Competency Based Inland Waterway Transport Education & Training Erasmus Project

Project Title

Competency Based Inland Waterway Transport Education & Training

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 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

Projectcontext:
The Competency Based Inland Waterway Transport Education & Training (IWTCOMP) supports the implementation of the European directive 2017/2397, on the recognition of professional qualifications in inland navigation. According to this EU Directive all Inland Shipping Training and Education institutes must be prepared to comply with the CESNI Standards of competence, built around tables of competencies for personnel working on board inland vessels on Operational Level (OL) and Management Level (ML) and lay down the minimum key competences for staff working on board of an inland vessel in the entire EU. Due to this new Directive, the IWT education and training institutes need to get prepared for competency based education, assessing and examination.

Objectives:
The purpose of IWTCOMP project is to lay the foundation for competency-based education and training for the IWT sector, to ensure that every student in the EU possesses the same competencies on OL and ML after graduating from their study or training. To reach these goals, teachers need to be able to educate students in the competency-based system. Within the IWTCOMP project specific products were developed to prepare the institutes in training and assessing with the competency based approach, namely:
• Table with CESNI Standards of competence on OL and ML combined with EQF levels
• A collection of best practices in competency based education
• A train-the-trainer course on competency based education, including didactical manual and supporting (e-)learning materials

Project partners number/profile
The 6 IWTCOMP partners are members of EDINNA (Education in Inland Navigation), the network of all existing inland navigation education and training institutes in the EU. All these institutes educate their students for their future jobs and have therefore similar aims: to prepare their students to navigate and work safely on European waterways, and to become well-qualified crew members. All teachers working within these institutes must be prepared in training and assessing with the competency based approach. From all partners a project manager and 2 or more teachers were involved in the development of the intellectual outputs. Besides additional teachers from every partner were involved in the trainer the trainer course and workshops conducted during the project.

Activities:
The application of the EQF system in the different partner member states was analysed and compared to the existing qualifications for IWT. After review by national EQF experts, findings were discussed during a meeting with all EDINNA members. Conclusions were drawn about the use of the EQF system for IWT and a proposal for minimum job requirements for IWT job qualifications.
The collection of best practices in Competence Based training started with a study on the definitions used, such as “competence based learning” and “best practices”. With these definitions as a framework the examples from EDINNA members as well as education institutes from related sectors, such as maritime, shipbuilding, fishery, etc were gathered.
The development of the train the trainer course was done by first defining the target group (teachers), objectives and main subjects. It was decided to create a didactical manual as well as additional (e-)learning material, which can be used as an integrated set of learning materials. The topics were divided and developed by different partners. All materials were reviewed by EDINNA members. During the course evaluation was done by a dedicated evaluator, the trainer and the 12 participants. To reach a higher amount of teachers follow-up workshops were conducted within each partner institute. These 6 different workshops in 4 different countries were led by the participants of the train the trainer course and a total of 90 teachers from different sectors attended these workshops.

Results, impact and long term benefits
By means of this project and the members of EDINNA, IWTCOMP did lay the foundations on a European level for competency based education and training for IWT throughout the EU, furthermore it will ensure that every student will benefit from this approach and be able to work in inland navigation in every EU Member State, and at last the systematic approach of IWTCOMP can be transferred to other sectors as well. Students will receive a high quality training provided by the well trained trainers and they can acquire required competencies needed to work in the IWT sector. This results in bigger changes of finding a job. The trainers trained during the lifetime of IWTCOMP will become multipliers and will train other teachers with the material developed in the project, and thereby facilitating the uptake of competency based education and training by all IWT E&T institutes throughout the EU. This way, the outcomes of IWTCOMP will strengthen key competences in Inland Waterway Transport curricula and will lay foundations for future use by other sectors.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 139643,5 Eur

Project Coordinator

STICHTING STC-GROUP & Country: NL

Project Partners

• UNIVERSITATEA DIN CRAIOVA
• Schiffer-Berufskolleg RHEIN
• STICHTING DUNAMARE ONDERWIJSGROEP
• ZILINSKA UNIVERZITA V ZILINE
• CENTRUL ROMAN PENTRU PREGATIREA SI PERFECTIONAREA PERSONALULUI DIN TRANSPORTURI NAVALE