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Developing quality in VPL

Education and Training Service Centre (ETSC) in Iceland

RPL Biennale, Rotterdam – April 2014

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Education and Training Service Centre (ETSC)

Owned by The Icelandic Federation of Labor, Confederation of Icelandic Employers, Federation of State and Municipal Employees, Association of Local Authorities in Iceland and the Ministry of Finance

Target group: People on the labour market who have not completed education on Upper Secondary level

The form is a Corporation. Non-profit. Contract with and financed by the Ministry of Education, Science

and Culture since 2003. Development of VPL – one of the main tasks Quality and methodology of VPL Education and Training fund allocates financing for specific projects

executed by LLL-centres around the country

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The VPL system

182.000 people on the labour market

1/3 has not completed Upper Secondary School = RPL main target group

2.172 induviduals validated in 2007 – 2013

About 400 per year from 2010 37 years = medium age of

participants

Centralized coordination through contracts with the ETSC

Projects are managed by Lifelong learning centres around the country

Financing through the Education and training Fund (State budget)

VPL is mainly against standards in formal curricula, but also pilot projects against job standards (no existing curricula)

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Quality assurance proceedure

ETSC provides training, advice and support material. Gathers statistics.

Standards linked to the European Quality Mark (EQM) are in development

EQM is used by the ETSC for quality assurance of the delivery of courses

Standards for career guidance are being tested The Nordic project – Quality in validation

valuable input for making of quality standards for RPL

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The quality triangle for VPL

Methodology

European guidelinesNordic Quality

model Exsperience

Financing and CostSociety/stateLabor market

Results

Individual Labor market

Society/community

VPL

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Methodology

Pilot projects in 2004 - 2007 Law and regulation:

Defined process – terms linked to financing/contracts for individual projects

Career guidance, group process

Central database for information on project results and standards used (screening tools)

Developmental meetings with project managers

The individual in the center Key questions we often

use: what effect does this (change, action, outcome) have on the individuals

Good model to start talking about quality – and reflect practices

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Financing and costt

Focus Decisions on financing are

based on clear benefits for the state/labour market and validity of results

Central gathering of information on results and cost

Total cost per individual 2013: Validation: 1.294 euro Guidance: 284 euro

Benefits More people within the

target group complete formal education

Visibility of competences More flexibility on the

labor market Increased competence

development

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Results Measuring effectiveness

A survey among those who have completed validation

February – March 2014

Focus on results for: Individual Labour market Society/community

Number of participants and the number of respondents

751 asked 305 did not answer 446 answered 59,4 % response

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Your status after validation?

27.7% Studying

34,1% Completed studies

13,8% Aiming at completing studies

7,6 % Not aiming at studies

16,7% Better aware of my career development

Answers 419

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How are you doing in school?

61,4% Very well

28,6% Rather well

8,9% Neutral

1,2% Not so well

0% Very badly

Answers 259

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How easy or hard was it to reveal your competences in the evaluation interviews?

18,9 % Very easy

40,6 % Easy

27,0 % Neutral

12.0 % Rather hard

1,6 % Very hard

Answers 434

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How fair or unfair was were the results you received from the validation process?

47,1 % Very fair

34,6 % Rather fair

10,8 % Neutral

5,0 % Rather unfair

2,5 % Very unfair

Answers 437

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How important/unimportant was the role of the career counselor in the validation process in your opinion?

51,1 % Very important

37,8 % Rather important

7,8 % Neutral

1,8 % Rather unimportant

1,4 % Very unimportant

Answers 436

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What is your situation after you completed the validation process?

In the same job

My sitution has not changed

My salary inreased

I got increased responsibility/my job changed/new job in the same

workplace

It helped me get a new job in a new workplace

It helped me get a new job following a job seeking process