5. Results and conclusions I: The work with diversified piloting agendas

5.1. From common working phases to diversified piloting agendas

The previous analyses have made it clear that the WLP project has had to review its basic approach and its work programme in the following respects: a) The WLP project has had to review its basic approach regarding the europeanisation of the starting points and regarding the development of more diversified piloting agendas. In this context the project had to take into account a broader range of partnership concepts, arrangements for networked learning and related working agendas than had been originally anticipated. b) The WLP project has had to adjust its work with web resources to parallel progress in other developmental contexts and to the specific needs and opportunities in the national action contexts. On the one hand the project had to consider whether the emerging new platforms and services could be integrated to the piloting agendas that were developed in the national contexts. On the other hand the project had to consider what kind of practical small-scale changes could be introduced to the daily work of the trans-national project and of the national partners.

In the light of the above the further progress of the WLP project can be characterised as a transition from the common working phases (preparing the basic country information, piloting with the LPA tool) to more diversified working agendas. In this phase the partners were challenged to focus the kind of partnership concepts and/or arrangements for networked learning that were usable in their countries. Equally, the partners had to clarify to what extent they could promote actual partnership creating processes (piloting agendas) or to raise awareness on such cooperation opportunities either on the basis of completed pilot activities (post-piloting agendas) or as preparatory measures for new initiatives (pre-piloting agendas. The next two sub-sections will give a picture how the WLP project could support the partners and contribute to European knowledge enrichment in the said areas of work. The final sub-section presents an overview of the results that were achieved by the national partners.

5.2. Variety of partnership concepts and of related prospects for networked learning

In this context it is essential to note how the WLP project could raise awareness of the variety of partnership concepts and of the roles that the national actors could take in promoting such cooperation. Secondly, it is worthwhile to note what kind of opportunities the national action contexts provided for networked curriculum development (between formal and non-formal learning) or networked learning arrangements (in the context of industrial training activities that may be supported by formal learning). Finally, it is worthwhile to note how the efforts to develop project-specific web applications and to share information on external initiatives could contribute to a social space of mutual learning and of learning from other initiatives.

1) Taking into account a broader variety of partnership concepts and actor-positions

The WLP project brought into dialogue a set if countries in which the development of workplace learning was being promoted by different educational arrangements and different cooperation settings with partner enterprises. Equally, the educational actors or the industrial actors were taking different roles in the promotion of partnership cooperation. In the first phase the project reached a basic awareness of the different starting positions. At the operational level the project focused on the preparatory analyses and on the possibility to draw conclusions for partnership developing by comparing the results of the LPA-analyses. In the second phase the project could consider how to support partnership development in different countries by taking into account the respective possibilities to deepen cooperation and by introducing appropriate pedagogic support. In this respect it is possible to note the following working perspectives:

1. In the light of the German background concepts the WLP project opened the discussion on partnership development to cover a broader range of developmental aspects. In this respect the project has taken up the pedagogic cooperation with integrative working and learning tasks and related cooperation between teachers and trainers.
2. In the light of the collaborative process development scheme that was portrayed in the UK case and regarding the interests to develop industry-oriented learning communities in Italy the project WLP had to consider more closely such partnership concepts that were not primarily related to VET provisions.
3. In the light of the Slovenian small-scale pilot activities with several partners (but without an overarching partnership arrangement) the project had to consider the potentials of such micro-piloting as partnership-promoting activity.
4. In the light of the French explorations on regional cooperation models the WLP project had the opportunity to examine a trans-national cooperation model. The trans-national cooperation was based on a company-specific initiative to rotate its trainees across the countries in which the company had production sites and sales offices.

2) Taking into account different combinations between formal and non-formal learning

Parallel to the organisational issues the WLP project has had to take a wider look at the pedagogic issues and to take into account different approaches to ‘networked learning’ and to respective combinations of learning opportunities. In this context the project has had to consider different constellations of networked learning (including vocational curricula, separate courses, workplace learning activities and measures to validate non-formal learning). From this perspective it is possible to outline the following main options:

1. Networked learning with focus on VET curricula: The starting point in the German background has been to ensure the availability of appropriate workplace learning opportunities across the vocational curriculum (and in accordance to the given qualification goals). In a similar way the trans-national cooperation model (between Germany, France and Switzerland) has been based on networking across the national curricula (to support the acquisition of a formal qualification in one’s own country).
2. Networked learning with a focus on selected training provisions or learning events: This kind of pattern has been characteristic of the traditional networking of French enterprises vis-à-vis training providers. From the perspective of the WLP project this approach is currently bringing into picture an increasing interest on the validation of non-formal learning. A parallel development in the school-based VET systems is the development of specific learning events that intensify the cooperation between VET colleges and regional enterprises. (As specific examples it is possible to mention the Slovenian ‘project weeks’ and related measures to present current developments in workplace learning.)
3. Networked learning with focus on knowledge utilisation at workplaces: This kind of pattern of networking has been characteristic of the networking within industrial supply chains in the United Kingdom and in the industrial community-building initiative in Italy. In these cases the objective to use the learning outcomes to improve the work processes has guided the development of the workplace-related learning opportunities and the use of external training provisions.

In this context it is worthwhile to note that the increases awareness of the variety of patterns has made it possible to consider how the participating countries could combine different patterns and in order to strengthen the cooperation between different parties involved.

5.3. Diversity of opportunities for piloting and dissemination activities

Whilst the WLP project was reviewing the usability of different partnership concepts (and of respectively different patterns of networked learning), the project also had to take into account the different opportunities for active piloting, preparatory measures or transfer-promoting measures. In this respect the WLP project developed the concept ‘piloting agenda’ to enable different partners to clarify in what way they were contributing to the piloting phase of the WLP project. The WLP project distinguished between three types of piloting agendas:

1. The pre-piloting agendas (for awareness-raising and further analyses): In countries in which there was no opportunity to link the WLP project to active pilot initiatives, the national partners concentrated on measures to promote awareness-raising and on further analyses that contributed to European knowledge enrichment. In this respect the Estonian partners focused on country-specific dissemination activities and the French partners on further analyses on workplace learning contexts and on related research.
2. The piloting agendas (for undertaking actual pilot activities in the context of the WLP project): This kind of activities were launched as a specific initiative in Italy (the industry-oriented community-building initiative in Aquila) and as the regional micro-piloting of the School Centre Velenje in Slovenia. The two approaches were very different regarding the actual measures but for the project they represented two ways of proceeding with certain level of piloting.
3. The post-piloting agendas (for transfer-promoting measures and further analyses): This kind of activities have been characteristic for the German partners (in addition to the project coordination) and to some extent for the UK partners. In the German context the national activities have focused on re-examination of the predecessor activities with an insight into newer pedagogic developments (including the role of web-based support). In the UK context the end of the active piloting period in the reported case has been accompanied by related measures to develop multimedia resources (and to link the analyses on workplace learning to the ongoing projects of career guidance specialists).

In this context it is essential to note that this diversity of country-specific activities has made it possible for the national partners of the WLP project to take a more focused look on the possibilities to learn from each other (e.g. regarding the transferability of particular activities or regarding the use of specific tools and instruments in different national contexts). Consequently, the development of joint products and services has been adjusted to take into account the different challenges that the national partners have been facing in their national contexts. This has been particularly the case with the WLP Manual and the WLP Course. Equally, the development of the WLP Web resources has been discussed from the perspective of different country-specific needs. This has been taken into account in the emphasis that has been given on the Partners Areas and on related approach to develop gateways to the different knowledge resources.

5.4. Summary of the main features and of the main results of the national activities

In the light of the above it is essential to summarise the picture of the national activities according to the key features (the action contexts and developmental approaches) and on the basis of the respective piloting agendas and related main results. In this respect the participating countries are presented as a group picture according to the similarity of the contexts and approaches and the related piloting agendas.

Table 8: Key features and main results of the Estonian and French activities

Features and results

Participating countries Contexts and approaches

Piloting agendas and results

Estonia

The Estonian activities have been related to the original target region of Southern and to the regional dialogue on bilateral or multilateral cooperation between the VET colleges and the key industries in the regional context. The Estonian research partners of the WLP have followed a pre-piloting agenda that has created links to other Estonian projects. One is promoting apprentice training in general and the other is focusing on related develop-ment in the metalworking and engineering industry in Estonia.

The contribution of the WLP project has been the presentation of the WLP tools (for preparatory analyses) and dissemination of the piloting models of other partners.

France The French activities have been related to the region of Alsace where the case studies helped to identify two SME-centred models for partnership development and for networking with VET and CVT provisions (in the region and in the context of cross-border cooperation). The French partners continued their analyses on the case of traditional regional networking (based on ad hoc cooperation) and on the parallel case with trans-national cooperation programme. On both cases several conference presentations were prepared and related multimedia products were provided for the WLP project. For general dissemination purpose the French research partner prepared a web-based resource base on validation of non-formal learning and on related issues in French and English-language literature.

Table 9: Key features and main results of the Italian and Slovenian activities

Features and results

Participating countries Contexts and approaches

Piloting agendas and results

Italy The Italian activities have been mainly related to the region of Abbruzzo. The Italian research partner identified during the case studies a basis for piloting with industrially oriented learning communities (to be supported with web-based platforms). The Italian partners have gone through the founding phase in creating industrial learning com-munities that promote regionally customised web-based learning. The self-organised learning arrangements (theme “CNC maintenance”) have been based on the blogging system of the WLP project. The moderated courses on Technical English have been set up on the Moodle platform. For the next phase of the work the community is looking for country-specific support arrangements. Slovenia

The Slovenian activities have been related to several arenas of workplace learning and regional cooperation launched by the Slovenian R&D partner School Centre Velenje. The Slovenian partners have un-dertaken a series of linked micro-piloting activities that link to each other the following activities:

• Piloting with integrative wor-king and learning tasks, • Development of related multi-media products, • Organisation of collaborative project weeks to publicise the outcomes of workplace lear-ning for industrial partners or for educational actors, • Piloting with customised questionnaires to get feedback on workplace learning, • Piloting with local ‘portfolio’ applications based on the WLP tools for preparatory analyses, • Organisation of workplace learning placements for Swe-dish exchange students accor-ding to the ideas that had been developed in the local piloting, • Supporting regional cooperation on workplace learning by set-ting up a Development Panel to give feedback or vocational curriculum development.

Table 10: Key features and main results of the German and the UK activities

Features and results

Participating countries Contexts and approaches

Piloting agendas and results

Germany

The German national activities have been related to measures that support ITB as coordinator of the WLP project and related development of WLP-related European knowledge resources. The German national activities have consisted of

• desk studies and expert inter-views related to the German predecessor activities, • organisation of a WLP-related course within the Masters’ Programme of ITB (with a focus the mutual relations between the German and the European approaches). • piloting with the WLP blogging system with the students group, • piloting with the WLP Wiki platform and related know-ledge enrichment with the student group. United Kingdom

The UK-based national activities have been measures to support the WLP project in knowledge transfer with similar cases as the original UK case and with related use of web resources, multimedia and personal learning spaces. The UK-based national activities have consisted of the extensive documentation of the earlier pilot case (collaborative process improvement across the industrial supply chains). In addition to the county study and the extensive studies the UK case provided the basis for a specific WLP tool (the Learning Achievement Review). After these initial contributions the UK partners have supported the work of the WLP project

• by bringing into discussion other projects’ experiences with portfolios and personal learning spaces (viewed from the perspective of career guidance and counselling), • by disseminating the use of web services (del.icio.us), • by supporting the WLP project with a gallery of rich multimedia products.