Deliverable 5.5 Report on national Seminars 1. National Training Seminars Introduction WP 5 developed training tools for Market Surveillance Authority (MSA) personnel based on the best practice guidelines and delivered these through a series of four workshops for MSA personnel both from consortium members and other EEA countries. The training tools were then used in a second round of workshops. These were organized by each Ecopliant partner in their country and held in the national language. 2. Objective and Format of the seminars The national workshops were aimed primarily at MSAs and shared the objectives of the EU-wide events: - To present the preliminary findings of the Ecopliant project related to coordinated market surveillance and cooperation. - To discuss these findings with MSAs and stakeholders so any suggestions can be taken into account by the consortium for the remainder of the project As these workshops were set after the EU-wide events, some of the feedback could already be included. The Ecopliant results and recommendations also being closer to the final version, dissemination of these was an additional objective. Mr Jones presenting Ecopliant recommendations at NMO Ecopliant deliverable 5.5 page 1
3. Events 3.1. MSA only workshops 8 partners held an event for their MSA personnel: Germany 2015-02-11 Hamburg BAM with northern German MSAs Sweden 2014-12-08 Stockholm SEA Denmark 2015-01-15 Odense DEA with SEE Spain 2015-01-15 Madrid LCOE-FFII UK 2015-02-26 Teddington NMO, VCA, BIS Netherlands 2015-02-09 The Hague ILENT Ireland 2015-03-03 Dublin DCENR Hungary 2015-02-03 Budapest MKEH 3 partners also invited other stakeholders to their workshops. Finland 2015-03-11 Helsinki TUKES with guests Italy 2015-02-10 Milan ENEA with Milan chamber of commerce Hungary 2015-02-27 Budapest MKEH, air conditioning industry Ecopliant deliverable 5.5 page 2
4. Content of the seminars 4.1. Topics presented at the workshops The topics presented are based on the draft guidelines and content of work packages 2, 3 and 4. See deliverable 5.3 for discussion of the topics. The slides used were very similar to the ones prepared for the EU-wide workshops. Download links to the slides used in the seminars are given in section 6.1. The database played a bigger role in the national seminars, as it was ready for use by then and could be demonstrated in some of the events to the staff who will be using it. Italy, Spain, Germany and Finland used slides in their national language, mainly translations of a subset of the English-language slides. All partners added content specific to their national situation and MSA structure. In some cases parts of the Ecopliant recommendations were not presented in the workshops as they are already incorporated in national market surveillance training. Ms Westphalen, SEE introducing Ecopliant in Odense Ecopliant deliverable 5.5 page 3
5. Attendance and Feedback The following table shows the number of participants who attended the national seminars in each of the partner countries and whether it was open to other stakeholders apart from MSA personnel. Partner Country No. of audience of Duration Participants event United Kingdom 26 MSA only Full day Sweden 14 MSA only Half-day Italy 27 MSA plus Full day stakeholders Denmark 10 MSA only Full day The Netherlands 5 MSA only Half-day Finland 40 MSA plus Half-day stakeholders Germany 14 MSA only Half-day One MSA only, one 2 x Half day Hungary (2 events) 10 + 8 including stakeholders Spain 20 MSA only Half-day Ireland 6 MSA only Half-day Total 180 - Ecopliant deliverable 5.5 page 4
Feedback from the national training seminars A total of 60 feedback questionnaires were filled out by participants at the national training seminars in the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Italy and Spain. Participants were asked to rate the seminars as a whole and in particular aspects, on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being unsatisfactory and 5 being outstanding. The feedback showed high levels of satisfaction from the participants as shown in the table below: Content Rating (1-5) Overall meeting rating 4.3 Interest and stimulation 4.3 Quantity of new information learned 4.0 Relevance for national MSA system 4.2 Presenters Clear Communication 4.6 Usefulness of Information 4.3 Organisation of Material 4.3 Other Areas percentage Expectations met? Yes (97%) Opportunity to speak? Yes (100%) Effective Meeting Format? Yes (100%) Information provision before meeting Yes (100%) Appropriate Meeting length (95%) Questions Encouraged Yes (100%) Appropriate Length of Presentations (95%) All but two of the respondents said that the meetings met their expectations; while all felt that the meeting format was effective and gave them enough opportunities to discuss questions with the presenters. Of note is the slightly lower rating of 4.0 for the quantity of new information learned. This is likely due to the nature of the event, whereby the target audience is experienced market surveillance professionals. Very few written comments were given by the respondents. Two participants stated that the guidelines were useful and well-developed, and that the trainings would help them in their further work. One respondent suggested the development of a video tutorial for using the database (in conjunction with ICSMS), while another suggested that the training might be reinforced by repeat workshops. Ecopliant deliverable 5.5 page 5
6. Annex 6.1. Presentation slides (download links) Presentations can be downloaded on the Ecopliant website: http://www.ecopliant.eu/msa-workshops-2014/ Ecopliant deliverable 5.5 page 6