Focusing on the voice of users of education, training and employment services

1
Focusing on the voice of users of education,
training and employment services

• María Kristín Gylfadóttir,
• Leader, Leonardo Thematic Monitoring Group 1
• Program Manager, Leonardo National Agency, Iceland

2
BACKGROUND TO THEMATIC MONITORING

• What is Leonardo thematic monitoring?
• Aim
• To increase the visibility of the Leonardo da
  Vinci vocational education programme across 31
  European countries
• To exchange information and knowledge between
  experts, policy makers and practitioners
• To support the mainstreaming of results and
  findings of projects into national and European
  VET structures and systems

3
THEMATIC MONITORING WORK

• Five thematic monitoring groups
• VET and the labour market, guidance and other
  specific target groups
• Development of competencies and skills within
  companies, SMEs, competences at sectoral level
• Quality of VET systems and practices, continuous
  training of teachers and trainers
• Transparency of qualifications, validation of
  formal and informal learning, credit transfer
• E-learning
• Aim of work within theme 1
• Highlight the role of VET in promoting labour
  market and social integration
• Promote education as a wheel to social inclusion
  and employment
• Remove barriers by creating open learning
  environments and flexible approaches to learning

4
THEMATIC MONITORING GROUP 1
5
AIMS OF CONFERENCE

• Highlight the role of the user in guidance
  services
• Set the context for discussion on user
  involvement
• Examine products and national examples that have
  user invlovement

6
PREPARATIONS FOR CONFERENCE

• Review of recent policy documents
• Council Resolution on Guidance Throughout Life
  (2004)
• Improving Lifelong Guidance Policies and Systems
  unsing Common European Reference Tools (Cedefop
  2005)
• Involving the Users of Guidance Services in
  Policy Development (Helen Plant, The Guidance
  Council, UK, 2006)
• Key policy priorities
• The development of quality assurance mechanisms
  for guidance services....particularly from a
  citizen/consumer perspective
• Strengthening of structures for policy and
  systems development by involving appropriate key
  players
• Common European Reference tools for lifelong
  learning guidance (LLP)
• Common aims and principles, common reference
  points for quality assurance systems, and key
  features of LLP
• These stressed
• The centrality of the beneficiary
• The right of redress
• The involvement of users in quality assurance
  systems
• Citizen-centred features of LLP systems

7
ANALYSIS OF GUIDANCE PROJECTS

• 94 Leonardo guidance projects and project
  outcomes analysed by 3 Finnish experts
• Qualitative approach
• Sources of criteria for analysis
• The Council Resolution
• The Common EU Reference Tools
• Criteria for analysis
• The principles of guidance provision
• Methods used to determine user needs
• Citizen and user involvement in quality assurance
  systems for guidance

8
OBSERVATIONS FROM PROJECT ANALYSIS
9
FIVE BEST PRACTICE GUIDANCE STUDIES

• PPS - Personal Profile and Support
• ICTEM, Integrated Counselling, Training and
  Employment Method
• Friskie EU developing a model and methods for
  tutoring social skills in vocational education
  through peer group activities
• VOGS Vocational guidance standard model for
  deaf people in Europe
• Workplace Guidance for Lower-Paid Workers

10
KEY RESULTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

• Recommendations from plenary sessions
• Content and pedagogy of both initial and
  continuing training of guidance practitioners
  should take into account how to include users and
  potential users in the design, implementation,
  and evaluation of guidance services
• Collection and sharing of best practice examples
  of user involvement in a systematic and
  structured way at EU and national levels
• Need to find a way for LLG projects to support
  the work of the new European LLG Policy Network

11
KEY RESULTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

• Recommendations from the workshops
• Reaching out to users and potential users
• counsellor attitude and behavior
• improved access to services
• Making guidance services user friendly
• visibility of guidance services
• user friendly approaches
• Involving users in the design, monitoring and
  evaluation of services
• user forums
• change of attitude of practitioners
• involvement of users at all stages of project
  development
• highlight theme of user involvement at EU,
  national, regional and local level
• Improving practitioner attitudes and guidance
  systems through learning
• improved attitudes to users
• development of workplace guidance provision
• share leanring and good examples of practice

12
IDENTIFIED MECHANISMS AND METHODS

• The proceedings highlighted a significant gap
  between the provision
• and practice of guidance and EU and national
  policies for active
• Citizenship and the reform of the public
  services.
• There is still little evidence of users and
  potential users of guidance services
• and products having a voice in
• Providing feedback on existing services and
  products and in the development of new services
• Shaping lifelong guidance policies
• Developing delivery systems, services, and
  products that are meaningful to users

13
KEY MESSAGE FROM PARTICIPANTS

• the theme of user involvement needs to be
  highlighted and made more explicit at EU,
  national, regional, local and institutional
  levels. There is also a need to develop more
  concrete and specific recommendations and tools
  for involving users that could be applied at
  national level and taken into consideration
  national contexts