The Government Office of Békés County intends to implement the 24-month project entitled ’ACCESS to VET – with competence development and knowledge recognition’ in an international partnership cooperation composed of 6 members dealing with VET from Ireland, Italy, Spain, Romania and Hungary. In every partner country, the proportion of adults participating in lifelong learning is significantly below the objectives set in the Europe 2020 Strategy. It is also confirmed by the information coming from employers that economic growth is hindered by – besides the lack of labour-force having the required professional knowledge – the fact that a certain proportion of employees and job-seekers does not even have transversal skills necessary for employment. In order to provide labour-force supply it is therefore necessary to support low-skilled adults and those having low level of education in acquiring a vocational qualification required to become employed in the primary labour market. For that, however, it is needed to apply competence development and counselling activity considering individual demands before starting and during the training. In the field of improving labour-force competitiveness – especially within continuous vocational education – there is also a demand for identifying and recognising knowledge acquired in non-formal learning. Trainings realised according to the individual learning plan are beneficial both for the training participant and the training provider because the duration and cost of the training can be maintained on an optimal level. One of the key elements of the methodology developed within the project ‘Work-based Learning in CVET’ implemented in an international consortium led by the Government Office of Békés County is the application of learning plans based on learning outcomes, the surveying and recognition of prior knowledge. During its implementation a demand arose that it would be useful to directly study that special professional field. In the project, via learning from each other, the partner organisations develop their methods applied in improving transversal skills and operating a VET system considering the results to be recognised from the learning outcomes acquired in non-formal learning environments. The direct target group of the project is composed of professionals responsible for career counselling and guidance, VET, adult education and forming employment policies at the particular organisations. The further training of professionals implementing the project is realised by the exchange of experiences, learning from each other, which is provided by the international partnership meetings. In the five partner countries we will organise two-day meetings respectively with the participation of each partner. The meeting agenda will be created according to a unified system of criteria. At the meetings the best practices applied by the hosting institution and its partners will be presented, moreover there are special tasks to be accomplished such as discussing the different guidelines, systems of criteria and regulatory documents providing the appropriate project quality. The methods are presented in a practice-oriented way, besides theoretical description the participants, in the form of on-site visits, will meet the staff managing the different programmes and the participants of the trainings as well. Getting acquainted with and applying the new and innovative guidance and VET methods will contribute to improving the employment situation of unskilled job-seekers who have low level of education and do not have professional knowledge to be easily converted in the labour market and employees endangered with unemployment of whom the indirect target group of the project is made up in the partner countries. As an impact, due to the professional work of participating partner organisations, improving transversal skills and recognising prior knowledge more adults are provided with the opportunity to participate in VET. At the end of the project we will measure to what extent the acquired good practices will be built into the operation of the partner organisations and other organisations cooperating with them in improving employment and in the field of VET. As a result, the Brochure of Best Practices presenting the methods – and their experiences, results – applied by the partners will be created and the study summarising the experiences of building the methods acquired during the project into the institutional operation will be developed, which will be disseminated widely by the partnership. The professional materials to be issued in English and the national languages will contain and provide useful guidelines regarding motivation tools targeting participation in lifelong learning and an easier access to VET not only in the partner countries but also for organisations responsible for shaping VET and employment policy in each EU member state.
The two-year project entitled ‘ACCESS to VET – with Competence Development and Skills Recognition’ has been implemented by an international partnership composed of 6 members representing 5 countries (Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Romania) and led by the Government Office of Békés County with the support of the European Commission’s Erasmus+ programme. The project focused on improving transversal skills needed for taking up a job as well as learning, mutually becoming acquainted with best practices applied by the international partners in the topic of recognition and validation of prior knowledge, and further developing the professional activities of partner organisations. The exchange of experiences was realised in the form of holding 2-day transnational partnership meetings in each 5 partner country. During the meetings, besides carrying out project management related tasks, the hosting organisations presented the best practices, methods and the experiences of implementation applied by them or with organisations cooperating with them in the field of VET that are in accordance with the project aims. Presenting the methods was practice-oriented, besides receiving theoretical pieces of information, the participants could meet people implementing as well as participating in the programme in the form of on-site visits. Methods seen and acquired during the meetings could be further studied in more details between subsequent meetings, professional consultations and exchange of professional materials were continuous all throughout the entire project cycle. The project primarily intended to provide further development for professionals responsible for career counselling and guidance, VET, adult education and forming employment policies at the particular organisations, however the ultimate aim was to integrate the best practices seen and considered to be adaptable into the operation of the implementing organisations, and to further improve the level of their professional work with amending the methods, if needed. One of the major results of the project is the Brochure of Best Practices presenting the methods and approaches applied to improve access to training and qualifications by the partner organisations and the results and experiences of their operation in practice. In the document 2 best practices, labour market programmes per partner country are described, which contribute to reach entering adult learning, raising the motivation towards learning of adults excluded from the labour market or at a risk of losing their job without any learning activity, acquiring a new qualification thus their labour market integration. During the implementation, measuring impact received special attention. In the second half of the project, each partner selected one or some elements of the best practices seen, the testing and later adaptation and application of which they considered to significantly improve their own professional work. The project partners measured the impacts according to a pre-defined system of criteria, in which they described which methods they had chosen to test and in what ways they had integrated them into the operation of their organisation, and what amendments they would suggest in order to improve the method. Besides the Brochure of Best Practices, the study summarising the experiences of integrating the acquired methods into the operation of the organisations is also available at the http://bekes.munka.hu/Engine.aspx website under the menu item ’International projects’ and the partner organisations’ websites. The results published are recommended for any organisation and professional responsible for the project topics because they offer beneficial guidelines related to motivation towards participating in lifelong learning, the activity can be supported in any of the EU member states. Besides collecting, testing the best practices and measuring their impacts, it is another added value of the project that the further development of the so called ‘4-zone model’ seen in Ireland and tested, among others, in Hungary as well can be realised with the implementation of a new strategic partnerships project including the development of intellectual outputs. In the project started in October 2019, the Government Office of Békés County is also participating in the international partnership creating the former model.