Send 26 staff to learn about approaches to QA and to IVET for young people. The groups would learn about quality culture, governance and QA systems, and improve their knowledge of QA. This would complement learning from our self-evaluations of quality. It would increase understanding of cyclical improvement and quality cycles for dispersed campuses and schools, and how improvement and quality management in that context. We wanted to investigate how curriculum and assessment were managed and to apply learning in our own system if feasible. We wanted to learn how the central QA authorities engaged with practitioners to participate in the enhancement of quality throughout the system. We wanted to revitalise staff who work with young people, through observation and comparison of programmes in the host country with their own programmes, to recognise the skills and competence of our staff who work in specialist programmes and to revitalise their interest to inform changes to practice and innovation. Through all of the planned activities, we wanted to build interest in European activity, knowledge of management and administration of activities and to develop our international strategy.
The project application was based on KWETB's strategies: providing lifelong learning and upskilling; delivering high quality learner experiences; providing relevant and innovative programmes and pathways; equality and social inclusion. This developing organisation was 3 years old, and the project was designed to contribute to team building; knowledge sharing and professional development of staff. Given the level of change in FET in Ireland at the time, the project aimed to develop new relationships and networks; to inform KWETB strategy for European activity; to promote integration of FET services in Kildare and Wicklow and to encourage innovative thinking and practice within the organisation. In this period, KWETB's role in quality assurance was changing, and a newly formed Quality Assurance Team was beginning to develop the QA system for the organisation and engagement with other organisations on this theme would contribute to the development of our systems. It has been a goal of FET services to deliver high quality programmes to young people, and opportunities to share knowledge would support the recognition of efficacy in our own programmes and support new learning about similar programmes and methodologies elsewhere.