers to engage teaching staff before during and after quality initiative The overall objective of the project “Promoting quality culture in VET “was to support VET leadership to motivate and engage VET-teaching staff in implementation of quality initiatives at VET-institution by improving prior elaborated guidelines. The project “Promoting quality culture in VET” aimed to further develop prior elaborated guidelines for VET-leadership which enabled them engaging and motivating teaching staff regarding quality initiatives 4 different cycle phases (planning, implementation, evaluation and review). The guidelines were developed on the bases of EQAVET quality cycle in an interactive form and in printed and electronic form in languages. The project “Promoting quality culture in VET “consisted of 6 partners with such profiles as: a)Folkuniversitetet offers a wide range of adult education, both initial and continuous Vocational education and training, secondary education and labour market training. Folkuniversitetet has been the initiator and coordinators of the three (3) prior quality project where these partners were included. b)Rinova Ltd is a social enterprise that specialises in the design, development, implementation and evaluation of cultural, social and economic development programmes in the areas of: Lifelong Learning and Skills, Employment and Employability, Enterprise, community development and social action, The Creative Industries and Cultural Learning. They are expert in quality and monitoring of VET projects and they were also partnering in former projects mentioned above. c)MMC provides: VET courses such as office administration, accounting officers, IT technician, sales and retailing, certified project management, ECDL courses, tourism programmes etc. They were chosen because they had deep experience in Peer Review model adapted to EQAVET. Being a VET institution, they provided much input regarding piloting and review of feedback after piloting activities d)Revalento is a consultancy which has vast experience of development of guidelines and training materials in the field of quality in VET. They developed all the guidelines during 3 joint projects regarding EQAVET. e)DIMITRA Education & Consulting is one of the largest Vocational Education & Training (VET) Organizations with Training Centers in five (5) cities in Greece. DIMITRA holds a twenty-five-years’ experience in offering educational services in VET by utilizing its international experience and the state-of-the-art training methodologies and technological innovations. They have a strong IT department with strong experiences in developing online structure for guidelines and self-assessment Quick Scan which was a deliverable in the QC project f)DOCUMENTA is a non-profit organization working in the field of “applied social research”, they were selected as partner for their knowledge in research and analysis of VET system. The impact of the project was a) empowerment of teaching staff with regards to quality initiatives in VET-organisation b) enabling VET-organisation in overcoming the present barriers in utilization of evaluation result of QA-initiatives in review and improvement c) facilitating the work of EQAVET in monitoring the impacts of their Quality models and indicators in VET-organisation at EU-level.