Platform Urban Greening Contributes to EQAVET Peer Learning Activity

The European Platform for Urban Greening, was one of the CoVE projects that contributed and attended the EQAVET Peer Learning Activity on ‘Quality Assurance in Centres of Vocational Excellence (CoVE)’, which took place on 7-8 October 2021, online.

This first meeting, bringing together the EQAVET National reference Points and some of the Erasmus+ funded CoVE projects, proved to be very useful and identified areas for further cooperation.

Our Quality Assurance Strategy: Measuring Adjusting Progress

On behalf of the European Platform for Urban Greening, Georgiana Mincu shared our Quality Assurance strategy as good practice, which received enthusiastic responses from the other PLA participants.

Our project has developed its own quality assurance strategy with specific QA tools and indicators for each of their 9 Work Packages (WP). The strategy follows the Deming circle logic: plan/do/check(study)/act(adjust) at the level of outputs/deliverables (set in the project application), but also focuses on outcomes (intermediate to long term effect sat the target groups levels) and processes (how the outputs lead to outcomes).

Outputs measurement (deliverables, immediate results of our actions= effects that are in the direct control of the project partners)
- related especially to efficiency & efficacy at the project management level;
- should be set up early on in the project development phase
Outcomes measurements (intermediate to long term effects = effects that can be influenced by the project but not controlled)
- related especially to relevance & coherence at the target group level;
- should be set up early on (in the planning phase), and refined in the implementation phase (specific to each work package).
Process measurements (methods used to influence how outputs lead to relevant outcomes
- especially related to premises for sustainability & impact;
- mostly defined with the team, in relation to other WPs.

Each WP team (under the coordination of a WP leader, and supported by central project management team) uses specific indicators for the planning, implementation, and evaluation, to assess progress and success and make adjustments, where needed.

The EQAVET Indicators of High Relevance for COVEs

The EQAVET Framework includes 10 indicators that can be used to measure quality of VET. Out of the ten EQAVET indicators, three seem to be of particular relevance in the context of CoVE:

Indicator 5: Placement rate in VET programmes:

destination of VET learners at a designated point in time after completion of training, according to the type of programme and the individual criteria;
share of employed learners at a designated point in time after completion of training, according to the type of programme and the individual criteria.

As part of their QA arrangements, a CoVE could explore:

To what extent does the CoVE approach (collaborating with a wide range of local stakeholders in co-creating skills ecosystems for local innovation, regional development, and social inclusion) support VET graduates in finding a job?
What is the concrete impact of their approach and how can this be measured?

Indicator 6: Utilisation of acquired skills at the workplace:

information on occupation obtained by individuals after completion of training, according to type of training and individual criteria;
satisfaction rate of individuals and employers with acquired skills/competences.

As part of their QA arrangements, CoVEs could:

develop and apply measures to monitor this over time;
investigate the extent to which graduates have acquired the necessary competences to identify any upskilling needs themselves.

Indicator 9: Mechanisms to identify training needs in the labour market:

information on mechanisms set up to identify changing demands at different levels;
evidence of the use of such mechanisms and their effectiveness.

As part of their QA arrangements, CoVEs could:

develop and apply in collaboration with their national and international partners skills intelligence methods that continuously support them in keeping their VET offer responsive to changing demands.

Lessons Learnt And Next Steps

It was discussed that due to the complexity of the CoVE concept, setting up QA in CoVE projects and networks is multi-layered:

Firstly, CoVEs consist of individual organisations (organisation level). Each organisation will need to have a quality management system in place that CoVEs their services.
Secondly, CoVEs are networks with local regional, and international. These networks can be viewed a new ‘supra-organisation’ that can be quality assured as well (project level).
Thirdly, CoVE goals include concepts like innovation, regional development, and skills ecosystems, that might require further operationalisation, g., by developing specific quality descriptors as well as indicators to measure progress.

Most QA concepts and tools in the education and training context (including the EQAVET Framework) do not yet include such descriptors and indicators: they could potentially be introduced as new standards of excellence in VET.

Continuous exchange of information and experiences should take place. This could include Peer Reviews among CoVEs, exchange of good practices, instruments, results, lessons learned, updates; using synergies; possibly through the CoVE Community of Practice, as well as the future CoVE Support services.