http://www.projectevoke.org/ NEWS LETTER No. 1 - March 2013 WHAT IS EVOKE? EVOKE is short for Enhanced Vocational Opportunities, Knowledge and Education. Early school-leaving and transition to the labour market is a key issue - that must be improved- in all countries involved in Evoke project. Norway and the Netherlands have already developed methods to improve the situation in their own countries. These methods evaluate the effectiveness of services and measure the added values of Social Return on Investment (SROI), for example the costs -in terms of money, time and means- and the outcomes (work, back to school and the evaluation of the services) During the first year of the project, EVOKE partners have analyzed & compared the different situations & legislation in matters of education in the partner countries. The second step consisted on each partner defining a local plan for adapting & transferring the methodology. Then, partners worked on a joint working plan. Apart from all these activities, the project web page has been developed, a dissemination plan has been designed and promotional material has been produced to disseminate the results of the project (pens, brochures, flash drives, ).
TRANSNATIONAL MEETINGS Several national expert meetings have been held to spread information about EVOKE project, SROI methodology & SAT/CFF. In doing so, several networks have been consolidated which will ease the transfer of SROI methodology. 1 st transnational meeting (Norway) The first project meeting in EVOKE was arranged in Norway at Melbu in November 2011. The kick-off meeting was a success and all partners went home with a lot of expectations and work to do. 2 nd transnational meeting (Lithuania) The second project meeting was held in Klaipeda from 14 17 March 2012. An internal technical review of the research activities in work package Analysis was conducted during this meeting and discussions about the near future of Quality Assurance Model in career guidance took place. The Quality Management Plan was also presented by the project managers. 3 rd transnational meeting (Spain) The 3 rd transnational meeting was held in Padrón (Spain) from the 4-6 October 2012. The draft of the QAM methodology was presented, then each partner presented its local plan. Apart from that, there was a general discussion on outcomes, especially the preparatory workshops for pilot test. Finally, some suggestions for the midterm evaluation report were presented, and next steps were defined.
NATIONAL EVENTS AND EXPERT MEETINGS Norway (March 2012) As is one of the most important parts in this project, the coordinator Frode Holdhus made a speech at the local school in Melbu, Vesterålen, Norway on Monday 05.03.12. The goal was to inform about EVOKE and to motivate for taking part in different parts of the project. The speech was received well, and there is a lot of interest at the school for the work in the international field made by OPUS Hadsel. Spain (October 2012) A national Experts meeting was held last 3rd October in Fundación Paideia Galiza (A Coruña, Spain) in October. SROI methodology was explained thanks to the collaboration of Henk ten Brinke & Stella Buurma (Dutch partners of EVOKE project). Experts from the fields of Education, Labor market, Social work & vocational guidance participated actively in the seminar contributing to its success. The audience was highly motivated and very interested in the Dutch experience. Some real case studies of young drop-outs were presented, analyzed and discussed from different perspectives. Finally, the SROI methodology was implemented as an example.
Italy (November 2012) The national meeting for the dissemination of Evoke project was held on the 21 st November in Genoa. The event was attended by experts in guidance policies belonging to the Technical Group established in the territory of the Province of Genoa, as well as managers and counsellors of the Province of La Spezia and Savona working in the area of Labour market, Vocational training and Social services policies, an experienced representative of ISTAT, the National Institute of Statistics and an expert in the development of the labour market from Liguria Region. As an important outcome of the meeting, the presentation of the method SAT / CFF and SROI and of the QAM has aroused interest in the representatives of the provinces that are not directly involved in the testing to date. They expressed their availability to join the team of consultants already established at the Genoese guidance test team, to test models for evaluating the effectiveness of guidance. The participation of other public guidance services on the territory of Liguria Region to the stage of pilot testing, of which at the moment is to evaluate the feasibility, could lead to an increase in the number of survey samples and add value to the qualification of the results of tests on models SAT / CFF. Lithuania (December 2012) At 11 th December 2012 the national meeting of Lithuania was conducted. During the meeting, the goals, objectives, results, and essential activities of the project were presented. The meeting was attended by staff of Faculty administration and other departments, by representatives from College of Social Sciences and Klaipeda State College, and by Klaipeda Municipality Council member. Most of the participants are directly connected with students and through effective consultation can help them when problems arise, for which students want to drop out of school.
The meeting in Lithuania focused on improving the quality of counselling system. The counsellor and student questionnaires were demonstrated. It was noted that electronic advisory system is created. This system will be translated to the project partners languages. Klaipėda University is the only one in the West Lithuania region. Here studying about 6,000 students. However, the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics offers degree programs which are not very popular in the last years. Furthermore, a part of students do not complete her studies. So, students preservation problem is very acute here. Netherlands (December 2012) Two national meetings about Evoke were held in the Netherlands in Appingedam on 12th and 13th of December. In North Groningen CMO Groningen works together with schools and municipality services ISD Noordoost, Werkplein Eemsdelta and Regional Report Center to reduce drop out and youth unemployment. CMO does this (among other things) by working and improving close cooperation between stakeholders, realising low threshold guidance for pupils, improving transition and use the method of SROI. In the two national meetings CMO Groningen led the discussion with the partners on the current cooperation and it s further development. Strong points and points of improvement were identified and agreed on. After that CMO Groningen explained about the Evoke project, it s aims and goals. Discussion was held on pro s and cons of testing the CQT to distinguish successful factors. All parties were interested in executing the pilot and agreed on attending the training in January.
CQT TRAINING SESSIONS In the framework of the Project, training sessions about tools for pilot testing the quality & effectiveness of vocational orientation were held at the beginning of 2013 by partner organizations. Hadsel videregående skole, Norway (3 rd January) Coordinators started with the training sessions on the 3 rd January. They made the training session for two guides at school and by telephone for four others which work at schools located far away. Conform S.R.L, Italy (21 st January) On the 22 of January in Genua the training session on CQT has been held by Conform s.r.l. [IT]. Training was delivered to counselors from the Public Employment Service in the Province of Genua, Motiva Consortium [of which Conform is partner] and guidance counselors who are going to provide guidance meetings/interviews by the schools in their territory. Ten counsellors attended the training, that was focused on the use of the CQT, the Counselling Quality Tool, comprising the SAT and the CFF [Self Assessment Tool for Counsellors and Client feedback Form for clients/users]. Steps of the training were smooth and contents were simple, attendees reported; they feel ready to start the testing phase with real cases and users in guidance environment. They also reported the userfriendliness of the system and, what is more, the perception of an interesting real use beyond the Evoke project lifetime, also with a view of testing different aspects of the vocational guidance, firstly the weaknesses emerged from the cross feedback on which working to improve own professional skills.
Fundación Paideia, Spain (22 nd - 23 rd January) Two training sessions were held by Paideia. Promotional & working materials were distributed during the sessions. The first training session was held in A Coruña the 22nd January and it was addressed to Paideia staff. Eight people attended the training session on the use of CQT Counselling Quality Tool. The second training session was held in A Esclavitude (Padrón) the 23rd January and it was addressed to 14 professionals from the city councils of Barbanza, Sar, Muros & Noia, who will participate in this project. The training session was very practical. A simulation was made creating some sample counsellor & client profiles, and editing them. All attendees participated in the process giving information for filling the sample forms, and questions about the tool were raised and solved. The training began with an introduction of EVOKE project, explaining its objectives & purposes, phases, etc. Then, the QAM methodology and pilot test were explained. The training focused on learning how to use the Evoke computer programme and on the content of the questionnaires for evaluating the quality of the service provided: the counsellor s self-evaluation form and the client evaluation form. A deadline (30th January) was established for the counsellors to check the use of the tool on individual basis. They will contact to the local manager for any doubt or suggestion. After that period, the test pilot phase will start.
CMO Groningen, Netherlands (23 rd January) In the Netherlands a training session was held the 23rd of January in Groningen with 11 people of four different organisations attending. People from the vocational school in Appingedam, the Social Services of the Northern Municipalities of Groningen and the Regional Coordination Centre of Drop outs Northeast of Groningen and CMO Groningen were present. The training started with a short introduction on the Evoke project, it s aims and goals. Most people had already been present at the national meeting in December where Evoke project and the CQT pilot were introduced and explained by CMO Groningen to them. We were able to move on to explanation of the CQT system quickly. In the training session all trainees were equipped by the trainer with an Ipad with internet connection and the CQT manual on paper to get to know the system and it s purpose. All the steps of the CQT system were explained simultaneously with a presentation by the trainer in powerpoint on the big screen and by exercising the questionnaires on the CQT website themselves. The trainees had time to try out the CQT system during the training and fill out the CFF and SAT. Especially because we are conducting a pilot, feedback on the system of the users is very important. People were welcomed to do so and critical questions about the system were raised; like what kind of clients to be questioned and when and where. Together with the trainer solutions were found to those matters. Practical issues about planning and feedback on the CQT during the pilot were also talked about and agreed on. At the end of the training people were excited to start the pilot and felt ready to execute it. Three people were unable to attend the training and received all materials by email. Next to that they had the possibility to raise further questions by email or phone to the trainer and asked their trained collegues. They read all materials carefully and with additionally some email and/or phone contact with the trainer they felt equipped to execute the pilot as well. A week after the training all trainees received their login codes and started the pilot on the first of February.
Business University of Applied Science, Lithuania (6 th -7 th February) In 2013 February 6 in Lithuanian Business University of Applied Science (Lietuvos verslo kolegijoje) the first training section of potential users of online consultation quality system was held. During the training were presented the EVOKE project goals and objectives, key activities, deliverables. The manual of online consultation system was analyzed. Later the trainer registered the participants to the online system. The trainings participants were encouraged to create fictitious students. Then participants were able to analyze and respond to the questions, which are designed for students who received advice. The discussion was about whether the questions reflect situations which are most often faced students of university. Afterwards participants analyzed and filled out the consultant questionnaire. Finally trainer demonstrated interface which allow analysing the correlation of responses. The second training section was held in Klaipeda University Faculty Natural Sciences and Mathematic. This location was chosen for the convenience of participants, as most of the second day training participants works at the Klaipeda University. The second day's training was held under a similar program. Both trainings days were finished with discussion about need for counselling system, the potential counselling effectiveness, the advantages and disadvantages of the counselling system.