1. Analysing different countries regarding partnership development

1.1 Starting points: The original ideas and the initial working concept

As has been indicated in the European synthesis report of the WLP project (see ???), the project was shaped on the basis of certain German predecessor activities. In these cases the basic problem was to guarantee the availability of sufficient workplace learning opportunities throughout the vocational curriculum. The solution was to invite several enterprises into partnership arrangements that link learning opportunities from different enterprises to a rotation scheme. In this context the German projects used specific tools to identifying areas of learning that could best be covered by certain enterprises and to stimulate mutual agreements between participating enterprises and VET colleges.

When the European cooperation project was launched it was obvious that the participating countries will have different somewhat different issues to be considered as their main problems regarding the development of workplace learning. Yet, the initial working agreement of the project was to provide a brief background analysis (“national map”) and to proceed at the same time to case studies. The expectation was that the empirical results of the learning potentials of the analysed workplaces would help to bring into discussion the country-specific issues on the development of workplace learning.

1.2 Analysis on the encountered contradictions and needs for reorientation

Without going into detailed examination of the results of the learning potential analyses (see ???) it is possible to conclude that results (as such) did not give that advice how to proceed with the partnership development. Instead of bringing the prior German experience closer to the cases of the other participating countries the results of the analysis tended underline the differences. In Germany the dual system of apprenticeship provided regulative frameworks and practical models for cooperation that had been piloted by VET colleges and partner enterprises. In the other countries there was a lack of mechanisms that could support the initial piloting and a lack of interest to proceed towards such piloting.

Therefore, the WLP project was facing difficulties in identifying a common ground for its subsequent activities. If the joint European-level activities and the country-specific pilot activities were expected to focus on initial VET and on initiatives that involve rotation between workplaces, most of the partners would have had problems. Instead, as a consequence of the preparatory analyses, the partners brought forward a broad variety of action contexts and points of interest for piloting or for further analyses.

1.3. Remarks on the revision of the working concept and on the achieved results

In the light of the above the joint discussion in the WLP project workshop in Velenje gave rise to review the approach to partnership development. The discussion was supported by an interim synthesis report that drew attention to different partnership concepts and to different networking models between training providers and partner enterprises. As a conclusion the WLP partners accepted that a wider range of partnership concepts and patterns of networking has to be considered as relevant for further analyses and piloting in the subsequent phase of the project. In particular it was agreed that partnership models can vary from bilateral partnership arrangements to multilateral schemes and networked cooperation arrangements. Therefore, it was agreed that the WLP project should bring forward action contexts in which knowledge sharing on workplace learning and joint development of training arrangements were central.