Everywhere in Europe the situation is similar: They don't get diplomas, they don't get vocational educational training (VET), they don't get decent jobs. Disadvantaged youngsters with special needs, drop outs, students from poor family backgrounds, youngsters with learning disabilities or other personal, social, and behavioral problems, with low or no educational achievements have great problems after leaving school, in the transition of school to work. One reason is that they lack the required skills, another is that they often don't know how to present their strengths and their competences. Their lack of diplomas tells of their shortcomings, emphasizing what they can't do or know. To battle this the Cozima ePortfolio has been developed, an Erasmus+ project 2015-2018 which achieved a very good rating (2015-1-NL01-KA202-008830, 2015-2018). Stakeholders encouraged us to pursue our efforts. We identified more challenges in this transition stage school-work: Especially cooperation and internship handling needs improving. Employers are looking for craftsmen, gardeners, employees in sales, auxiliary persons. But are our students without diplomas the people they are looking for? Internships play a crucial role because there the students can test whether they want to do this job, and the employer can see whether the candidate is the right one for the tasks. Nevertheless the internships are often problematic, too: Students don't show up or can't cope with the demands, the employers feel underserved, communication between guides and coaches in school, employers or municipality is not efficient. Therefore, to promote the transition into VET and employment of unstable and problematic students SUSTEIN is based on a holistic approach: • ICT to make competences "visible", “presentable“, “portable“: The redesigned ePortfolio works as "transition hub". For this aim we will add tools, for instance enabling the students to present their CV in a video and monitoring the learning levels by a "traffic light"-tool. Furthermore it will be the communication platform for cooperation and internship handling. • Networking is necessary: Our partners are VET-schools, local communities, and local enterprises that will have the chance to develop cooperation structures in the course of SUSTEIN. • Training of stakeholders and promoting further dissemination by multiplier training modules and a concise guide with examples summarizing results for multiplication and dissemination in other regions, sectors, zones and for other target groups. • Focussing on internships because the problems of our target group nearly always impede them to get a place for a regular apprenticeship or a decent job directly after leaving school without a diploma. • Gathering relevant management information about the use of features and instruments of the portfolio and the satisfaction of user groups. In addition to the organisational, conceptual, and technical measures, we will carry out and document practical tests of the new system components. So our project offers innovative instruments for the progress towards employment and transfers within the VET system for vulnerable students on level 1 and 2 of the EQF (NLQF). 1. Multifunctional European ePortfolio portal that operates as 'hub' in transition processes and has proved its European quality by transferring it to 3 new countries. 2. Effective networking structures and system of transition processes for stakeholders, viz. teachers, social workers, employers. 3. Trainings (incl. material) for both ePortfolio tools and SUSTEIN network (trainings also serving as multipliers). 4. Internship instruments improving internship handling. 5. Monitoring framework for measurement of use and results. Sustein will be a 'two-speed' project: The Lithuanian, Italian, and French schools adapt and implement the ePortfolio to their needs, whereas Germany and the Netherlands that already use the Cozima ePortfolio focus on developing a Transitional System (incl. employers and local community, development of the new tools). But the common interest is implementing tools and training the users we can learn together and from each other! This makes the products and the portfolio more international applicable and outreaching. We will benefit from innovative approaches and the networking with big companies of the new partners that will be reflected in the SUSTEIN Transitional System. SUSTEIN isn’t limited to our target group, it will be of large benefit for all students, adults, or migrants who want to (re)enter the labour market. Of course, there have to be adjustments (language etc.) but the sustainability and transfer to other target groups, sectors and regions is already laid out in the design of the project (e.g. by multiplier trainings+events, networking, use of open standard ePortfolio, European standards EQF/ECVET/Europass). Our partnership consists of 8 partners from The Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, and France.
At project level, we wanted to achieve the following: broadening the number of users and the employability of the portfolio in the broader European context for the target group of young people in a vulnerable position; increasing the user-friendliness of the portfolio, implementation of the portfolio in the relationship with employers and intermediaries who help young people from this target group in their transition, especially by deploying the portfolio in the education system itself as well as during the transition to internships and work. Partners sometimes still had specific needs or goals. In Lithuania, the added value seen was that pupils learned to understand their own development better and keep track of it more easily. Digitalisation received attention from both teachers and pupils. Being able to score and measure competences and non-school knowledge and skills was important for other partners. Working with a digital portfolio makes it easy to keep track of how far students have progressed with internship assignments, LOB assignments or through questionnaires and 'never get lost', which often happens with paper assignments.
This project was requested to introduce the application of the previously developed Cozima portfolio to new European partner countries (France, Italy and Lithuania) and make it suitable for their situation. In particular, they wanted to gain experience with a digital portfolio for pupils in a vulnerable position. In addition, the focus was on using the portfolio in the relationship with employers and municipalities during internships and in the transition to work. Developing and testing new functionalities and tools (QR code, traffic light tool, uploading videos) that could promote the use of the portfolio in that context was also an important focus. This was done by the Dutch and German partners in cooperation with the developer of the Cozima portfolio. The existing Cozima partners (NL and DU) felt the need to learn from the experiences and expertise of the new partners (IT, LT and FR) in working together, especially with larger employers. Connecting education better to the labour market was also a need for all partners.