Qualification, validation and certification of maintenance personnel Erasmus Project

Project Title

Qualification, validation and certification of maintenance personnel

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 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Cooperation between educational institutions and business; Recognition (non-formal and informal learning/credits); Enterprise, industry and SMEs (incl. entrepreneurship)

Project Summary

The project has developed 4 qualifications that harmonize with current maintenance standards and also reflect future challenges. The older qualifications of maintenance staff, as set out in standard EN 15628, are not adapted to the vocational training system or related standards.
The current EFNMS exam for maintenance managers at EQF level 7 is manual and requires correction that can become biased. Therefore, completely new modern questions have been developed adapted for IT systems with automatic correction. Everything is now web-based with a large database covering current levels. The developed EFNMS exam also includes economic, management and environmental topics as well as multi-technical requirements to cope with modern automation. The project has also developed an EFNMS exam for maintenance engineers/supervisors at EQF level 6. The EFNMS exam for maintenance managers and maintenance engineers is adapted to the new qualification structure. Web-based validation for EQF level 5 maintenance technicians has been in production since 2005 and is now integrated into the database.
The goals of the project have been achieved:
-We have a common qualification structure for the professional requirements of maintenance personnel with validation and training at EQF levels 4 to 7.
-We have created a validation system that maps individual competences in relation to qualifications.
– We have developed a summary of publications and standards that have been the basis for the work
The project participants were members of the European Federation of National Maintenance Societies (EFNMS). The mix of different experiences and backgrounds added value to the results of the project. To unite the members of the EFNMS, it was crucial to implement this project transnationally within the Federation.
The project was started with a benchmarking to map out what already existed. Based on this information, a qualification structure was developed based on 1. industry technology requirements, 2. requirements from early design of new resources, 3. modernization, 4. international standard, 5. EFNMS Body of Knowledge and 6. Sustainable Decommissioning. The entire lifecycle of maintenance is now included.
Based on the developed qualifications, validation question was developed and quality assured. The questions were developed from the literature and specialist knowledge from the group and industry references. The literature and standards used were collected in a reference library with the aim of obtaining traceability and quality assurance of the developed question and to guide test takers and trainers to the right sources for studies in the field.
In total, over 2,000 multiple choice questions were developed to check maintenance staff’s knowledge as well as more than 400 open questions and complex multiple choice and case-based multiple-choice questions to control their skills for EQF levels 6 and 7. These were collected together with previous 3000 questions for EQF 4 and 5 in a web-based validation system, which is the basis of the validation tool.
The main breakthrough with the project was that there is now a uniform qualification structure for all EQF levels 4 to 7 with common subject headings and associated validation with measurable learning outcomes. The qualifications are developed through interviews with specialists and teachers but also interviews with industry on future needs. This is the first time in Europe that this has been presented. This is unique as it breaks through traditional structures in technical education.
Previous work for maintenance technicians was integrated with queries in 10 languages in the total database. These EQF 5 queries can now be used at all levels.
Smart and cost-effective production, of which the maintenance function is central, will have a major impact on European industry. For the first time, there are common specifications. Skills development efforts are a prerequisite for increased competitiveness and new business opportunities. The target group for the project results is industrial companies, infrastructure, authorities, and others, as well as various training activities.

Long-term success factors:
– Employing companies will be able to analyze the skills of jobseekers.
– Companies will have the opportunity to validate the knowledge of maintenance staff.
– Training activities will be able to adapt training to the needs of the market and/or specific industries by applying a common system for determining the competence of professional maintenance roles where pre- and post-training training can be tested to optimize the effort.
Validation and certification against European-wide qualifications creates an increased opportunity for maintenance staff to move across borders within Europe. School system development authorities have increased interest in developing new training plans and promoting the validation of professional maintenance staff.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 374483 Eur

Project Coordinator

Svenskt Underhåll AB & Country: SE

Project Partners

• Kunnossapitoyhdistys Promaint ry
• Magyar Ipari Karbantartók Szervezete
• DMM Lausnir
• Ceska spolecnost pro udrzbu, z.s.
• UNIVERZA V MARIBORU