Expanding the quality “spirit” of VET

Q&VET

Within the framework of the EU-funded Leonardo da Vinci project “Q&VET- Expanding the quality “spirit” of VET”, Quality Austria develops a guideline for managers of education and further education institutes on the topic "Promotion of quality awareness in education and further education" in cooperation with the partner countries Sweden, Holland, Italy, Turkey and Russia.

The project aims to improve the efficiency of measures for quality assurance in education and further education by motivating teachers to more active participation.

The project was launched in November 2012 in Austria and ends in mid- 2015.

Teachers and managers of education and further education institutes

Online survey

  

Step one of this project was an online survey in education and further education institutes in all participating countries on the subject of planning, implementation and impact of quality initiatives, which was carried out in April this year.

In the analysis of the survey, responses of teachers were compared with those of managers and subsequently also examined, whether quality assurance measures that have been carried out by the organization on their own motivation were judged differently than those, who were prescribed from outside the organization.

Thank you at this point to all the participating organizations:
FH Campus Wien, FH Joanneum, FH St. Pölten, FH Krems IMC, FH Steyr, FH Technikum Wien, Berufsschule für Maschinen-, Fertigungstechnik und Elektronik, Siegfried Marcus Berufsschule Wien, Tiroler Fachberufsschule für Elektrotechnik, Kommunikation und Elektronik, HTL Steyr, HAK: ibc Hetzendorf, Mode und Kunstschule Herbststraße, WIFI Kärnten, WIFI Oberösterreich

Teachers and managers of education and further education institutes

In-depth workshop

  

As further step, in-depth workshops with teaching and management staff were conducted in November 2013 in all participating countries, to obtain detailed solutions and suggestions for improvement, which provide, together with the results of the online survey, valuable information for the preparation of the guideline. Participants in Austria were HTL St. Pölten, FH Joanneum, FH Krems , FH Campus Wien , HTL Rennweg and HLW Pressbaum. Again I take this opportunity to thank all participants for the cooperation!

Managers of education and further education institutes on the topic "Promotion of quality awareness in education and further education"

Development of a guideline

A previous survey with teachers in education and further education revealed that many teachers are of the opinion, that:

  • Quality management focuses too little on the learning process
  • Focus of quality initiatives is on business issues rather than on teaching
  • Quality management only creates additional paperwork and does not improve the quality of teaching

Based on the above statements, the proposed guideline should provide help managers in the education and further education regarding following questions:

  • How to create awareness for the ideology of quality assurance and its benefits?
  • How to involve employees when selecting a quality assurance model?
  • How to involve employees in the planning of quality initiatives?
  • How to maintain the involvement of the teachers during the implementation of quality assurance measures?
  • How to plan the evaluation of the results of quality assurance together with the teachers?
  • How to evaluate the effectiveness of the quality management system and to plan improvements?
  • How can this best be used in management of employees and how to promote a common vision in education and further education?

Quality Austria is head of this work package.

Conclusion

This project intends to strengthen the role of teachers in the implementation of quality initiatives in education and further education. At the same time it should allow education and further education institutes to overcome current barriers when implementing, evaluating and improving quality assurance measures.
At EU level this project should facilitate the work of EQAVET ( European Quality Assurance for Vocational Education and Training) in monitoring the impact of their quality models and indicators in vocational education and training.

    

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

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Team

Ms. Barbara Stöhrmann

International Trainings and Projects, Integrated Management System of Quality Austria

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