Strategic Partnerships

Strategic Partnerships are a mix of decentralised projects run by National Agencies and centralised activities managed by the European Commission’s Executive Agency. Decentralised Activities in the field of education, training and youth are collaborative projects allowing organizations to improve provision, tackle common issues and share innovative practice. Under Erasmus+ one organisation will lead the project and manage the activities and funding on behalf of the partnership. Different sizes of partnerships are possible so that smaller organizations can get involved.:

Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Mentorship Evaluation aNd Training in ORganisations for Work-Based Learning at EU

#Mentor4WBL@EU

The project, in the context of introducing innovation on the continuous professional development of WBL mentors, aims at building a specific procedure for in-company mentors, participating in Work-Based Learning (WBL). The development of the relevant competences -basic, transversal, soft, digital- leading to the training, assessment and certification for the work-based learning mentors constitutes project’s main objective. This element is vital for their consequent ability to offer quality work-based learning in apprentices and trainees.

The project, funded by the European Programme Erasmus+, starts in 1st of October 2018 and ends in 30th of September 2020.

An Innovative Project

  • it promotes quality WBL as intrinsic element of Vocational Educational Training (VET)
  • it fosters innovative approaches by encompassing organizational “double/triple loop learning” (changing the rules/ learning about learning)
  • validating of non-formal & informal learning outcomes with recognition of prior knowledge
  • it encompasses intercultural competences aligned to the needs of labor mobility & immigrants’ social integration
  • it integrates the use of ICT in competences’ assessment & certification
  • it develops a fully operable competence certification scheme for workplace mentors, supported by an IT platform allowing to manage remote examination by affiliated certification bodies
  • it ensures transparency, recognition, and validation of qualifications of workplace mentors and it participates to their European mobility

Project’s Partners?

  • The Small Enterprises’ Institute of the Hellenic Confederation of Professionals, Craftsmen and Merchants (IME GSEVEE), a Greek non-profit organization acting as a consultancy body on economic and social affairs and issues of interest for small enterprises, as the leading partner of the project (imegsevee.gr)
  • Fondation EFCoCErt, a Swiss Foundation created in June 2014 in the context of a European project (LdV TOI Certitude) to ensure sustainability and exploitation of ISO 17024 compliant certification schemes for non-regulated professions in Europe- efcocert.eu)
  • ViaSyst Synergy Services SA, a Swiss private IT company whose core business, since 2008, is to design, develop and operate as SaaS (Software as a Service) dematerialized IT solutions for operating management system certification schemes, personal competence certification schemes and e-learning platform and pedagogical engineering (viasyst.com)
  • Centre for Factories of the Future Limited (C4FF), an English SME with RTD capacity acting as the instigator of the Factories of the Future projects in the UK and supported similar development in the EU (c4ff.co.uk)
  • Bahçesehir Universitesi Foundation, a Turkish international standards achieving university with international collaborations throughout EU and other countries and numerous bilateral agreements (bau.edu.tr)
  • DIEK Aigaleo, the oldest and the biggest post-secondary public vocational educational training institution in Greece, with up-to-date laboratories in spacious buildings, excellent learning environment and 16 different specializations (iekaigal.gr)
  • Manpower Employment Organization (OAED), the Greek PES (Public Employment Service), under the supervision of the Ministry of Labour, Social Insurance and Social Solidarity. In the field of VET (Vocational Education and Training) it implements dual Apprenticeship system at 50 Vocational Schools (EPAS). It also operates 30 Vocational Institutes (IEK), 30 Career Offices and 6 Continuous VET Centers (KEK) (oaed.gr).

Expected outcomes

– The project is planned to result in the further development and capacity building of professional mentors via

  • a standardization of qualifications (competence profile &skills needed)
  • a learning partnership which will foster mutual trust & peer learning between the different actors involved
  • a training culture change within small and medium enterprises (SMES), mainly targeting to their transformation into quality WBL venues
  • the creation of a common culture and philosophy between different countries, on the professional upskilling of in-company mentors
  • the evolvement of a common perception on assessment and certification of in-company mentors

Intellectual Outputs

  1. A full training course for in-company WBL mentors, embedding assessment & recognition of prior knowledge
  2. An operable ISO 17024 compliant competence certification scheme for workplace mentors
  3. An e-course for in-company WBL mentors
  4. An IT platform for remote competence certification of in-company mentors

For more information visit the project’s website: https://www.mentor4wbl.eu/