TransFair Bratilslava 14-16 October 2004

EUCEBS
TRANSFAIR Bratislava – 14-15 October 2004
A PATHWAY TO THE EUROPEAN MARKET
OF BASIC SKILLS

ABOUT EUCEBS
EUCEBS = EUropean CErtificate of Basic Skills
Partners:
 The University of Edinburgh, UK (promotor)
 Andragoski centre Slovenije, Slovenia
 Centre Populaire d’Enseignement, Marseille, France
 Consorzio Universitario della Provincia di Ragusa, Italy
 CEJAC – Barcelona, Spain
 Deutsches Rotes Kreuz, Kreisverband Bremen, Germany
 Kerry Education Service, Ireland
 University of Craiova, Faculty of Economic Science Drobeta Turnu
Severin, Romania
 European Trade Union – Bruxelles, Belgium
 The UK Basic Skills Agency

Project Rationale
To develop multi-lingually, for a European market, six-part,
competence-based certification that will “make visible” to employers
what those who gain the certification can do. The standard required
of candidates for certification will be the same in each European
country. The six parts, or domains, of the certification are
Communication, Numeracy, ICT, Learning to Learn, Interpersonal
Skills and Citizenship.

Specific Aims
 To work as a partnership team to develop and make available,
for pilot groups of trainees, a European-standard
qualification in Basic Skills that can be attained in an on- line
learning environment;
 To make available, to the trainers who will teach and support
these trainees, training in the use of the EUCEBS website
 To develop a Qualified EUCEBS Assessor award specific to 1. and
2.
 To contribute to the systematic development that is taking place,
under the social partners’, the EC’s and CEDEFOP’s aegis,
of the means for and portability of pan-European skills
certification.

Target Audience
The project reached its target audience through contacts with The
Local Agency of Workforce Occupation and through mass media
publicity.
 Adults with no formal qualifications, early schools leavers,
immigrants from non-European countries, gypsy travellers,
prisoners, those not yet equipped for the information
society, and those wishing to apply for jobs in a different
European country from their own;
 Training and learning centres, social work services, government
agencies, and the social partners.

Addressed Needs
 The need to improve literacy and other basic skills in the EU
population
 The need to achieve greater social inclusion/citizen participation
 The need to develop the potential of e-learning envisaged by the
Europe initiative (2000) of the ECDG. For the Information
Society which aims at “overcoming the barriers, which are
still holding back the uptake of digital technologies” by
“creating a digitally literate and entrepreneurial Europe”
and “ensuring a socially inclusive information society”
 The need to promote greater mobility of the EU workforce
 The need to reach ethnic and other minority groups
 The need for transparency of qualification

Exploitation and Dissemination
 The EUCEBS website (www.eucebs.org),
 Become a member of the CEDEFOP TRANSPARENCY and NON-FORMAL
AND INFORMAL LEARNING Virtual Communities
 Engaged in dialogue with members of the European Commission
responsible for Transparency and Non-formal and Informal Learning
 International conferences:
 - a paper on EUCEBS at the French Socrates-Leonardo National
Agency's conference on Transparency, Bordeaux, March 2004;
- a presentation of the EUCEBS ePortfolio prototype at the E-
PORTFOLIO 2004 international conference in La Rochelle
at the end of this month.
 Entered EUCEBS for the 2nd Grundtvig Adult Education Award to be given
out by the European Association for Adult Education
Carried out, International Level

 In Romania:
- contacts with the Ministry of Education which have expressed their
disponibility for certificate accreditation in the field of education
and advised on future steps;
- contacts with the Local Agency for Vocational Training of Adults,
the National Agency of Workforce Occupation, the Ministry of
Labour and Social Protection
 Partner’s web sites:
- Romanian partner: www.svedu.ro/en/eucebs (English version)
and www.svedu.ro/eucebs (Romanian version)
- Slovenian partner: siae.acs.si/projects/o29/
- Ragusa University,www.unirg.it/Attivita/progetto%20eucebs.htm
Carried out, National Level

 Presentation of a paper on EUCEBS in Florence in January, at a
conference put on by Regione Toscana entitled
"Focus on Competencies";
 participations in nartional/international conferences
 contacts with massmedia, local National Agency of Workforce
Occupation and the Ministry of Education in all
participants’s countries.
Planned

Present Results
 EUCEBS web site (www.eucebs.org)
 EUCEBS ePortfolio
 Pilot the certificate in the partner’s countries in own languages
 EUCEBS Evidence of Competencies :
 EUCEBS tests are being written at this moment in all partner
countries.
 EUCEBS Certificate in Romania

EUCEBS web site
 Available in seven languages
 Information on EUCEBS
 Access to the e-portfolio system
 Details of the certificates and competencies
 Used for dissemination of EUCEBS work
 Adheres to disability standards where possible
Present Results

Language selection
W3C compliant

About
EUCEBS
Links to information for various interested persons
Menu options

EUCEBS ePortfolio
 Student centred learning
 Accreditation of prior learning
 e-portfolio is being used as an alternative alongside traditional
testing
 Student/tutor management system
 Reflection potential – reflective diary
Present Results

Process of
submitting
coursework

TransFair Bratilslava 14-16 October 2004

EUCEBS Certificate in Romania
Present Results

Future Results and Plans
 On-line accreditation will be available in all domains
 Accreditation of Certificate at the European level and in each
partner country of the project
 Certificate Interoperable with the Europass documentation
 Registration of adult training centres with EUCEBS with a
consequent exponential building up of opportunities for
trainee to acquire the Certificate
 Provision of governmental financial grants to training centres for
trainees to attain the Certificate
 Training provision for people most at a disadvantage in the
labour market

Interaction with the Europass documents
EUCEBS has a project-specific ePortfolio allowing artefacts to be
lodged in evidence of each competence in each domain. This
portfolio will be interoperable with the Europass documentation that
are being worked on in order to become operational and available in
2005. We are thinking and hoping for our EUCEBS candidates who
passed all the competencies in a EUCEBS domain to fill in
electronically the European Certificate Supplement Document as part
of the Europass documentation. In this way our project answers the
demands of the European Parliament for an improved transparency
of qualifications and competencies that will facilitate mobility
throughout Europe, therefore contributing to the development of
quality education and training.

Added Values
The EUCEBS Slovenian partner, the Slovenian Institute for Adult
Education (SIAE), are leading EUCEBS in this aspect, as they are
overall responsible for our Qualified EUCEBS Assessor award. This
award, like our other certification, will sit within an own EUCEBS
verification framework, which we are developing trans-nationally to
be pan-European, under our own brand name in line with the
recommendations to Training 2010 of the EC Expert Group on Non-
Formal and Informal Learning. We are seeking the endorsement of
the qualifications authorities (the Ministry of Education) in the
EUCEBS partner countries and, in sofar as possible, transparency
with their services.

Possible Barriers
• Difficulty of agreeing and setting one level, within the project as
a whole, at which basic-skills competences must be
demonstrated and tested.
• Government monopoly, in some countries, on what may be
validated.
• Consequent uncertainty of local and regional funding support for
training centres offering the EUCEBS programme.
• Suspicion, in some countries, of innovative methods.
• Suspicion of university validation of basic-skills qualifications.
• Difficulty of integrating Education and Social Work
professionalisms.
For EUCEBS’ Success

EUCEBS Plans
for sustaining the project results
after the end of the project
EUCEBS Foundation
Headquarters of our not-
for-profit company
(location ?)
Validation
procedures
Continuing R&D
(new LdV project?
New partners?)
National Testing Centres (in contact with EUROPASS)
(The initial testing centres are the current partner agencies)
UKSiRoIrlIFrEsDe
Learning
Centres,
SME’s
(De)
Learning
Centres,
SME’s
(Es)
Learning
Centres,
SME’s
(Fr)
ETC…

Thank You
Ecaterina Paun
ecatrerina.paun@ucv.ro

TransFair Bratilslava 14-16 October 2004

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TransFair Bratilslava 14-16 October 2004