Mainstreaming Procedures for Quality Apprenticeships in Educational Organisations and Enterprises Erasmus Project

Project Title

Mainstreaming Procedures for Quality Apprenticeships in Educational Organisations and Enterprises

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Quality Improvement Institutions and/or methods (incl. school development); Enterprise, industry and SMEs (incl. entrepreneurship); Labour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemployment

Project Summary

The project “Mainstreaming Procedures for Quality Apprenticeships in Educational Organisations and Enterprises” (ApprenticeshipQ) wanted to support educational institutions and placement providers to offer high-quality education to their apprentices. The project’s proposed assessment of quality has made these processes more manageable and will benefit all stakeholders. These benefits include lifelong learning for teachers, professors and tutors, enhancements for placement providers, improvement of apprentice’s skills development and overall higher quality of the learning experience.

Quality is key to assuring positive outcomes for all stakeholders involved and this project therefore focused on approaches to securing and developing high quality apprenticeships that will in turn help foster stronger collaborations between employers, providers and students. However, experiences, concepts and vision on how to leverage the potential of practice and work-based learning (WBL) for the field of HVET was lacking. The project addressed this issue through comprehensive quality criteria to give guidance and orientation on how to structure those parts of HVET which take part in the world of work. In fact, no proposal existed on how European Higher Vocational Institutions may adapt their internal quality systems to ensure proper supervision and control of apprenticeships, or even what a minimum level of quality for an apprenticeship should entail.

The intention of the ApprenticeshipQ project was to:
develop an ApprenticeshipQ toolkit, which provides a clear framework for quality management of apprenticeships at organisations, particularly educational institutions and placement providers, ensuring systematic feedback;
foster mutual trust and respect through regular cooperation and better quality management between the apprenticeship partners;
ensure the content of HVET programmes is responsive to changing skill needs in companies and society;
ensure fair, valid, and authentic assessment of learning outcomes in apprenticeships;
support the continuous professional development of in-company trainers and improving their working conditions.

The ApprenticeshipQ toolkit was developed by:
identifying and analysing different forms of apprenticeships and work-based learning to design and test a typology of apprenticeships;
identifying the strategic goals of the main stakeholders involved in HVET to inform quality management;
identifying the factors that stakeholders consider essential for QM within the strategic partnership;
providing a set of best-practice examples for QM at education institutions and at placement provider sites;
identifying quality criteria including their measurement indicators in different education institutions and various industry sectors.

This knowledge was applied for target groups including educational institutions, placement providers and apprentices by creating the ApprenticeshipQ toolkit, consisting of:
an institutional quality management framework for apprenticeships;
an online-assessment tool for quality management;
an apprenticeships QM manual for educational institutions containing instruments, methods and tools they can work with to develop a joint quality culture between themselves and small and medium enterprises;
an apprenticeships QM manual for enterprises containing instruments, methods and tools they can work with to develop a joint quality culture between themselves and educational organizations.
a harmonisation and translation guide with policy recommendations.

To test, validate form consensus in the field the project consulted extensively with stakeholders by organising:
Workshops in 6 countries involving more than 500 QM experts and other expert stakeholders from the training and education site;
Field tests in 6 countries involving more than 300 employers, quality managers, trainer and teachers, HVET institutions, etc.;
Surveys, interviews and presentations in 6 countries involving more than 1.300 employers, QM person responsible for the placement as well as the HVET institution site, teachers and trainers.

Through the involvement of chambers of commerce, standardization bodies and associations of European institutions of Higher VET in the project, ApprenticeshipQ reached a wide impact, and ensured the inclusion of its processes amongst both placement providers and educational institutions.

This in turn led to an enhanced quality management and hence improved quality of apprenticeships in Higher VET around Europe, which is going to increase the attractiveness of HVET as an educational pathway thus enhancing the employability of apprentices and students.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 444315 Eur

Project Coordinator

Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg Heilbronn & Country: DE

Project Partners

• SKUPNOST VISJIH STROKOVNIH SOL REPUBLIKE SLOVENIJE
• INSTITUTO POLITECNICO DO PORTO
• KNOWLEDGE INNOVATION CENTRE (MALTA) LTD
• Association of Colleges
• MONDRAGON UNIBERTSITATEA
• ASSOCIATION EUROPEENNE D’INSTITUTIONS DE L’ENSEIGNEMENT SUPERIEUR
• FH JOANNEUM GESELLSCHAFT MBH