TIPEIL Transfer of an Innovative Portfolio to Evaluate Informal Learning LLP-LDV/TOI/07/IT/019 FINAL CONFERENCE Project presentation Rome, January 11 th 2010

TIPEIL is a Transfer of Innovation (ToI) project co-financed within LLP – Leonardo da Vinci Programme. Start date 15/11/2007 Close date 14/01/2010 PROJECT TIMING

PARTNERSHIP ITCe.Ri.S. – Social Research Centre - Soc. Coop a r.l. GRIEKEP - Institute of Training and Vocational Guidance ESMondragon University - Faculty of Business School (ETEO S.Coop) FREstia - Ecole Supérieure des Technologies Industrielles Avancées ITSolco S.r.l. - Services for the Organization of Labour and the Creation of Employment – Limited Company ITUniversity of Rome “La Sapienza” - Department of Development and Socialization Processes ITTrust S.r.l. - Technologies and Human Resources for Development and Transfer - Limited Company

TIPEIL : THE INNOVATION CONTENTS AND CONTEXT TIPEIL focused on the valorisation (making visible) of competences that young and adult workers developed within informal and non formal contexts. Being a TOI project, TIPEIL main goal was the transferring - to all national territories involved in the partnership (IT, ES, FR, GR) - of a Model based on a methodology supporting the creation of Electronic Portfolios, that had been developed within two previous transnational pilot interventions.

The transferring action implied: testing and experimentation activities realised in all countries with the cooperation of project direct beneficiaries (counselling and guidance operators mainly); training and coaching interventions addressed to beneficiaries during the experimentation of the Model within their specific working contexts.

TIPEIL TARGET GROUPS Direct beneficiaries: 1. operators working within training, counselling, guidance and employment organisations, providing these services to subjects that, for different reasons, are in social and occupational disadvantage; 2. organisations providing the services above mentioned, with respect to 2 main typologies of beneficiaries: young and adults.

Potential users: Young with low education levels who, for example, have left compulsory education pathways and are attending or have attended alternative training paths through which have acquired competences and capabilities difficult to be valorised or formally recognised by the system and that are at risk of “employment exclusion”; Young and adults who have realised fragmentary and heterogeneous working experiences, within which have acquired capabilities and skills potentially usable and improvable if properly identified, measured and valorised; Adults at risk of unemployment, whose competences acquired during their work-life-cycle do not meet within the systems effective tools and devices to valorise them. TIPEIL TARGET GROUPS

Main objectives: to promote the adoption of the Electronic Portfolio tool and method within all countries involved; to test its transferability and efficacy within the different national working contexts involved in the experimentation activity; to integrate and adapt the Model proposed on the base of the experimentation outcomes; to transfer a prototypical version of the electronic Portfolio tool and method in all countries, ready to be used by all organisations and institutions interested in its adoption. TIPEIL GENERAL GOALS

THE DIGITAL PORTFOLIO A process and a methodology elaborated during the Project: In.Tra. - Informal Training: recognition and accreditation (Youth programme ) Aim: recognition of informal competencies acquired by young disadvantaged people with a medium-low level of education Target group: young with few literate competencies (dropouts)

The methodology proposed implies a 5 phases process, based on: the realisation of Interviews realised by a tutor, adopting grids, protocols and schemes of reference to “assess” learning, starting from the activities and experiences realised; the collection and creation of proofs (material of different typologies – e.g. documents scanned, videos, photos, etc.) proving the experiences made and the learning achieved; the use of different softwares and tools (PC, scanner, camcorder, image and video editors, etc.).

Main strengths The process helps the person to become aware of the competencies and capabilities acquired within non formal and Informal learning contexts. It can be a part of a guidance counselling process and of institutional assessing procedures. The person is the actor of her/his assessment process: s/he is not evaluated by an external evaluator, just supported by the tutor. The final output provides concrete evidences proving the person’s competencies.

TIPEIL Activities

The project general articulation implied the implementation of different activities: Desk analysis, to verify the transferability and adaptability of the Model to different national contexts and towards different target groups; Field analysis, to identify training, technological and organisational needs related to each national territory involved in the partnership; Development of a beta version of the Model (EN). The Model implied: a web based interactive communication platform, working as a database, to support the creation of electronic portfolios; a Methodological handbook providing the main guidelines to apply the process implied in the creation of electronic portfolios; a technical Handbook to support the platform use.

Model Experimentation (first testing). The Model has been adopted and tested in all partner countries, involving around 15 different organisations that have produced around 20 digital portfolios in total. Analysis of the Experimentation outcomes. Analysis of the testing activity, based on the beneficiaries’ feedback and evaluation (operators). Development of the Final version of the Model (All languages + English). Production of 4 web based platforms (one for each national language) and related tools and handbooks (methodological and technical). Final Model Transfer. The final version of the Model has been transferred, disseminated and promoted in all partnership countries. In Italy and Greece in particular have been produced around 24 portfolios in total.

If compared to paper CV or paper Portfolios, the main characteristics of the Digital/Electronic Portfolio consist in the crucial role played by ICT devices. The Electronic Portfolio created by means of a web-based platform implies the typical advantages proper of the most common interactive Web Portals: unlimited storage capacity (can host files of different formats – text, video, audio, images, etc.); virtuality, allowing the possibility and opportunity to modify/update contents without any space and/or time bonds; accessibility and usability (easy upload and/or download of contents); WHY A WEB BASED PLATFORM?

capacity to act not only as an informative tool but also as a communicative one; presence of a considerable high cost/benefit ratio; endurance (difficult to be damaged if compared with paper, also because it can be masterized on CD Rom); quality and attractiveness of final output (high quality images, photos, videos and audios). WHY A WEB BASED PLATFORM?

TIPEIL Final outputs

CD Rom including: Electronic Portfolio Model: Methodological Handbook + Technical Guidelines to web-based platform use (all languages + English); Electronic Portfolio Model: Guide to the application of the Methodology when creating an Electronic portfolio + Technical Guidelines to web-based platform use (languages: IT-GR-EN, *ppt format); Research and Evaluation reports. Database of all portfolios realised: Project Platform on Project website TIPEIL platforms on line ( and on CD Rom (to be installed).

THANK YOU FOR THE ATTENTION Please go to our website: