#SELFIE_EU comes to Work Based Learning

A WBL module added to SELFIE

SELFIE, the free tool developed by the European Commission for schools to self-reflect on their digital readiness, is now being extended for work-based learning (SELFIE WBL).

The WBL pilot is being run in seven countries. In the EU, France, Germany, Hungary and Poland are piloting SELFIE WBL under the coordination of the European Forum of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (EfVET) and the Joint Research Centre (JRC). Three ETF partner countries – Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey – have been added in cooperation with the European Training Foundation (ETF).

A feasibility study on Adapting the SELFIE tool for work-based learning systems in VET , published in February 2020, concluded that “there is large potential for the SELFIE tool to be applied widely in VET and more specifically in work-based learning”, particularly in absence of any other similar tool in the WBL ecosystem.

As a result, the SELFIE WBL pilot is now aiming to test how the tool would be received by VET schools, their partner companies and the learners themselves. This phase is meant not only to validate the WBL module, but also to provide feedback on necessary improvements. The self-reflection exercise is being run by the VET schools, and both the schools and the companies they cooperate with must fill in the SELFIE survey, thus turning the tool into a school-company application, bringing together the two learning environments. The voices of in-company trainers will be added to those of teachers, learners and school leaders, via a fourth survey, specially designed.

Two kick-off meetings were organised for the countries that will be piloting SELFIE WBL – one for EU member states (Germany, France, Poland, Hungary), on the 29^th of July 2020, and one for ETF partner countries (Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey) on the 21^st of July 2020. While these two meetings might have been more festive pre-pandemic, the digital format in which they took place has certainly helped the coagulation of a stakeholder community that is now collaborating during the pilot roll-out. It is a community we expect will keep on growing, as new countries start to sign up for SELFIE and SELFIE WBL.

JRC data shows that 37% of all SELFIE users are from the SEET region, as well as 29% of all SELFIE countries. Of these – Serbia, Montenegro and Turkey were selected to pilot SELFIE WBL based on their experience and results in the initial SELFIE pilot.

Close-up of the SEET countries in the pilot

Serbia was part of the very first SELFIE pilot, in 2017, and became one of the first countries to implement SELFIE, integrating the tool into its Government ICT Action Plan. WBL is implemented in 120 Serbian VET schools located in 52 cities and municipalities, educating roughly 4500 students, in cooperation with 600 companies. The share of WBL in Serbia is around 10% of the entire secondary vocational education and is on an upward trend. ICT is the proposed sector for piloting SELFIE WBL in Serbia, with 17 VET WBL schools, which will all be invited to participate in the pilot.

In Montenegro, SELFIE was piloted in May 2019 with 10 schools, only to then be introduced in all the primary and secondary schools in the country. In the current school year, there are 35 VET institutions eligible to pilot SELFIE WBL, and 13 will be participating in the WBL pilot. The proposed sector for Montenegro is hospitality.

In Turkey, 9% (~1.600.000) of all students and 13% (~144.000) of all teachers are in vocational and technical secondary education. The SELFIE pilot was run in March-April 2019, in 213 e-twinning schools across 47 provinces. The sector proposed for the SELFIE WBL pilot is engineering, with a minimum of 15 companies to be included in this phase of the project. The Ministry of National Education (MoNE) will be selecting the companies, from a set of at least three choices per school, proposed by each school coordinator.

Requirements and expected results

The selection criteria for schools to participate in the SELFIE WBL pilot specify they need to have:

some form of WBL planned for the school year
at least one company/employer with two or more in-company trainers and
prior experience with SELFIE and an existing SELFIE team.

VET schools and companies will be selected to cover a variety of characteristics – rural and urban, large and small, public and private (if applicable).

The pilot will conclude with a study in each country, comprising of an in-depth case study, interviews, summaries of the data, and comparisons between different participating schools and companies. All this is to be cross-checked and presented in the form of a final report, based on which SELFIE WBL will be adjusted and improved, before a wider roll-out. Opportunities for EU and partner countries to cooperate will be created, both in the deployment phase and in the reporting phase of the pilot.

Riding the second COVID wave

The SELFIE WBL pilot in SEET runs on an ambitious timeline, particularly under the added uncertainty of school openings and a potential second wave of COVID-19. Back-up measures such as larger sample sizes and accelerated country kick-offs have been discussed. The deadline for final reports is set to December 2020, and the new questionnaire for in-company trainers is being translated into each of the local languages as we speak.

The ETF and the JRC have highlighted the advantage of enrolling schools that have already completed a SELFIE process, but also the importance of remembering all will be new for the companies.

“Companies play a crucial role in WBL, and we are making special efforts to make sure they are committed and understand it’s not just about filling out a questionnaire, but a pilot of a tool that should be run regularly, as a key driver for the modernization of the VET dual system. So we are relying on their critical input” said Alessandro Brolpito, ETF, in one of the online SELFIE WBL meetings.