PROJECT DESCRIPTION

PROJECT DESCRIPTION
There is a great preoccupation in Europe for promoting quality and modernization of the education and training systems. The Lisbon goal to create a knowledge-driven economy and to recognise the vital role that education must play in order to attain it, brings new challenges to the status of all education facilitators (trainers, teachers, mentors, tutors, etc.).

In line with the U.E. policies, this project aims to create a high quality on-line guidance service for trainers, with a definite European dimension. This service, based on one-to- one “virtual meeting” between ETCoaches and trainer will be implemented on a dedicated support of videoconference over the Internet.

In designing this service, there will be taken into consideration: the build of a Competence Development System for ETCoaches (those who deliver this service) based on the results of a transnational analysis, the creation of a ETCoaches Operating Manual and Procedures, designed on an Internet site, and all the additional services, in order to ensure the high quality of the ETCoaching Service. The Competence Development System will be tested and evaluated in 7 Centres (7 countries). In the final part of the ETCS.FC there will be elaborated recommendations upon the quality certification procedures.

Turning to this service, the trainers (as main target) will make sure that a qualified person is standing by their side to guide them on competence achievement, to help them to better tailor what they’ve learned in their context, to “observe” their performance, to give them a professional feedback and to help them consolidate their self-esteem and commitment to the career development process.

From that perspective, the ETCS major aim is to contribute to the creation of a Europe of Education and Training through a guidance service, will increase the awareness of lifelong learning in a changing environment among trainers as well as stimulating them to attend different forms of education and guidance and also to promote and encourage the European Training Vocational Spirit.

In structuring the trans-national partnership we’ve taken into consideration the partners’ work experience in spreading out European Community projects, and expertise in the field of vocational education and training. There are 12 institutions from 7 countries, all quality dedicated partners: Elite Training – Romania; THE EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION FOR VOCATIONAL AND SOCIAL EDUCATION (EBG) – Germany, CITY COLLEGE NORWICH – UK; ASAEL - Spain; A.S.E. – Greece; CENTER SPIRALA – Slovenia, BCCI – Bulgaria, EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN FOUNDATION – Romania, FOREIGN INVESTORS’ COUNCIL – Romania, THE RESOURCES AND INFORMATION CENTRE FOR SOCIAL PROFESSIONS (C.R.I.P.S) – Romania, AIESEC ROMANIA – Romania, COUNTY COUNCIL BUZĂU – Romania.
Project Organization will take into consideration the implementation of a Work Breakdown Structure in sixteen distinctive work packages, which will provide the means for obtaining tangible and easy-to-evaluate results.

OBJECTIVES AND TARGET GROUP

a. Main Target Group
ETCS’s target group is represented by the vocational trainers – “the ones that aim to equip people with skills and competences that can be used on the labour market”. We find them in specialized training & development companies or employed within firms and organizations in all sectors of economy. The need to develop abilities, to achieve new competences, determines the increasing number of trainers. Practically, any organization with a performance standard has a training department or requests the services of a specialized outsider.
However, there is no intent to limit this service to a certain category of trainers, as any learning facilitator, including teachers are potential users.
Nevertheless, the project aims first of all at implementing the Euro Trainers Coaching Service in 7 centres from 7 countries. Therefore, the trainers from these countries will be the first ones to benefit from it. Once tested and evaluated on the target groups here, the service may extend to other countries as well. Also, the project will directly involve the target groups throughout its entire lifecycle.
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b.The Needs Addressed by the Project
Undoubtedly, the success of a training program depends on trainer’s capacity to involve and to motivate his trainees in developing the necessary competences for their performance. In this respect, the trainer must be informed, motivated and strongly determined in exceeding his/her own limits.
His competences are increasingly challenged by the technological transformations and the alert learning pace of people nowadays. In particular, the technical ability of using ICT technology in material preparation, pedagogical skills for a much more dynamic presentation of the course, are considered real stepping stones for most of the trainers.
Books, guidebooks, magazines, articles, etc. published on this subject, are sure helping a lot. An abundance of courses, in-class or ODL, more or less dedicated to training the trainers are on the market.
Despite that, building and maintaining a certain level of training competences is still raising problems for most of them. No matter where they were trained, there are 2 problems that they are dealing with: “it is difficult for me to apply this on my trainees” or “it is still not the time to change my methods: they are still working”.
Researches’ reports indicate some of the “responsible” causes:
- The trainer has a unique set of needs. No matter what type of course: built by an institution or by him-self, the trainer wishes to highlight its unique character. Undoubtedly, the unique character is one of success’ ingredients. Each course is unique in its own way. However the trainer wants to emphasize this unique character in order to satisfy his need for safety and for status. For these reasons, he has the tendency to adapt his training methods to his own style, thus not always focusing on the various learning styles of the trainees.
- Needs for certain competences are not always visible from inside. Every person, by nature, has a problem when tries to evaluate himself/herself. In the same way, sometimes it’s quite difficult for a trainer to assess what is the specific competence he needs at a time, and then to set an action plan in order to achieve it. A person from outside has better chances for a more accurate and objective evaluation.
- The knowledge achieved from “training the trainers” courses or expertise materials are difficult to be transferred into practice. The trainer doesn’t always know how to practically apply and adapt what he learns or reads; he needs a considerate amount of time to evaluate the results and it’s not always certain of success. Most of the times, the only feedback he receives is from his trainees, which is vital but not enough to trust that what he is doing is correct. This effort to adapt the methods and the assessed knowledge can decrease the success of his programs.
- The trainers’ commitment to the modernization of their pedagogical system is quite low. Many remain loyal to the traditional practices: they validated them, they obtained results through them and in most of the cases, they got used to them. The new resources offered by ICT in education can create frustrations and consequently determine difficulties in adapting. That’s why the trainer doesn’t always know how to set his own development objectives.
Thus, a trainer that experiences such problems, needs a professional on-to-one guidance service, that will:
1. help the trainer to acknowledge his/her weak points in instruction and the lacking of competences. (Diagnostic Function)
2. help the trainer to identify the best way to solve his/her problems. (Guidance Function)
3. help the trainer to extract the best out of what he/she learns; to extract the essential and adapt it for own concrete needs (Facilitation Function)
4. continuously monitor and evaluate his/her learning and competence achievement process, adapting as well the learning plan to his/her concrete needs (Monitoring Function)
5. support their self-esteem and the commitment to the competence achievement process. (Reinforcing Function)
This is not a need for consulting, counselling or tutoring. This is a need for... COACHING. There are a lot of consulting companies offering executive coaching services across Europe, that have proved to be extremely effective. Nevertheless, there are much too expensive (esp. for trainers) and only few of them are addressed to trainers’ needs.
c. Project’s Specific Aims
The specific aim of the project is to create a high quality on-line guidance service for trainers – Euro Trainers Coaching Service, capable of helping them in the competences development process and consequently raising their chances in delivering successful courses programs. This service will be mainly based on:
a) Professional Staff in Service Delivering. In this respect, a highly specialized team of experts from 4 countries, grouped in a R&D Network (under the coordination of EBG Germany) will conduct a comprehensive analysis of competencies requirements for ETCoaches, and will elaborate an Inventory, that will stay at the ground of the Competence Development System for ETCoaches. This will mainly comprise:
b) High Quality Operating Procedures. According to the service quality criteria, there will be issued an ETCoaches Operating Manual and Procedures, also in R&D Network.
c) Innovative Web-based Supporting Platform. The ETCoaching service will be delivered on videoconference via Internet. So, a highly specialized platform will be developed for supporting ETCoaching Service, and will be placed on a dedicated videoconference server on site.
d) Reliable Customer Support Services. Building an on-line European Directory of Chartered ETCoaches for trainers’ references, a newsletter server, a customer support service and many other facilities, that will enhance the quality of the service.

d. The Program’s Objectives and the Call’s Priority addressed by the project
The ETCS major aims will be:
- Enhancing the efficiency of the European vocational system through a guidance service that will :
§ Fill in the gap between the traditional training for trainers and the new requirements for increasing the quality and competitiveness of the European vocational training and guidance system.
§ Facilitate the process of achieving new competencies for trainers and teachers
§ Help trainers and teachers to consolidate their professional status, to acknowledge the major role they play in developing skills in economy and society in general.
- To increase chances of success for trainers in implementing programs with a high quality and attractiveness level.
- Contribute to the development of innovative counselling and guiding approaches within the European vocational system.
- Promote and encourage a strong cooperation between European education institutions involved in trainers and teachers training, thus raising training standards in general
- Built a quality model for training, education and recruitment policies for vocational trainers, that will attract through its flexibility people with different background and experience, yet with high standards for skills and knowledge (especially pedagogical and ICT)
The ETCS project will focus on developing a flexible, innovative, highly specialized web-based service for trainers, which will definitely contribute at promoting and developing the existing training and vocational guidance systems, with a view of improving training competencies.

Thus, the Objectives and Priorities set forth in the Call of Proposals that ETCS.FC is addressing, are:

Objective 2: To improve the quality of, and access to, continuing vocational training and the lifelong acquisition of skills and competencies with a view to increasing and developing adaptability, particularly in order to consolidate technological and organisational change
Priority 4 – Teachers and Trainers: continuous training of teachers and trainers – new teaching and learning methods challenge the traditional roles and responsibilities of teachers, trainers and other learning facilitators. There is, therefore, a strong need to develop their training to ensure that they are ready and motivated to face the new challenges. The exchange of experience between schools, voluntary organisations, universities and companies should provide insight into learning needs in this area.
Proposal that will contribute to :
- Identifying new skills and competences for VET teachers, trainers and other learning facilitators essential in a lifelong learning context (i.e. guidance and counselling and work based learning methodology)
- Developing innovative training opportunities for teachers and trainers taking into account their specific and methodological needs.

In addition, the ETCoaching service developed within the project, will create the basis for enhancing the European Vocational System, through dynamism and flexibility, and therefore, will encourage the expression of competitiveness within a continuously changing environment.

e. Original contribution to existing European and national vocational training systems and practices
Executive coaching service is not by itself an innovation in Europe. Several private consultancy companies provide such services, especially for companies’ executives, and have proved excellent results. What has an innovative character is the target group whom it addresses: the trainers. Such a guidance service, tailor-made on their needs, may help them in the personal development process, raising this way the chances of success in implementing their training programs. A trainer, as other professional categories, needs guidance in competences development and a professional feedback to be sure of the quality of his performance. Another innovative aspect is the educational service itself. One of the priorities on European Education is to develop for all learning facilitators (trainers, teachers) “their training to ensure that they are ready and motivated to face new challenges”. In this respect, many initiatives develop training for trainers programs (in class, on-line, etc) as well as mobility actions (experience exchange) between various education institutions.
By creating an educational service – Euro Coaching, with a definite European dimension, consisting of several functions (guidance, facilitating, reinforcement, etc), it can additionally support the trainers’ need for training in compliance with the European requirements.
Finally, a technological innovation may be considered the use of videoconference as support for these consultancy services, which makes the instrument extremely flexible and easy to use, being therefore available no matter the physical distance between the coach and his client. The possibility to use at large scale the communication over the Internet is certainly a great challenge, and must represent a stepping stone in offering high quality educational services.

ΠΕΡΙΓΡΑΦΗ ΤΟΥ ΣΧΕΔΙΟΥ

Υπάρχει μεγάλη κινητοποίηση στην Ευρώπη για την προώθηση της ποιότητας και του εκσυγχρονισμού των συστημάτων εκπαίδευσης και κατάρτισης. Ο στόχος της Λισσαβόνας να δημιουργήσει μια οικονομία καθοδηγούμενη από τη γνώση και να αναγνωρίσει το ζωτικό ρόλο που πρέπει να διαδραματίσει η εκπαίδευση προκειμένου να το επιτύχει, φέρνει νέες προκλήσεις για την κατάσταση όλων των φορέων εκπαίδευσης (εκπαιδευτές, εκπαιδευτικοί, σύμβουλοι, επιμορφωτές, κ.τ.λ.)

Σε συμφωνία με τις κοινοτικές πολιτικές, το σχέδιο αυτό στοχεύει στη δημιουργία μιας υψηλής ποιότητας on-line υπηρεσίας καθοδήγησης για εκπαιδευτές, με μια ξεκάθαρη ευρωπαϊκή διάσταση. Αυτή η υπηρεσία, βασισμένη σε «εικονική συνεδρίαση ένας προς έναν» μεταξύ των Ευρωπαίων Εμψυχωτών Κατάρτισης (ETCoaches) και του εκπαιδευτή θα υλοποιηθεί με την υποστήριξη τηλεδιάσκεψης μέσω του Διαδικτύου.

Στο σχεδιασμό αυτής της υπηρεσίας θα ληφθούν υπόψη: η κατασκευή ενός Συστήματος Ανάπτυξης Ικανοτήτων για Ευρωπαίους Εμψυχωτές Κατάρτισης (EΤCoaches, αυτοί που θα παρέχουν την υπηρεσία) βασισμένη στα αποτελέσματα μιας διεθνικής ανάλυσης, η δημιουργία ενός εγχειριδίου Λειτουργίας και Διαδικασιών για ETCoaches, αποτυπωμένο σε έναν ιστοχώρο του διαδικτύου, και όλες οι συμπληρωματικές υπηρεσίες, έτσι ώστε να εξασφαλιστεί η υψηλή ποιότητα της υπηρεσίας ETCoaching. Το Σύστημα Ανάπτυξης Ικανοτήτων θα ελεγχθεί και θα αξιολογηθεί σε 7 κέντρα (7 ευρωπαϊκές χώρες). Στο τελικό μέρος του σχεδίου θα διαμορφωθούν συστάσεις σχετικές με τις διαδικασίες ποιοτικής πιστοποίησης.

Όταν οι εκπαιδευτές (ως κύρια ομάδα-στόχος) στρέφονται στην υπηρεσία αυτή θα βεβαιώνονται ότι ένα καταρτισμένο πρόσωπο στέκεται στο πλευρό τους για να τους καθοδηγεί στην απόκτηση ικανοτήτων, να τους βοηθά να προσαρμόσουν καλύτερα αυτό που έμαθαν στα πλαίσια κατάρτισής τους, να «παρατηρεί» την απόδοσή τους, να τους παρέχει επαγγελματική ανατροφοδότηση και να τους βοηθά να παγιώσουν τον αυτοσεβασμό και τη δέσμευσή τους στη διαδικασία ανάπτυξης της σταδιοδρομίας τους.

Από αυτή την πλευρά, ο κύριος στόχος της ETCS είναι να συνεισφέρει στη δημιουργία μιας Ευρώπης της Εκπαίδευσης και της Κατάρτισης μέσω μιας υπηρεσίας καθοδήγησης, που θα αυξήσει την συνειδητοποίηση για την δια βίου μάθηση σε ένα περιβάλλον που αλλάζει μεταξύ των εκπαιδευτών, θα τους παρακινήσει ώστε να παρακολουθήσουν διαφορετικές μορφές εκπαίδευσης και καθοδήγησης, καθώς επίσης θα προωθήσει και θα ενθαρρύνει το Ευρωπαϊκό Πνεύμα της Επαγγελματικής Κατάρτισης.

Στη δημιουργία της διεθνικής συνεργασίας έχει ληφθεί υπόψη η επαγγελματική εμπειρία των εταίρων στη διάδοση των σχεδίων της Ευρωπαϊκής Κοινότητας, και η πείρα στον τομέα της επαγγελματικής εκπαίδευσης και κατάρτισης. Υπάρχουν 12 ιδρύματα από 7 χώρες, όλοι εταίροι αφοσιωμένοι στην ποιότητα: Elite Training – Ρουμανία, ΕΥΡΩΠΑΪΚΟΣ ΟΡΓΑΝΙΣΜΟΣ ΕΠΑΓΓΕΛΜΑΤΙΚΗΣ ΚΑΙ ΚΟΙΝΩΝΙΚΗΣ ΕΚΠΑΙΔΕΥΣΗΣ (EBG) - Γερμανία, CITY COLLEGE NORWICH - UK, ASAEL - Ισπανία, A.S.E. - Ελλάδα, CENTER SPIRALA - Σλοβενία, BCCI - Βουλγαρία, ΙΔΡΥΜΑ ΙΣΩΝ ΕΥΚΑΙΡΙΩΝ ΓΙΑ ΤΙΣ ΓΥΝΑΙΚΕΣ - Ρουμανία, ΣΥΜΒΟΥΛΙΟ ΞΕΝΩΝ ΕΠΕΝΔΥΤΩΝ - Ρουμανία, ΚΕΝΤΡΟ ΠΛΗΡΟΦΟΡΗΣΗΣ ΓΙΑ ΚΟΙΝΩΝΙΚΑ ΕΠΑΓΓΕΛΜΑΤΑ (C.R.I.P.S) - Ρουμανία, AIESEC ROMANIA - Ρουμανία, ΝΟΜΑΡΧΙΑΚΟ ΣΥΜΒΟΥΛΙΟ BUZĂU - Ρουμανία.
Η οργάνωση του σχεδίου θα λάβει υπόψη την εφαρμογή μιας Δομής Επιμερισμού Εργασιών σε δεκαέξι επιμέρους στάδια (workpackages), τα οποία θα παρέχουν τα μέσα για τη λήψη απτών και εύκολων να αξιολογηθούν αποτελεσμάτων.