Conference
Quality assurance of Youth Career Consultancy
/QA in YCC conference/
Sofia, 19th – 20th September 2008
1. General information:
Aim:
The aim of QA in YCC conference is to present the current situation and tendencies in the quality assurance in career guidance. Having in mind that QA in YCC is closely related to the VET (Vocational Education and Training) system and to the youth work, the additional aim of the conference is to enlighten on the current tendencies of QA in the youth work and in the VET.
Context:
In some areas of VET, like the youth work, youth vocational training and youth career services there is still a lack of developed QA approaches and instruments. Even in considerable part of more advanced career guidance centers existing many year, for example, university guidance centers for graduated students or for other qualified job seekers, there are just limited part of QA instruments. Some of the guidance services have process assessment methods, some of them have external assessment procedures performed by the authorities but only few of them have a developed QA system.
QA in YCC as a part of QA in VET
QA issues are into the focus of QA agencies and bodies both on international level and national level in Europe, but there are still big differences in of QI (Quality indicators) and measures in different VET systems. QA in VET could be explored on international, national and local level.
On European level, CEDEFOP (Technical working group on quality in VET) have outlined The European common reference framework on quality in VET, in which 5 steps of the framework are related to core criteria for quality and possible indicators. The European Commission, following The Council Resolution and Declaration of the European Ministers of Vocational Education and Training, has also produced framework materials like “Fundamentals of a common quality assurance framework”. These materials are following also the main conclusions of the Maastricht Communiqué (14.Dec.2004) and the review of the Copenhagen Declaration (30.Nov.2002) especially in relation to “achieving high level of quality and innovation in VET systems” and “make European VET globally competitive”; Last years, EU programmes like Leonardo da Vinci, some PHARE tenders are also focusing quality improvement of VET systems.
On regional level (different parts of Europe), there are different level of QA in the VET systems. While in countries like UK, Ireland, The Netherlands (usually in most North-European countries) there are more “systematic” VET systems and respectively more developed QA systems, in some Eastern Europe countries we still witness a situation with lack of some fundamental resources in VET systems (according to European Training Foundation reports). In some Central European countries, like German-speaking ones, VET systems are mostly focused on continuous education tightly connected with the employers unions and the QA issues are also oriented to continuous education. QA issues related to career services and particularly youth career services seem to be more systematically developed in North European countries.
On national level, there is quite big difference in quality indicators of VET and QA approaches. In some countries, quality indicators are mostly focusing the administrative capacity of the services, in other countries we could identify quality indicators related to programmes and targets. In countries like UK and Ireland, the core elements of QA are different forms of internal and external assessment. The Scottish Quality Management system is highly regarded system, and elements of it have been incorporated in the VET quality systems of England, Poland, Ireland, and Australia. The Scottish QA system has very developed audit subsystem and well defined standards for QA. In The Netherlands, the strong external monitoring and control contributes to the quality of VET. In some Eastern European countries like Bulgaria and Romania, we are still facing lack of developed QA system in VET. The recent transformations of the labour market in the Eastern European countries have destroyed the old system of qualification standards and quality control and the new qualification system is still in a process of building. In those countries, we are facing quite dynamic development of career services and particularly youth career services. UK is one of the countries with most developed youth services at all. In most of towns there are a number of youth services like youth information centers, youth career centers, housing centers, health-care centers, drug prevention centers, multicultural centers. In order to maintain the quality of services, local and national authorities usually develop standards and instruments for assessment for those services. Some city council authorities in UK have QA instruments for the general youth work including some elements about QA in the youth career guidance. Also, some of the UK local authorities are tying to develop QI and frameworks for the general youth work and to develop standards and common/recognized curricula for the youth workers (the Cambridgeshire framework for QA, Barnsley QA framework, Plymouth City Council quality standards for youth work etc.). In Ireland, The Netherlands, Spain and some other countries, there are just few materials about QA of youth work in the youth centers. In most of the European countries there is a lack of any QA resources related to YCC.
2. Main topics and focus of the conference:
2.1 QA in youth career guidance, for example:
à defining the quality areas in the youth career guidance;
à proposing quality indicators (QI) in the youth career guidance;
à QA systems in the youth career guidance – approaches and practices;
2.2. QA in the youth work, for example:
à Defining the quality areas in the youth work;
à Proposing quality indicators (QI) in the youth work;
à How to make the indicators measurable and valuable;
à QA systems in the youth work – approaches and practices;
à QA of youth services: youth information services, youth training events (exchanges, out-of-school activities etc);
2.3. QA in VET, for example:
à International and national approaches and tendencies, QA frameworks in VET;
à Local (VET school) approaches;
à QA practices in schools/universities (responding the labour market requirements);
2.4. QA tools and cases, for example:
à Quality assessment tools;
à Practical cases (templates, questionnaires etc);
à Workbooks and tutorials;
à Using modern media for developing QA tools (online tools, multimedia tools etc.);
3. Dates and place of the event:
The event will take place in Sofia, Bulgaria. The dates of the event are 19th – 20th September 2008.
4. Accommodation and travel:
There is a possibility to cover the accommodation and travel expenses of the “actively” participating experts (lecturers, speakers etc.) in case of approval of their submissions /papers, inputs etc./. Accommodation of the invited experts will be in *** and **** hotels in Sofia, food and local costs will be also covered. Travel of the invited participants will be covered up to the limit of 400 EUR. Please, fill in the application form provided and send it for approval.
5. Organizers:
QA in YCC conference is organized by SCAS and QA in YCC Leonardo project partners: Marie Curie Association - Bulgaria, FIT - Ireland, Plymouth City Council Youth Services - UK, Youth Career and Advising Center - Lithuania, Universities of Presov – Student Services Center – Slovakia and National student information and career center - Bulgaria.
Organizers have considerable experience in quality assurance aspects of youth guidance. The organizers are also working in collaboration to QA experts from EU institutions, European training associations and universities, some of them will be invited as key speakers to the conference.
6. How to apply and next steps:
- Send the filled application form until May 30th 2008;
- Notification of the selected presentations will be send until June 15;
- Full paper/inputs submission until June 30;
- Conference dates: 19th – 20th September 2008;
- Publishing the papers and conference results (within 2 months after the conference);
Send the filled application forms by e-mail to:
For questions:
Tsvetelina Ilieva,
Tel: +359 2 9870293
Fax: +359 2 9877477
10, Narodno sabranie sq., Sofia 1000, Bulgaria
www.scas.acad.bg