WLP Project Development

So far the contributions of the national partners have been produced at different phases of the project. Firstly, the national partners have produced background information on the preconditions for developing workplace learning partnerships (national maps). Then the partners have produced analyses on the learning potentials at workplaces. These analyses were based on the use of common tools (the LPA tool). However, in differnt contries the interpretation of the results was linked to the critical question "how to proceed". In this respect the national partners found themselves in very different positions and there was no common working perspective that could be followed jointly.

At this phase the project developed a differentiated concept of 'piloting agendas' that took into account the following working parspectives after the LPA-analyses:
a) continuation of the work on the basis of pre-piloting agendas that include further studies and/or measures to disseminate the experience from other European contexts,
b) continuation of the work on the basis of actual piloting agendas that include creation of new partnerships and learning designs (or organisation of partnership-oriented micro-piloting via small steps in developing workplace learning),
c) continuation of the work on the basis of post-piloting agendas that include retrospective analyses on prior pilot activities and transition to working issues that can enrich the original piloting aproaches.

As a consequence, the role of further national contributions became less transparent. In the work of the project the discussion  on the development of joint web resources and multimedia resources was given the main priority.

At this point the introduction of the WLP Wiki has made the idea of developing joint European knowledge resources more transparent. As the different resource areas take shape, it becomes clear that the national reports are part of the mosaic of European knowledge resources and that they have to be presented accordingly.

In this respect I have developed uploaded the current contributions from national partners and re-purposed them as components of the final National Reports. The contributions to 'national maps' have been redefined as the first part of the National Report ("Background and context") . The reports on the LPA-analyses and of related case studies (or on related tool development) have been repurposed as the second part of the National Report ("Analyses of learning potential"/"Specific cases"). Then, according to the national piloting agenda, I have included a component that presents the piloting activities or the further analyses as the third part ("Analyses on piloting"/ "Further studies"/"Knowledge base for national and European dissemination activities").

As the documents stand now (01.12.2006) in the WLP Wiki, the process of integrating the earlier inputs into the national reports is not yet completed. Yet, I have chosen to make them available so that the final editing can profit of the awareness of other partners' contributions.

Pekka Kämäräinen

Last week we introduced the WLP Wiki on the WLP website. After an intensive working period we have discovered some technical problems that need attention. In order to keep the work going we have set up a backup page on the ITB website (see the attached link).

In the next postings the web links to WLP wiki will be given to both websites.

Pekka Kämäräinen

In the beginning of the project the WLP project was focusing on one central tool (Learing Potential Analysis) for identifying the learning potentials at workplaces. The main interest was to link (with the help of the tool) that analyses of parallel enterprises to each other.  By identifying the distributed learning potentials the project sought to provide the basis for partnership cooperation between training providers and partner enterprises. Therefore, the project wanted to have a web tool that could link such analyses to each other.

As we know, the work with the LPA tool gave rise to develop a complementary tool (Learning Achievement Review) that was also brought into discussion at an early stage of the work. Later on I started to outline a bridging tool (Learning Provision Review) to stimulate mutual awareness and dialogue between training providers and enterprises.

With our last week' effort we (the Knownet and myself) have prepared a joint resource area for all these tools (with a common introduction). We hope to be able to add more cases. In this respect we invite the WLP partners to use the tool and to add more cases to be presented on the web page.

Pekka Kämäräinen

The Strasbourg workshop confirmed (in accordance tothe original work plan) that the project should prepare two European reports. The first one - "European synthesis report" - should focus on the results and achievements. The second one - "Process development report" - should focus on the evolution of the project and on the related learning experiences.

I have attached the current draft versions for comments and suggestions.

Pekka Kämäräinen