Report of the second meeting in the United Kingdom: Derbyshire
Second project meeting Qualifying on the Spot (QUOTS)
Monday 16th March – Wednesday 18th March 2009, inclusive
Participants:
Rijn IJssel – Regional Educational Centre Arnhem, NL:
Henry Soyer and Jaqueline Bijlsma
Omnia - The Joint Authority of Education in Espoo Region, FI:
Sirkka Wiman , Eeva Hellsten and Eeva-Riitta Kangasmetsä
Minster Development Centre Ltd
Christine Lester, Allan Clare, Kenneth Lester.
Vocational School Carlos III Carthagena, ES:
Conchita Fraga, and Paloma Calvet
Venue
The main location of the meeting was Waterside Croft, Carsington Water, Derbyshire. It was decided for financial reasons and for the group to experience a part of England which is not normally available for thee purposes. The location included a Leisure Activities Centre, nature and wildlife conservation, and an exhibition of water conservation. The Leisure Centre is owned and managed by Seven Trent Water Limited. The experience also included a visit by mini-bus to Pensnett, Dudley, West Midlands to a Social Business Partnership (charity) including a printing company which trains and employs the physically challenged members of the community.
We also hosted a presentation by Allan Clare on the Accreditation of Prior Achievement which he carries out for the Hospitality and Catering Industry.
Monday – 16th March
Welcome
The meeting was opened by Christine Lester – Chief Executive of Minster Development Centre – the delegates having been collected by mini-bus from Birmingham International Airport. She explained the reasoning behind the booking of the cottage, the housekeeping arrangements, the programme of activities etc.
Introduction and agreement on the agenda.
Household issues
Introducing ourselves, where we are now with QOTS, our Institutions and our project.
Mr. Allan Clare – introduced his background in the Hospitality and Catering Industry; and his powerpoint presentation on how APA is practised in his industry; how he works with companies on their training, using examples of how he maps a client’s application for APA from each level of National Vocational Qualification; This was followed by question and answer session; including how Minster Development Centre works with companies strategically to create a vision of how APA “fits” as a tool into this process. She referred to diverse types of organisations from a Cathedral and Diocese, to a Local Authority, A Social Business Partnership and a large organisation responsible for recruitment and selection through the United Kingdom.
PowerPoint Presentation: Allan Clare's APL APA pp.ppt
LUNCH at Carsington Water Leisure Centre;
Marketing & Selling APA to Government Bodies, corporates and small to medium enterprises:
We looked at “changing mindsets” as to the relevance of APA in to-days climate of global meltdown; issues such as mobility between the European partners; how we can achieve a common approach when there are differences of vocational levels in each country, i.e. a level 3 in one country is not equivalent throughout all countries; how Europe will create a level playing field. Issues of quality control within the different countries’ framework and a continuance of the issues raised by the presentation earlier in the day.
We also touched on the changes which will come within the United Kingdom when the Learning & Skills Councils (who presently have responsibility for learning and development) are superceded in 2010 onwards by local authorities – who it is anticipated will have little or no knowledge of APA and its benefits.
Jaqueline Bijlsma (Rijn IJssel) presented a powerpoint presentation of the Company Service Point at Rijn Ijssel together with a case study Rijn IJssel cooperation with companies to achieve tailor made training.ppt
Presentation Sirkka Wiman, Omnia Finland, Co-operation with Companies
Presentation Conchita Fraga, Carlos III, plans for APL in Spain:
Evening:
The group departed by mini-bus for a traditional British pub meal in a local village.
Tuesday 16th March
Morning Workshop:
Before departing on the planned visit we looked at tasks which needed to be allocated following the loss of partners at the approval stage. We need to look at EQF; replacement the SME context which would have been delivered by the German partner, Researching APA in the United Kingdom and the status of the project as at 01.08.08.
Visit to Dudley Social Business Partnership:
Christine Lester explained the relationship between Minster and Dudley SBP, in that she is Chairman of the Trustees of the Partnership and has been in this position for 3 years now. She originally came across a piece of research which had been undertaken by Dudley SBP and a Midlands University; contacted Mrs. BarbaraKiely to explore how the two organisations might work together.
It was identified early in the relationship that the Trust needed a strategic review and a clear vision of what they were trying to achieve; their individuality and where they belonged in the national vision. Part of this strategic review was to identify the skills and attributes of the management team of Dudley Social Business Partnership and we used the APA process to achieve this. This identified their future needs in terms of their own personal development and their ability to grow the business.
Dudley Social Business Partnership now has a successful format, the Partnership itself acts as a “hub” – retaining the knowledge and business improvement processes, developing social enterprises on the back of a successful format (the printing company – Quality Print Pro – which is managed by one of the directors of Dudley SBP, it is now trading profitably and its profits are returned to the “hub” to enable more social enterprises to be developed. It has a contract with Social Services to train and develop its clients (who would all otherwise be unemployable).. The “hub” was successful in obtaining a Leonardo partnership in 2008, which is ongoing.
VISIT TO “DUDLEY SOCIAL BUSINESS PARTNERSHIP”
We visited “Dudley Social Business Partnership” in Dudley, close to Stufford. It took us two hours to arrive there.
We had a very warm welcome. It is a charity organisation, and we were told that it belongs to the third sector. We asked what the third sector meant and we were told that the first sector is formed by public organisations, the second sector are private companies and the third sector is formed by non profitable organisations. This sector is expanding rapidly and is becoming quite important.
This organisation functions as a real company that offers training to people with disabilities, in this case with learning difficulties. It is run by a nice lady, Barbara Kiely, helped by a team of young staff.
It has been working for thirty years. They tried different kind of bisinesses till they ended up in the printing sector which they have found profitable enough. It receives no help from the Government except for the training of disabled, but the profit comes from the diminishing of taxes they have to pay because they have disabled people among the workers. Also because they recycle old printing machines that are no longer used by printing companies. This makes them able to accept small orders that big companies are not ready to accept. That means that it is not seen as a competitor by other printing companies. The question arises to me on what is the point of training young people in the use of old fashioned printing equipment that is no longer used in “real” life.
After the visit we were offered a nice lunch and all the questions that we asked were answered with great interest. At the end of the visit we were given a badge with the group picture on it as a souvenir of the visit and we signed the visitors book.
Afternoon Workshop (following visit to Dudley Social Business Partnership)
In view of the climate conditions we agreed to transpose the mobility to Spain with the one to Finland and therefore we will have 27/28th October in Spain – topic to be “Quality – can it defined (the audit trail, tools, processes. How is it checked, supported etc.).
The visit to Finland will now be 8/9th March 2010 – topic “Methodology”
The final visit to Holland will now be either 17th/18th May, or 7th/8th June 2010, and the project end date will be 01/07/2010
Evening Workshop.
Barriers & Enablers: (how to deal with the barriers and capitalise on the enablers).
Barriers:
What are the perceived barriers to the APA process?
A general awareness of the process and the procedure
Distribution of information (what will I get out of it?) – the individual and the organisation.
Where will the information be available?
Unclear goals for the APA process
What will be the costs and who will meet them?
Costs
A time commitment – to the employer and to the individual
Necessity
How necessary is it to the present and the past?
Consequences:
The process could have consequences for the employer., e.g. moving from volunteer to employee and the effect of promotion or a raise in salary.
Quality of the Instruments
The outcome is dependent on the quality of the process and the instruments which are used. Standardisation is necessary to preserve uniformity of assessment.
Breaching of the status quo.
Complexity:
Of education and the APA process itself.
Time:
(given to the process)
Netherlands 4-6 hours coaching
4-8 hours for assessment
2 hours for “management” = 16 hours maximum
UK
(worked on a different basis)
Half a day per candidate for the advisory process, i.e. £500
25-40 hours for candidate assessment.
Evening Meal
Experience of a different British public house meal.
And the next day we left early: 5.30 AM we had our morning coffee….depart by mini-bus to Birmingham International Airport for return flight.