LEVER UP aims at “Valuing informal learning and transversal competences experienced in the voluntary service to increase employability, social responsibility and mobility”. The voluntary service provides a rich non-formal and informal learning environment where people develop and practice transversal skills and acquire competences in the field. Research shows that 70-94% of adult learning is informal learning. The aim is to have these learning outcomes recognised within the reference framework of VET and to have the competences valued by companies as well. Regarding the Vocational Education and Training (VET) it means easier access, higher qualification and possibilities for exemption of (part of) a VET-path. Regarding companies, it means to provide profit and non-profit organisations with a very effective way to nurture and improve the transversal competences that may influence on both personal and business performance. For individuals, it helps people getting aware of the personal key competences and focusing on specific life opportunities in work, social life and education for personal and professional development. The experiences in volunteering and other similar non-formal contexts foster the social skills, the social inclusion and strengthen the citizenship. To value the competences acquired in such contexts according a common reference frame facilitates the mutual recognition, the employability and the mobility at local, national and international level. LEVER UP project pursues three main objectives: • The enhancement of a mutual trust area, where the partnership and the stakeholders at local and European level can share a common framework when dealing with significant transversal competences and their validation. • The development of a model able to value transversal competences in full transparency and transferability between VET, Volunteering and labor market. • The implementation of a dedicated Service, able to provide the operative infrastructure, to foster the whole system at international and national level and to run at full speed The project will carry out activities of model design, starting from the first version of the LEVER model developed in the previous project. For that, LEVER UP will open working contacts with the national and international teams linked to the ECVET, EQF and Europass, in order to highlight and define the new elements to include. Then, it will evolve and finalise the model and it will implement it into English as well as into the project languages (Italian, Spanish, Polish, Dutch and French version). The project will test and, gradually, deploy it into the real contexts, with the aim to develop a running Triangle system where VET, labor market and voluntary sector effectively interact to each other. Training will be an important activity that the project will implement in order to train the required roles of assessors, tutors and the validation centres staff. The results and outcome concern: • The LEVER evolved Model, made up of a Competence Standard and a Validation Process. The former will define the catalogue of transversal competences that volunteering can develop and labor market significantly requires. It will include the references to the EQF. The latter will define the steps and the procedure to carry out the competence validation, in full compliancy with the European guidelines for the informal and non formal learning validation (CEDEFOP, 2015), with the local/national NQF and with the ECVET system. • The LEVER toolkits, the tools at use of volunteers, tutors and assessors, developed in English, Italian, Spanish, French, Dutch and Polish. • The e-LEVER Space (e-LS), the dedicated webspace where all web applications concerning LEVER UP will be available, namely the webtool at support of the validation process, the e-learning platform, the additional features to search and match information such as the the related Open Badge and the training certifications released, the validation centres available. • The Training Service, the blended learning that will be required to become tutors, assessors and trainers. It will release Open Badge and will follow a common international policy, even if designed to be also flexibly delivered according to the local context needs. • The LEVER Service Centre, the final running service that will operate as an operative contact point to assure any aspect for an effective deployment of the LEVER system at international and national level. The main target groups addressed by the project are: - Volunteers - Voluntary service associations and their operators - Employer associations and enterprises - Training centers, teachers and schools - Certification bodiesm - Labour Policy makers - Young people, students and families Three multiplier events per country with local stakeholders will guarantee to meet the market's needs and the LEVER quality. The Final International Conference will be held in Brussels (November 2019).
How can we evaluate competences such as empathy, flexibility, and problem solving? How can we develop them? How can we make them visible in the interest of job recruiters, employers, trainers, and teachers? LEVER UP provides a model, procedures, and a wide set of tools for identifying and valuing the transversal competencies of the individuals, and that are able to show that the informal contexts, such as volunteering, can be a melting pot of practice and learning for people. It defines a framework for individuals to validate their prior learning, as well as to nurture and to empower their soft skills for the future. It also outlines a governance model for the validation service with common policies to ensure equal quality standards and mutual recognition across Europe, yet sustaining the national peculiarities. Exploiting the legacy of the previous Erasmus+ LEVER project (2014-16), LEVER UP sets the basics for a 360-degree service, in other words, a validation system shareable by multiple European countries and supporting all the aspects for a continuing service over time. As LEVER UP deals with soft and transversal competences and it aims at giving them visibility to increase employability, social responsibility and mobility, the competence framework played a key role for their valorisation in full transparency and transferability among VET, Volunteering and labour market. Various stakeholders may have different perspectives, yet they belong to the same socio-educational and economic context where individuals are the actual competence carriers in a lifelong, life-wide learning system. The learning outcome based approach and the alignment with the main EU references such as EQF made the LEVER UP frame more readable, portable, and consistent with the credits system approach (ECVET) and EU mobility tools such as EUROPASS. Nonetheless, the debate on how the soft and transversal competencies relate to the National Qualification Frameworks and can be valued in job matching platforms such as EURES is still open and in progress. The main target groups of the project were volunteers, voluntary service organisations and their staff, employers, job recruiters and employees, training providers, schools, teachers and trainers, certification bodies, labour policy makers, young people, students and families, and all citizens. For VET, competence validation means easier access, higher qualification, and possibilities for exemption of (part of) a VET-path. For companies, it means to provide profit and non-profit organisations with an effective way to improve transversal competences that may influence personal and business performances. For volunteering, giving visibility to the competencies acquired means to foster social skills, social contribution and citizenship as chances of self-empowerment as well as a way to increase the quality of volunteering. The project designed and implemented: - A model, i.e. a set of 15 transversal competences, described according to EU frameworks standards, and a multiple step validation process; - A toolkit, i.e. a set of 36 tools for LEVER UP candidates, assessors, tutors and trainers, released under a CC BY-SA 4.0 License and available online in English, Italian, Spanish, French, Polish, and Dutch; - A validation service, with clear roles and responsibilities at local, national, and international level; - A training service, i.e. an e-learning program releasing digital credentials (Open Badges) for future LEVER UP assessors, tutors, and trainers; - A digital space, i.e. the LEVER UP Webtool, a web application for service centres to manage the validation of assessors, tutors, and candidates, and the e-learning platform, with training contents and the features for releasing the Open Badges; - A governance model, outlined in a Memorandum of Understanding defining how to join the LEVER UP system within common policies that make it work transparently at local, national and international level. LEVER UP approach and its outputs were tested in pilots and other activities. In 2019, about 300 people were involved in the training and about 600 candidates went through the competence validation process all over Europe. About dissemination, LEVER UP reached more than 340 people with its 3 sets of multiplier events. The project was also selected as good practice in relevant international events such as the 3rd VPL Biennale (Berlin, May 2019), the ECVET Annual Forum (Rotterdam, June 2019), the 1st Validation Festival (Brussels, June 2018), and EQF Advisory Group Peer Learning Activity (Brussels, January 2019). There, it presented the approach and the results, enlarging its audience to other EU and non-EU countries. LEVER UP organised the final conference in Brussels in November 2019, jointly with the CEV Autumn Volunteering Congress. It was the last official event for the project to continue and nurture the debate at the presence of highly representative stakeholders and EU policy makers.