ECVET - Application to mobility projects

SESAMO project aims at transferring the results achieved in previous European projects: H.E.LE.N., B.E.A.TR.I.C. and ECVET CONNEXION. The products can be summarised as follows:
1. system outputs - in H.E.LE.N project a methodology was designed in order to formalize the national VET systems; it deals with three domain analysis: qualifications; certification and recognition of competences; credits system. The context analysis and the validation through case studies have allowed to provide representations of the national education systems which are based on the identification of classes of concepts and the relations among them. The methodology facilitates the adhesion on voluntary basis by the authorities and the operators. It allows to understand that the choices don't rest on a random process but they imply temporal relations. The innovation lies in moving from a peer approach to a top-down one closely related to the EQF implementation and the ECVET consultation.

2. process outputs - the good practices implemented by the partnership and the possibility to cooperate by using ICT instruments. B.E.A.TR.I.C. activities, closely linked to H.E.LE.N. project, are designed to support the training organizations and their coordinators in using the national instruments functional to certify the competences as well as the EUROPASS documents and in particular the Certificate Supplement. The experiences carried out in the previous projects have allowed to enhance the relationships and to encourage the mutual trust. The strengths to be transferred are: the research of the semantic clearness; the selection of information so that the different approaches can fit together; the collaborative learning/working which becomes a decisive strategic choice.

3. products/outcomes - they are designed to promote the transparency and they are functional to the validation process. The main outcomes are:

• H.E.LE.N. conceptual maps designed to find out intersystems linking strategies in order to set out relations between concepts pertaining to the transparency of qualifications and the recognition of credits and competences at transnational level. The linking strategies can be based on three types of approaches. The bottom-up approach dealing with a unifying factor (a greatest common denominator) being able to promote the interoperability and the sharing but unable to keep the national peculiarities; a top-down approach defining a set of elements (a sort of meta-model) to map the national peculiarities; H.E.LE.N. approach which is a peer one: it takes into account couples of national systems and sets out bidirectional linking rules. The ontology allows to set out formal linking rules which can be used as guidelines functional to assure the transparency in the event of transnational mobility experiences. In S.E.S.A.M.O. project the consortium has agreed on the application of the top-down approach closely related to the EQF implementation
• b. Tools for Transparency - B.E.A.TR.I.C. project - a procedure was designed and applied in order to semantically represent the conceptual cores and the information concerning the national and EUROPASS certification tools. Such procedure is functional to define a linking protocol and to set out the guidelines to fill in the Certificate Supplement which represents the benchmark. The procedure will be transferred and then completed by allocating the credits according to ECVET procedures.
• c. The results of the feasibility study on the setting out of a credits system elaborated in ECVET Connexion. Such study has allowed to point out the obstacles, the strengths and the weaknesses through a SWOT analysis; the simulation of case studies has allowed to provide information on the possible opportunities and risks. ECVET Connexion has also set out specific indicators to evaluate if the local systems can fit together with the EU one. The results achieved in the feasibility study have enabled to carry out the transfer process in S.E.S.A.M.O. project.