Co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union
The project has been created as an answer to the growing needs for social, economic and educational integration of the refugees fleeing to the European countries during the last few years. The massive and continuing internal and external displacement of people, especially from Middle Eastern and Northern African countries, has had enormous social, economic and political consequences in these regions, derailing their development path and affecting the growth gains previously achieved. Based on the conclusions of the Council of Europe and the Action Plan on Building Inclusive Societies (2016-2019), the response to the refugees’ crisis is planned to be implemented based on 3 main pillars; the first and most important is the pillar of Education which stresses that focus should be given on (1) Language skills as an engine for integration, (2) Recognizing qualifications held by migrants and refugees, (3) Access to education for migrant and refugee children and young people.
The aim of this Project is to develop transparency, recognition and validation of skills and qualifications held by refugeesb>, based on the implementation of the above mentioned measures in Belgium, Greece, Iceland, Italy and Sweden. Consequently, this will make it easier to study and work in the host countries, leading to further social inclusion and integration.
The project also aims to support and implement existing tools such as the European Qualifications Framework (EQF), the European Credit system for Vocational Education and Training (ECVET), the European Inventory on Validation, the Europass and other Credit Systems and Quality Assurance mechanisms, and add value to them.
Hence, our main objective is to analyze and plan the terms for the valid recognition of the skills and qualifications previously held by refugees and migrantsb>, to make them more coherent and easier to use, and to ensure a stronger focus on the needs of pupils, students, workers, employers, and society as a whole.
The partnership has been brought together to form a cohesive consortium in which each partner will complement each other in terms of expertise, skills and knowledge, as well as in terms of operational and functional background. It is established in the base of common objectives and contributions, and in the fact that most of the partners have successfully cooperated in the past in joint projects.
is a Higher Education Institute in Flanders renowned for the high quality of its teaching, research and development activities, and it is extremely experienced as well, having lead/participated in more than 15 EU projects in the last 3 years.
from Greece is an experienced European organization and also acts as an adult education and VET provider in and outside its region.
from Iceland is an education provider and equality promoter organization; through its actions it helps refugees, migrants, disabled persons and other discriminated groups of people of the society with language learning and various forms of integration training schemes.
from Sweden is a nationwide study association that involves foreign-born Swedes and refugees to learn about the language, culture and traditions of the country, as well as about the social services and structures that are available in Sweden and can help them to adapt in the new environment.
from Italy promotes the empowerment of young people through the creation of opportunities for educational and professional development for all, with the goal to achieve a union between local development and social inclusion in the European context.
Studying and researching over ECVET (European Credit system for Vocational Education and Training) and APL (Assessment of Prior Learning) in VET organizations and HEI (Higher Education Institutions) aims at the improvement of the effectiveness of teachers’ VET educational capacity for refugees’ integrationb> in particular. This effectiveness is achieved by increasing accessibility to and flexibility of formal learning schemes, as well as promoting participation in lifelong learning processes by providing teachers with opportunities to enrol in personalized study schedules.
Primary Literature Research in each country: includes the research about the current situation in each partner country in the field of VET and HEI planning and actions and about the existing educational schemes. Each partner will prepare a short report based on the implemented research where they will present (1) Lifelong processes and procedures in the country, (2) Teachers’ requirements, (3) Social science and its development, (4) Teachers’ assessment procedure.
Methodology assessment of VET teachers' and HEI professors' prior learning based on “donors”, aiming at the presentation of best practices of teachers’ VET competences and methodology from each participating country. The “donors” are organizations that had implemented 17 teachers’ trainings in the field of integration in the past, and accept to be examined by the project.
Online Questionnaires for assessment of best practices of VET teachers and HEI professors will be prepared using online survey tools (i.e. EU Survey). The questionnaires will include 20-30 questions connected with the best practices in teaching and in learners’ recognition of skills and the methods of their assessment. The questions will be separated in 4 main sections (A) Evaluating the personal development (Personal self-evaluation competencies; Communication competencies; Activity and behaviour reflection competencies; Own activity evaluation and development competencies; Information technologies usage competencies), (B) Planning, delivering and developing of curriculum (Evaluating the teaching modules’ content planning competencies; Teaching modules teaching competencies; Teaching modules achievements assessment competencies; Teaching modules programme development competencies), (C) Designing of vocational teaching programmes (Evaluation of labour market situation competencies; Vocational teaching programme development competencies), and (D) Development of educational centre/institution and education system (Evaluating the competencies of organizational development within the school; Extracurricular educational system development competencies).
The training modules where created and planned according to the task description. The Swedish partner Medborgarskolan has been teaching Swedish for asylum seekers since 2015 mainly as a result of the crisis in Syria. As a way of preparing the immigrants for integration into the Swedish society, whilst waiting for their application to be granted, the Swedish authority Länsstyrelsen, created a Study plan to help Swedish teaching organisations plan their language courses for the newcomers.
Based on this study plan, a lesson plan was created. Both documents are available in the partner language. The download link can be find below.
The overall aim of this activity is to inform the target groups about the available learning tools and initiatives in each country, and to enhance their awareness in order to be able to participate and integrated into the host countries. This will be achieved through the preparation of specific brochures regarding each country, which will help inform about and incorporate the learners in innovative learning systems, webinars, coaching and mentoring schemes taking place in their region.
This report is a methodological roadmap that could add value to the practices either of the learning, teaching, training schemes of the partner organizations of “WELKOM”, or of other organizations that implement similar learning, teaching and training activities.this Report’s structure begins with the presentation of the (four of the five) partners’ collected results of assessment processes and schemes in their respective countries (Belgium, Sweden, Italy and Greece), and continues with the aim to provide a theoretical background and presentation of the methodological guidelines for designing assessment of learning outcomes procedures to be utilized by various stakeholders, based on EQF, ECVET, ECTS and other standards.
Collaborating partners that signed the Memorandum of Understanding.
This report discusses the results of the literature research and survey that were conducted in each participating country. These results shed some light on existing assessment methodologies with their potential gaps as well as some best practices. The report ends with a proposition for a methodology in assessment of prior learning (APL) that is uniform and transparent to use for education providers.
The overall aim of Exchange Of Experience with External VET and HEI was to contact the Universities, VET centres and educational institutes from the 5 target countries, and get information from their experience in order to exchange best practices and develop a common policy blueprint on the recognition of diplomas and educational level of the refugees. Through a questionnaire we asked for information regarding procedures in order to be able to evaluate their respective level based on the European Union scheme and as result of this activity is a report based on their answers of the foreign VET and HEI.
To support the recognition of non-formal and formal education qualifications and skills held by the refugees, this project compared 10 different education systems from selected countries of refugees. The education system of the foreign country is compared to the project partners' national Qualification Framework. These comparisons are based upon the comparisons the Nuffic made. Nuffic is the Dutch organisation for internationalisation in education.
Visit the website of the Nuffic to find more information on foreign education systems.
