Description
The programme is focused on the design and implementation of strategies addressed to improve students’ engagement, develop social and personal competences and provide tools for academic and/or professional success.
Through networking, by geographical areas, a work plan is developed with monthly meetings in which teachers exchange experiences and make proposals for work and reflection.
The work proposals are then transferred to each VET institution, where they are adapted and applied.
The programme also offers teachers a training plan that addresses three areas: instruments for tutorial action in VET, instruments for professional development and training in transversal skills.
Beneficiaries
VET students in public schools benefit from the strategies applied in order to improve their orientation. They also receive better academic support.
Countries
Education level and sector
This programme is addressed mainly to ISCED3b level in public VET centres.
Type of policy/initiative
Level of implementation / Scope
Orienta FP currently (2021-2022) has 117 VET centres. 30% of them have started their work plan in 2020, and others have different levels of implementation, having worked on orientation and support projects for some years now.
Aims of policy/initiative
OrientaFP has three main strategic objectives:
- provide resources for improvement and innovation in professional and academic guidance in VET;
- promote networking, exchange and dissemination of good practices among VET centres;
- assist schools in the implementation, development, and improvement of strategies to prevent early leaving from education and training, especially in intermediate VET (CFGM/ ISCED3B).
Features and types of activities implemented
This program
- activities addressed to support students to get informed about the specificities of every vocational sector and their own preferences, possibilities and related skills ( e.g. profile, occupations, professionals in the sector, resources to interact with the professional environment, professional guidance, guides , etc.);
- strategies to work alternatively with knowledge that improves autonomy, key competences and motivation;
- strategies to improve social integration in the classroom;
- activities to promote integration in the centre's social life to improve participation, positive identification, trust, creation of a positive role (e.g. cross-curricular activities, mentoring spaces, participation and leadership of students in centre's events, etc.);
- activities to facilitate adaptation to the new student status in VET for better agency, organisation, management of responsibility and knowledge of new frames of coexistence (e.g. self-management and work organisation, self-assessment, conflict resolution, participation in the creation of rules and guidelines, etc.).
The program
Resources
9.000 € from ESF
Human resources dedicated to the implementation of the initiative: one general coordinator and one half-time coordinator.
Evaluation of the measure
Programme effectiveness is evaluated through different indicators. Depending on the level of implementation of guidance plans in each centre, different indicators are considered, e.g.:
- implementation indicators: number of resources designed and that have been launched or are going to be implemented imminently;
- performance and satisfaction indicators: number of people participating in each centre in the designed plans, satisfaction by teaching teams and students;
- outcomes indicators: improvement in dropout rates and results in those centres that have already implemented plans.
These indicators are related with our three main objectives.
The programme’s first objective (Provide resources for improvement and innovative activities in professional and academic guidance of VET students) is to provide resources and/or facilitate their exchange between the VET centres. Different kind of resources are available, such as: activities designed for teachers, good practices of VET centres, action plans, and others. The programme entails more than 100 activities, which derive form VET teachers’ work, have been tested into practice, evaluated and verified regarding their adequacy,utility and impact.
Another important resource for teachers is the Training Plan. This plan is designed based on the needs of the teachers raised at the end of the academic course and offers training for professional development of the teaching staff, techniques and strategies for tutorial action and transversal competences).
In regards to the second strategic objective (promote networking and the exchange of good practices between VET centres, as well as their dissemination), Orienta FP has significantly increased the number of centres that participate in our programme and therefore increased the impact since its creation. In addition, collaborative work has been fostered between centres through shared projects. During the academic year 2020-21, 36% of the centres have started stable collaboration projects related to the professional orientation of students. In addition, the centres participate in meetings and public activities with other centres, where they annually share good practices or share part of the work carried out and put it in value (for example the "Mostra Impulsfp" or "the Quality Days in FP ", both annual events, in which we have participated since the 19-20 academic year).
The third strategic objective is specifically referred to the daily work with our VET centres: the implementation of measures to improve academic success, reduce the ELVET percentages and the training and professional trajectories of VET students. to the VET centres aim to implement improvement plans which reflect the measure of implementation, development and outcomes. Quantitative and qualitative data are collected by our coordinators in each VET centre and processed in the programme. We have a large number of indicators, apart from the general strategies, each course has operational indicators, about thematic lines discussed. For example, during academic year 20-2,1 we have worked on synergy maps of centres and its ecosystems to establish alliances that can benefit guidance and improvement plans, so an indicator has been the number of centre that had managed to establish relationships with agents in their environment to improve tutoring and career guidance plans (82% of the 20-21 centres).
Every year, when academic course ends, each centre must produce a report (qualitative and quantitative) on the activities carried out and their outcomes. This report and an active participation in the network are the main criteria established to obtain an official certificate of educational and training innovation. Reports are subjected to review as well as the activities carried out during the work sessions by the programme coordinator. Further, a basic condition for a VET centre that wants to be part of the programme is to have an Official Quality Certificate for its processes (ISO 9001), so all activities carried out within the framework of the programme in a centre can be subject to quality audits.
Evidence of effectiveness of the measure
Success factors
- Networking and collaborative work provide a useful and realistic experience for VET teachers.
- Possibility of offering alternative spaces to show good practices carried out by teachers to the entire educational community, for example, participation in events such as meetings, conferences (Mostra ImpulsFP or Jornada de Cloenda).
- There is a resource bank available for the centres that has been developed by the teaching staff.
- Individualised assistance to centres from the coordinators of the programme.
- Flexibility and adaptation to each centre during the implementation of work plans.
- Expert advising on different topics complementary to current needs on tutorial action and professional and academic guidance.
- Institutional support from Subdirecció General de Programes i Projectes d'FP (Educational Department of Regional government of Catalonia).
