HIDDEN COMPETENCES
– Conclusions of the conference and National Agency workshop
- Hidden Competences conference, June 11 2014, Helsinki, Finland
The conference “Hidden Competences”, organized by Centre for International Mobility CIMO and the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture, was based on a recent study report by CIMO and Finnish think thank Demos Helsinki. The study examined how employers rate the skills and knowledge acquired through international experiences. The conference that was also the official Erasmus+ launch conference in Finland, attracted some 300 participants, of which 50 from other European countries.
The main findings of the study report “Hidden Competences” can be summarized as follows:
-The research suggests, like many other studies, that transnational learning mobility produces the kind of competences that labour market needs to face future challenges successfully.
-However, the research also points out that in recruitment the employers often seem to be incapable of recognising these competences. They are not able to make the connection between learning mobility and the actual skills they need for their business or workplaces to flourish. For this reason, even ‘international’ employers are not able to give the necessary credit to competences acquired through international experiences in their recruitment processes. And those employers who do not operate internationally in the traditional sense, do not at all, or very little see the benefit of these competences.
-Most importantly, the report concludes that we should make the outcomes of the learning mobility more visible. To this end, we should re-examine our understanding of what international competencies are, how they are portrayed and identified.
-The research proposes that we should talk about the broader learning outcomes resulting from learning mobility instead of the more traditional competences such as language skills, intercultural competences or tolerance. This wider concept encompasses other attributes such as productivity, resilience and curiosity. In particular curiosity seems to be an attribute that merits further attention.
Also other related studies were presented during the conference:
-the Commission representative, Ms. RunaGudmarsdottir told about the Erasmus impact study made by CHE Consult and expected to be published in autumn.
-Ms. Alenka Flander (CMEPIUS, Slovenia) presented Slovenian and Brazilian studies on employers views.
-Mr Helmut Fennes (University of Innsbruck, Austria) told about outcomes of RAY (Research-based analysis and monitoring of Youth in Action) involving over 20 countries.
-MrSiegbertWuttig (DAAD, Germany) presented a meta-analysis of the outcomes of several studies made at DAAD.
These presentations were followed by input by Ms. Justina Paulauskaite, former EVS volunteer and exchange student and Sari Suono, Executive Vice President Human Resources of HKSCAN GROUP.The findings were discussed by a panel and the final comments were delivered by Mr. Bernd Wächter, ACA.
All presentations - as well as the numerous comments sent to the electronic message board that give a good idea of the discussions - can be found at
A few points merit to be highlighted:
-There was an overall agreement that we need to discuss in more detail the competences that are acquired through learning mobility or international cooperation in general.
-The studies seem to agree that learning mobility produces or at least strengthens also competences that are beyond the traditional ones(language skills, intercultural competences or tolerance).
-An important conclusion was that learning outcomes should be better described and young people should be able to better understand their learning experience and especially the learning outcomes and the development of their skills during the mobility. This would be empower young people, be beneficial for employers, and the society in general.
-As practical solutions following activities were identified: post mobility coaching, individual reflection, reflection with peers or with an expert. Student organizations such as Erasmus Student Network were seen also to play a key role, beyond the role played by adults such as teachers, coaches and mentors or guidance counsellors.
These issues were discussed in more detail in the NA workshop on the following day.
- Workshop for Erasmus+ National Agencies, 12.6.2014, Helsinki, Finland
Following the “Hidden Competences” conference on 12.6.2014, CIMO organized a workshop for the National Agencies representatives with the aim of discussing and planning future actions around the topic of international competencies.
The aim of the workshop was to:
-Discuss how to present outcomes of learning mobility in a way that speaks to employers and so that we can improve their relevance in the labour market.
-Discuss how to engage employers in a more thorough dialogue in order to make the hidden competences visible and understood.
-Discuss how to support and guide students and young people to help them recognise their hidden competences and make them visible.
-Plan a TCA/TCAs around these topics. The idea was also that the workshop would serve as stepping stone to the inter-agency impact seminar in Bordeaux in October 2014.
The workshop attracted over 40 participants from some 20 countries. It took place in CIMO premises. Main discussions and recommendations can be summarized as follows.
- On evidence based analysis in general
- Evidence based analysis of programme results (EBA) is in the spot-light in Erasmus+
-The new Erasmus+ programme puts more emphasis on EBA which is also reflected in the NA tasks and work programmes.
-Even though many NAs already have experience of studies and surveys, the activities have usually been more occasional - a more strategic approach is needed in the future.
-It is important to have a clear picture WHY the NAs are undertaking EBA activities, for whose sake and what we want to gain from them. It was pointed out that justifying Erasmus+ and its continuation beyond 2020 cannot be the only rational, as this could undermine the credibility of the EBA activities. EBA should bring objective information for decision makers and wider public (European and national level) on the impact of European cooperation in E&T&Y and transnational cooperation in general in order to support the development of our societies.
-For the NAs EBA is an opportunity to widen their activities beyond pure programme management. At the same time it can be a source for feedback on programme implementation, and i.e. bring information on barriers in participation.
1.2EBA is a management challenge
-EBA requires different type of approach from the NAs compared to the “normal” programme lifecycle management.
-Whilst building on expertise acquired by NA staff, it typically requires cooperation with experts/organisations external to NA.
-Even if an activity is outsourced to an external organization/expert, follow-up, monitoring and guidance is needed from the NA which has to be taken into account when managing resources.
-The timespan of an EVA activity can extend over several years. In particular dissemination and exploitation of its results requires time and resources – the work is not finalized when the actual research work is done. Furthermore it is not granted that original research reports can be used as such for dissemination, but shorter, reader friendly summary reports/publications tailored for the target group need some time to be produced.
-All this is a management challenge for the NAs: staffing, resourcing, timing!
1.3Think out of the box – ensure the use of existing expertize and data
-NAs should use expertise that already exists: research organisations and experts who have knowhow on the topics that are analysed: statisticians, HR specialists, teachers, guidance practitioners, career services, students.
-There is also much existing data on national and European levels, such as national statistical offices, Eurostat, OECD.
-It should be ensured that the already existing data in Erasmus+ IT tools can be utilised. E.g. the NAs should have access to the raw data in the Mobility tool.
-The needs of the NAs should be taken into account when developing common IT tools. It has to be ensured e.g. that the reporting forms collect the type of indicators and data that can be used at European and national level and that there is a common understanding on the content of this data.
1.4Need for NA cooperation
Many of the studies are country specific and respond to national needs. At the same time, there have been several studies, done at more or less the same time in different countries, that have addressed the same topics from slightly different points of view. Exchanging information and closer cooperation would be beneficial for all: new studies could be built on existing ones, same vocabulary or similar type of approaches would make the studies more comparable and strengthen their relevance. There should be enforced inter-agency cooperation and cooperation with the Commission.
Following issues were identified:
-Annual NA meetings, involving staff working with EBA.
-Single entrance point in web for all surveys made by the NAs and the Commission, i.e. a common European platform for sharing information on EBA. It should include information on a) finalised studies and their results, but equally also on b) ongoing studies and also on c) planned, future studies. Further the platform could be used for sharing information on the methodologies and tools used. Such a platform could be based on the work done by the French agency already now, by developing it further.
-“Positive” copying of studies, i.e. same type of studies would be repeated in other countries.
-Joint methodology, common tools, common data formats.
-Sharing information on best practices: how to organize EBA within a NA, how to best pass information to stakeholders/policy makers, etc.
- How to make hidden competences more visible
The participants were split in smaller groups to discuss more in detail the “hidden competences” and how we could make them more visible. Below some highlights of the discussions can be found.
2.1Need for common understanding on the competences
During the conference several studies on international competences were presented. In the Commission study the competences were described by 6 different attributes (including curiosity!), the Finnish study proposed new 3 attributes in addition to the three traditional ones, SiegbertWuttig proposed that the competences should be linked to the five “big factors of personality” known in psychology.
Dialogue and further research would be needed to improve our understanding of these competences and to create a common understanding and even a common vocabulary/classification. This would help in making the outcomes of learning mobility more visible not only on a national level, but also on a European level and improve the exchange of both data and views between the countries and also the Commission and Member States. As the personal competences are attitudinal or behavioristic, cooperation with psychologist or HR experts could be useful. This was identified as one potential joint TCA project.
2.2Support and guidance to students and young people
If the young people do not understand which new competences they have acquired / strengthened during their stay abroad, they cannot not “sell” themselves when looking for employment. One group discussed how to address this issue. Some conclusions:
-The NAs should cooperate with the "mobility organisers" –teachers, coordinators, coaches and mentors, guidance staff, career counselling services, i.e. persons who work directly with the mobile young persons.
-Mobility organisers should be motivated and trained and provided with materials/guidelines they can use when preparing and working with their students (short and concise fact sheets, excercises, ready to use materials and examples).
-Students should be involved more actively in mobility preparations including also discussions on planned learning outcomes and effects on key skills, in order to be made more aware of the types of issues they should reflect on.
-Compared to the current situation, there should also be more focus on follow up, and guidance after the mobility, and not only right after arrival, but later – e.g. after 6 months.
-NA s could organise workshops on this topic – national or international, and share their ideas.
-Some of the activities could be funded from TCA, including the development of common materials, excercises and modelswith the end-users.
2.3Working life should be more involved
Companies - and working life in general - are as future employers of mobile students and youth “end-users” of Erasmus+. However, the National Agencies do not often have direct contacts to host organisations in their own country, as it is the educational institutions and organisations or the students (in HE) that themselves look for host organisations without the involvement of the NA. One group discussed how to better involve working life and how to make them aware of the “hidden competences”. The discussion can be summarized under two main questions:
Why should we get companies/working life more engaged in Erasmus+ activities?
-One aspect is to ensure placements for students. Do we and do the companies recognise what an employer gains from hosting trainees. Should this be more studied?
-More importantly one should look at the employability: the companies should be made more aware of the fact that people who have been mobile can bring added value to the company.
How to get companies more involved?
-Companies are different, ranging from SMEs to large companies and multinational companies. They may not be familiar with the language of the educational world (except in HR of large companies. Furthermore social partners and working life representatives as well as chamber representatives use different language and have different priorities.
-The information addressed to the employers needs to be well done and quickly readable. Promotion and communications is important, but at the same time there cannot be focus on only on promotion but also facts and figures need to be correct and well founded. The information should address the needs of the companies – how to make profit / how to be cost-effective / how to be innovative.
-As company representatives do not attend seminars on international mobility, the NAs should get to their seminars / meetings to present impacts of international mobility.
-It would be useful to establish a network of “friend companies”, at national level but also even at the European level.
-Exchange of good practices and development of working practices to involve enterprises could be a topic for inter-agency cooperation.
2.4Some further research topics
Several other ideas for NA cooperation/future research were proposed during the workshops. Below some of them:
-longitudinal study on how originally Comenius pupils/students later progress in their educational pathway and in the working life and how they maybe return to the Erasmus+ also later.
-outcomes of teachers/trainers/staff mobility, and
-extending RAY type research consortia also to the different fields of Education and Training.
- Steps forward
It was agreed that the Finnish NA, as host of the workshop, will make a summary of the discussions and disseminate it to the National Agency Directors and the Commission. The report could serve also as one background document for the Bordeaux seminar.
As a concrete action it was proposed that an updated list of already existing surveys and results should be gathered before Bordeaux meeting. Information on the methodologies used in the surveys should be included. Furthermore, the list could also include info on ongoing research as well as on upcoming or planned research.
Finally it was pointed out that it should be possible in future to have TCAs also in Higher Education.
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CIMO, July 2014