ECEtt-Pilot Confidential document. Property of Trempoline ...ECEtt-Pilot Confidential document. Property of Trempoline NGO, Belgium. Page 3 3 General introduction This report is the

ECEtt-Pilot Confidential document. Property of Trempoline NGO, Belgium. Page 1

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“Knowledge exchange is knowledge creation”

Summary of the ECEtt-Pilot report1

INTRODUCTION (by G van der Straten)

Part 1 : The journeymen apprenticeship method transferred to training for social workers

By Georges van der Straten, Trempoline, Belgium

Pyramide de mémorisation

Introduction

1. The training method

1.1 Phases in the trade (image: Phases of the trades)

1.2 A self training device with three main protagonists:

1.2.1 Network of institutions (diagram: the ECEtt network)

1.2.2 Knowledge exchange concept (image: bottom-up & top-down)

a) “A” visits (“A” visits”)

b) “B” traineeships (“B” traineeships)

c) “C” and “D” traineeships (“C” traineeships + “D” courses)

1.2.3 The trainees as main actors

1.3 Learning process

1.4 Designing one’s training courses with the helpdesks. (im: “tools to travel” + “9 steps for A,B,C”)

1.5 Training objectives

2. Evaluation of competencies

2.1 Competencies and meta-competencies

2.2 The gathering of evaluations on the e-learning platform (im: evaluation and follow-up)

2.3 Final validation of meta-competencies by the panel

2.4 Validation of good practices

2.5 Certification of “C” skills needed for a “D” course

2.6 Feed-back to the employers and to the training organizer

Bibliography

Part 2: The project progress (by Alban van der Straten)

1. Initial context

2. 2. Adequacy of our objectives with those of EU

3. An original pedagogy

4. Hierarchy of the objectives and the products

5. Reactivity and participation of the partners

6. Paperwork

7. Communication and language issues

8. Crises amongst partners

9. Coaching of the networking

10. Evaluation

11. Good practices

12. Uniting the various layers of the project

Part 3: The e-learning community within ECEtt project

1 Full report in French can be requested at [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]


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(by Andrea Ascari, CeIS-Formazione, Italy)

Abstract

1. Introduction

2. Write or talk

3. Our final target group

4. Miltiple use of the e-learning system

5. Questionnaires

6. An on-line archive of the project

7. Database

8. Agenda

9. Training

10. Support to trainees

11. Descroption of the SC area

12. Description of the trainee’s area

13. Facts

14. Technical data

15. Perspectives

Part 4. Dissemination plan (by José Antonio Jimenez, Proyecto Hombre, Spain)

1. Introduction

2. Dissemination

2.1 First objective (table 1)

2.2 Second objective

2.3 Third objective

Conclusion

Part 5. Evaluation by University of Ghent (by Ilse Goethals)

Introduction

1. Preparation phase

1.1 development of pre-selection criteria

1.2 analysis of the application forms

1.3 assessment of the final training objectives

2. Evaluation method and results

2.1 Method

2.2 Results

2.2.1 Evaluation of the training method by the trainees

2.2.2 Evaluation of the training method by the hosts

2.2.3 Evaluation of the training method by the employers

2.2.4 Final evaluation of the exchange by the C trainees

3. Good practices and implementation project of C trainees

3.1 Good practices

3.2 Implementation project

4. Conclusions and recommandations

Conclusions


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General introduction

This report is the synthesis of a teaching experiment carried out, between 2006 and 2008, by a European network of ten institutions within the “Leonardo da Vinci Pilot” framework. Certain partners are the authors of chapters corresponding to their particular contribution. The goal of this work is to draw attention to the main principles of the journeyman apprenticeship (“compagnonnage” in French, which literally means “companionship”), as applied by ECEtt to the education sector. A detailed report (in French) contains more information about the journeyman tradition and the genesis of the ECEtt network as well as technical details relating to the training process, its financing and the prospects for its practical application. Readers who wish to do so can obtain this more detailed account of the “compagnonnage” process transferred to the professional sectors of education from ECEtt ([email protected]).

Part 1. The journeyman apprenticeship method transferred

to training for social workers

by Georges van der Straten, General Manager of Trempoline NGO

“Memory retention pyramid according to Martin & Savary (1998) I listen: I remember 20% I listen and I see: I remember 50% I listen, I see and I express myself: I remember 70% I listen, I see, I express myself and I act: I remember 90% “

INTRODUCTION

ECEtt-Pilot is an initiative of Trempoline NGO[1] relating to the transfer of the journeyman apprenticeship method to the training of social workers. The ECEtt project began in 2003, initially on a self-funded basis, and went through several phases of development, the last of which was within the Leonardo da Vinci “Pilot” programme 2006-2008[1]. In accordance with this programme, the ECEtt-Pilot project aims to:

o improve quality in training for professionals. o stimulate a culture for developing skills throughout people’s professional life. o increase the capacity of individuals to adapt to organizational and technological changes.

The Leonardo da Vinci “Pilot” programme finances strictly experimental training projects with a view to testing new training methods. Such projects thus involve designing, developing, experimenting with, evaluating and disseminating innovative practices as regards methods, contents, media or products of vocational training. The objective of ECEtt-Pilot is thus to describe and test an innovative method which stimulates training quality as well as the integration of new technologies of communication.

The roots of this project are in the particular context of “therapeutic communities” (TCs) for addicted persons. Thirty years after their birth as original and marginal experiments intended for a small number of drug addicts, the European TCs are confronted with a big challenge: to consolidate their identity and the evidence of their added value or to disappear or see their specific identity being “dissolved” in the medico-psychiatric system. This would threaten their originality which relates to three pillars: a global or

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.worldlingo.com/SjGle6L45449cTzNBG_PrmNOAM8S4Frkz/msowin11?service=WorldLingo_FR-EN&lcidFrom=1036&lcidTo=1033&lcidUI=1036&t=591BCC62-C5AF-48A1-DCBC-3CD64754B7EF#_ftn1


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holistic approach, the dynamic of the self-help groups and a strong belief in the capacity of the drug addicts to learn life skills and to re-socialize without using drugs. The TCs are thus obliged to adapt and to show their excellence and their added value if they want to survive and preserve their identity. ECEtt is a training project which aims to offer a response to these challenges, not only for the TC world but to all professionals in social education.

1. The training method

In 2001, during a collaboration between the prevention service of Trempoline and the movement of the

“Compagnons du Devoir”2, the initiator of the ECEtt project discovered the principles of the journeyman

apprenticeship method and considered this model as an answer to the professional challenges of TCs. In

2003-2004, he carried out a feasibility study on the transferability of the journeyman model to the training

of professionals working in TCs.

Since 2005, ECEtt has organized numerous training courses and knowledge exchanges based on the model

of the trade-guild. The two main characteristics of such an apprenticeship are: (1) all courses are

personalized; (2) the role of training protagonist is allotted to the trainee rather than to the trainer.

1.1 Phases in a trades

The treatment of substance abusers as conceived by the therapeutic communities does not concern only one

profession but multi-disciplinary teams where staff members, psychologists, social workers, doctors,

lawyers, etc. are in interaction. These multi-specialized teams form a new profession, a young trade, which

has its objectives, its framework, its codes and a certain type of problem-situation to be solved. This trade

starts, like all others, with a phase of “exploration”, then proceeds via “experimentation” and leads finally

to “expertise”.

(introd image: Phases of the trades)

The method of training must be selected according to these phases.

1) Bottom-up exchanges of knowledge for trades in the exploratory and experimental phases.

In exploratory or experimental professional situations, the problems to be solved are relatively

new and poorly understood, the competency requirements are related to very particular

contexts (problem configurations, cultural factors, etc), the trade is in a stage of youth,

development (borderline situations) or crisis. In this stage, relevant techniques have not yet

been described and are not taught in academic courses. In this context, the relevant techniques,

the competencies required and the trainers are not identified a priori. Competencies are

therefore developed by exchanges of knowledge aiming at identifying techniques and

transferable “good practices”. Within this learning context the responsibility for trainees is to

identify training objectives and to permanently negotiate with their host-experts about

exchanges of knowledge according to their specific objectives.

2) Top-down knowledge for trades in the expertise stage. When a technique is controlled, the

problems to be solved are known and analyzed, the trade is mature, there is extensive

experience, the existing professional references address the situations to be solved and the

competency requirements are identified by a broad group of experts. Needed competencies are

then described and can be taught within the framework of traditional courses for which trainers

are identified and the training schemes structured and widely accessible. In this context, the

tools, techniques, trainers and required competencies can be identified a priori by the trainee or

2 www.compagnons-du-devoir.com + attachments.

http://www.compagnons-du-devoir.com/


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his employer. One can thus name, measure and compare acquired competences a priori/a

posteriori. The responsibility for trainees is to follow and apply the instructions of the trainer.

But although this classical model is appropriate for the transmission of techniques and know-

how, it is not adapted for the transmission of attitudes. Academic courses are in fact

insufficient for trades where attitudes have great importance. The trade-guild makes it possible

to solve this problem thanks to direct contact and identification with experts inducing a of right

attitudes.

1.2 A self-training device with three main protagonists: a network of institutions, the trainees and a self-

tuition toolkit coordinated by helpdesks.

1.2.1 A network of institutions that signed a mutual agreement to open their doors internationally to

professionals that wish to meet expert colleagues in order to discover new approaches and good practices.

With this in mind, ECEtt developed several tools that help partner institutions facilitate the organization of

the knowledge exchange.

(diagram: the ECEtt network)

1.2.2 A knowledge exchange concept allowing the trainees themselves to organize the exchanges of

knowledge and training courses with the support of the partner institutions. The exchanges have four

different formulas: “A” visits (2 days), “B” traineeships (5 days), “C” traineeships (3 X 5 days with three

different hosts) and “D” course (benchmarking and implementation of a good practice in own place of

work ). The trainees can use the toolkit on the ECEtt e-learning platform.

Four basic formulas of training course (A, B, C, D) ensure the flexibility and the complementarity of the

offer in response to different types of learning needs, to the previous experimentation, to trainees’

availability and financial means as well as to the availability of the experts and hosts.

The short “A” training courses for workers currently in employment are used to sensitize the

trainees to the existence or interest of certain techniques. In “A” training courses, the transmission

is done primarily in an explanatory and conclusive way. The expert shows his place of work, his

tools and his know-how and transmits information in the form of detailed description of the task to

be carried out. He gives examples, underlines the key-points, gives useful written or visual

materials and answers questions.

(image “A” visits)

The “B” and “C” training courses aim at the development of capacities relevant to good practice.

The duration of the “B” and “C” training courses allows the experts to put the trainees in situations

where they can take part in the action, to test and discover on the ground how the problem situation

is managed. According to the expertise already acquired by the trainee, the aim in view and the

complexity of the matter, the expert gives instructions, information and tools and intervenes,

supporting autonomy and the aptitude to face the new situations. The written recording and

presentation of good practices are rooted in the experience of the trainees and invite them to make

a transfer to the institution of origin.

(image “B” traineeships)

The “C” and “D” training courses lead the trainees to conceptualize, structure and connect events

and situations to theories, to formulate assumptions, conclusions and concepts which emerge from

their action and to make implementation strategies. The evaluation of meta-competencies by a Jury

of tutors as well as the implementation project open the way to the application of new techniques

and experimentation with new tools.

(image “C” traineeships + image “D” course.)


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1.2.3. The trainees as main actors in the training process. As mentioned earlier, a trainee actively

organizes his/her own training course, but he/she also contributes to the creation of professional frames of

reference and to the implementation of new practices. The ECEtt training courses are intended for:

a) professionals with a certain level of expertise who wish to improve the quality of their services (bottom-

up transmission). At present, A1, B1 and C1 training courses are intended for professionals who are

looking to improve their knowledge and skills as well as the quality of the services provided by their teams.

The prerequisite for a B training course is two years of professional experience in the field of drug abuse

treatment. For a C training course, trainees should have five years of experience.

b) professionals (or, in a later stage, students) who wish to acquire the particular competencies described in

the cards of good practice (top-down transmission). Students who want to engage in training courses A2,

B2 and C2 must combine this training course with a course in higher education, and prepare it and debrief

it with the teacher in charge of the course.

(image : bottom-up and top-down)

The exchange of knowledge happens ‘bottom-up’ or ‘top-down’:

1. “bottom-up” exchange happens at the level of exploration or experimentation: seeking good practices

and constituting a framework of professional references on the basis of “good practices” described by the

trainees.

2. “top-down” exchanges are at expertise level: the implementation of good practices as described in the

GPs’ database which is accessible on the ECEtt e-learning platform.

The different training courses are conceptualized as consecutive training cycles that focus on lifelong

learning and on quality improvement. The final aim is to become a ‘companion-tutor’. To do so, a trainee

will need to complete several tasks along the way.

The whole process can take up to five or six years, from the starting point of the issue to be solved in the

workplace to the last stage of improvement of outcomes measured at the level of the clients:

Task 1: Preparatory to the trips, the professional is expected to compile a written analysis of the

deficiencies and successes encountered in his own practice (initial situation).

Task 2: During the first cycle, managers and professionals with several years of experience can

undertake A1, B1, C1 trips to identify places of expertise and good practices and to present them to

their team upon their return.

Task 3: Their next main task is to build a strategy for the implementation of a good practice and to

start a benchmarking exercise with their own team. Other colleagues then start top-down exchanges

(A2, B2, C2). This task focuses on the acquisition of (collective) competencies to implement the

good practice.

Task 4: realization of the action plan and experimentation with the new technique.

Task 5: measurement of the impact of the good practice on the quality of care for clients in general.

1.3 Learning process:

All the trip formulas3 involve certain basic skills: the trainees must start using the e-learning platform to

explain the difficulties to be solved in their workplace, they have to build a budget for their trip, to return

3 A1, B1, C1, A2, B2, C2 and D.


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accounts, to organize the concrete details of a training course abroad, to solve practical, financial, linguistic

problems, to communicate in an effective way with a team speaking another language, to observe, to listen,

to describe interesting practices and to identify what is transferable and in which conditions, to fill in an

evaluation questionnaire concerning the training course and to give feedback to the team of origin. All the

phases of the trip (internal and external preparation, experience during the training course and after return)

imply psychosocial competencies and relational capacities as well as good attitudes: pro-activity,

communication, rigour, initiative, etc. Of course, the level of competencies to be acquired is related to the

preliminary level of experience of the trainee, to the duration of the training course and to the level of

complexity of the good practice. All these actions reinforce their autonomy and their motivation to continue

their training throughout their career.

The process of self-tuition starts with the preparation of the training course and ends when the trainee

receives the feedback of his colleagues or the panel. Each training course is focused on finding responses to

solve issues related to the needs of clients in the institution of origin and on how they are managed in the

host institution. The whole process provides opportunities for learning, including unforeseen

occurrences. The exchanges with the experts make it possible for the trainees to share about their own

experience, about the difficulties and questions encountered, to restructure, to modify their way of thinking,

to enrich their professional background and to receive recognition and affirmation from the expert. At the

end of the training course, the evaluation and feedback recall the experiment and question in order to

examine the trainee’s way of thinking, to integrate old and new knowledge and to imagine a transfer

towards new fields of application.

1.4 Designing one’s training courses with the helpdesks :

For each type of training course, the stages of the exchange of knowledge are given in the ECEtt handbook,

which sets out the general rules for exchanges. The ECEtt e-learning platform gives information and

instructions structuring the cycle of the trip:

Rules of the training courses included in the handbook.

List and presentation of the partner institutions willing to receive trainees.

Database of expertise: list of techniques and tools related to the profession and identification for

each one of them of the training places where there is related expertise.

Database of good practices and competencies related to each one of them.

The travel file comprises the forms to be filled in for the different steps in the cycle as well as the

list of questions for the writing up of the good practices.

(image: tools to travel abroad)

Throughout the cycle of their trip, the trainees are accompanied by six helpdesks helping trainees and

experts in six languages (French, English, Polish, Greek, Italian and Spanish managed by six partner

institutions). These helpdesks also explain to the host-experts what is expected from them when receiving a

trainee. The six helpdesks are assisted in their task by tutors (who are members of their personnel who have

expertise in the concerned topics and know English) in order to help the trainees to organize their trip and

to use the e-learning system. Some tutors have to evaluate and validate competencies of the trainees, others

have to validate the quality of the good practices before publishing them in the frame of reference, and

others collect testimonials of trainees which appear in a newsletter.

The “travel file” puts the trainees in the role of main actor by inviting them to write about the focus of their

journey, taking into account their training objectives and their trip formula. This gives them an overall

picture of where they will be going, which reinforces the coherence of their training course. Each stage of

the cycle of the trip is accompanied by a document to be filled in on line which implements knowledge and

competencies which will be evaluated throughout the cycle thanks to the evaluation forms sent back by the

trainees, by their hosts and by their employers. The questionnaires in the travel file help to put into words


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events, difficulties, implemented solutions, application contexts and conditions of transfer. The tools of the

trip help the trainee to clarify what he does and what he tests.

(image: 9 steps of A, B, C traineeships)

The forms of the travel file and the various evaluations on the e-learning platform make it possible for the

central office of ECEtt to collect information on the initial needs for the trainees (first series of documents:

1.a and 1b), on their way of organizing their training course (second series of documents 2a and 2b) and on

what they bring back (last series of documents, 3a, 3b and 3c).

1.5 Training objectives

The type of trip varies according to the training objectives. The specific objective of each training course is

recorded by the trainee in his application form (doc. 1a) which he sends to ECEtt central office and to the

potential hosts. The trainee explains the problematic situations which he wants to solve, the questions he

wishes to discuss and the activities that he would like to observe. Based on this information, the host-

experts successively develop a personalized training plan (2b) that corresponds to the expectations and

training objectives of the trainee.

The exchange of knowledge is based on personal experience. The whole training process, the preparation

phase, the actual traineeship and the follow-up phase, are experiences that invite and stimulate trainees to

observe, to reflect, to describe and to critically analyze what they have done, seen and heard, and to look

for possible relationships with their own practice. All the training courses (A, B, C and D) imply a

deepening of the trainee’s own experience. They invite the trainee to innovate, try out and take initiatives,

aiming at solving problems and at improving quality of care for substance abusers. Recording in writing

good practices and questions related to their effectiveness, their relevance, the skills involved and the

prospects for transfer in the context of the institution of origin and the presentation of the resultant

document to the panel require specific knowledge and attitudes. The more advanced the training courses

are (B, C and D training courses), the more the trainees are invited to conceptualize, to make

assumptions, to distance themselves from the general principles, and to explain their conclusions within the

framework of a workshop-panel. The C trainees certified by the panel are invited to use what they have

learned by implementing a good practice in their institution of origin.

One can realise seven types of objectives corresponding to seven types of training courses. Competencies

to be acquired by the trainees vary basically between:

1) seeking good practices (bottom-up)

2) transmission of competencies identified on the good practice cards (top-down)

What? Who for? Learning outcomes

1. B

ott

om

-up:

A1: discovering prospective

new places of expertise for

B or C training courses for

oneself or colleagues.

Experienced

workers or

managers.

Meta-competencies: identification of the

difficulties to be solved, organization of the

training course, resolution of practical, financial,

linguistic problems, effective communication with

foreign fellow-members, evaluation of the training

course and feedback towards its team of origin.

B1: initiation into good

practice research and

lifelong learning through

journeyman tradition.

experienced

workers.

Metacompetencies (idem) + identification and

description of good practices & associated

competencies.


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C1: comparative research

and validation of good

practices with

implementation project.

experienced

workers.

Metacompetencies (idem) + good practices +

certification of meta-competencies and

introduction of an implementation project + title

of “tutor”.

2. T

op-d

ow

n

A2: visit of a group of

colleagues to an expert in

order to observe a good

practice with a view to

implementing it within the

framework of a “D” project.

Groups of

workers.

Acquisition of a common model of reference

related to a good practice to be implemented by

the team of origin.

B2: training in one selected

good practice +

participation in the action +

drafting and validation of a

good practice.

Workers or

students.

Initiation into the competencies described in the

card good practice selected and validation of an

additional good practice.

C2: comparative training in

several ways of solving the

same problem (several good

practices) + participation in

the action.

Workers or

students.

Integration of basic competencies common to the

three good practices (three places of training

course) and identification of the possible options,

certification of the competencies linked to the

good practice + implementation project.

3.

Imple

m°

D: progressive introduction

of a new practice in

workplace by observing all

the conditions of success +

evaluation of the results.

Workers who

have taken

the C course.

Competencies of project manager, benchmarking

training, certification of masterpiece, and access to

the role of tutor with duty of retransmission and

right to be represented in the ECEtt general

assembly.

2. Evaluation of competencies

2.1 Competencies and meta-competencies

The “bottom-up” transmission mode (research of good practices) does not make it possible to identify in

advance specific competencies for specific good practices which are not yet known. In this case, the point

is to develop meta-competencies which are common for all good practice seekers (pro-activity,

communication, description, analysis, synthesis, etc). On the other hand, when the good practices and

related competencies have been identified during the bottom-up phase, it is possible to be clear from the

beginning between the trainee and his host-expert about the competencies to be developed and evaluated at

the end of the course (top-down transmission). In this case, the good practice card constitutes a guide for

the host in his action of knowledge transmission which enables him to plan the exchanges around focused

methods and tools. The good practices written about by the “B” and “C” trainees are one of the elements

which make it possible to observe and to evaluate competencies of the trainees at the end of the training

process.

As the “C1” training courses were the target of the evaluation of the ECEtt-Pilot project, it is the evaluation

of the “C1” training courses which we will approach here. The objective of the “C1” training courses is to

certify meta-competencies of social workers who seek good practices in order to improve the quality of

their work by implementing new techniques in their workplace. Meta-competencies are primarily attitudes

which characterize pro-active workers who have an analytical and synthetic mind, are effective in

communication and work on the basis of objectives. The B1 and C1 trainees accepted in the ECEtt-Pilot

trial are experienced workers who undertake a search for good practices without being able to guarantee

results a priori. The trainees discover all meta-competencies involved or those that they will have to still


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reinforce either during or at the end of the process. This relative discretion at the starting point about the

competencies that will be involved is intended to avoid placing an unnecessary stress or burden on

researchers, whose obligation is not to achieve a certain result but to use a certain means and process.

These training courses are however evaluated on the basis of criteria and of indicators of competencies in

terms of knowledge, know-how and attitudes implemented during the 4 stages of the tripcycle. A table of

indicators lists fifty knowledge and know-how items (see indicators in table of evaluation) which give

indications regarding the meta-competencies (attitudes) expected for “C” trainees.

“Meta-competencies” to be qualified as a “C” trainee:

E-L

Report

Panel

1. Pro-active attitude to improving quality in own TC + +

2. Dialogue with own team and hierarchy +

3. Good use of means of communication +

4. Quality contact with hosts +

5. Efficient organisation of traineeship +

6. Remaining focused on own objective + +

7. Capacity of distance, analysis and description of good practice + +

8. Feedback on benefits to the team of origin & panel + openness to reactions

to feedback.

+ +

9. Strategy for starting the implementation process (first success conditions for

a benchmarking exercise):

o how to get commitment from hierarchy,

o choice of a process which is important for clients,

o how to share responsibility with team,

o “draft” for the planning of implementation process

+

10. Debriefing on benefits of the traineeship:

o personal field:

o professional field:

+

2.2 The gathering of evaluations on the e-learning platform:

The evaluations allow the trainees, the hosts and the employers to express their point of view about the

relevance of the training courses, the material conditions and the organization, relational quality, the co-

operation, the encountered difficulties and the way of solving them as well as the teaching method used for

the training. The online evaluation documents comprise open questions, multiple-choice questionnaires and

the good practice forms constitute application exercises. These documents can be compared with the

objectives of the training courses and the evaluation criteria applied to competencies linked to GPs or to

meta-competencies.

(image : evaluation and follow-up)

2.3 Final validation of meta-competencies by the panel.

At the end of each training cycle (A, B or C) the trainees are invited to say, within the framework of their

evaluation, how they plan to take their training course. Do they want to continue the step by organizing a

group visit to the same host-expert? Do “B” trainees want to look further into a “C” cycle (i.e. two

additional training courses with presentation of good practices and an implementation project to a jury)?

Do they want to stop their training course or to continue it with a later training in another training

organizer?

The final evaluation and certification involve two stages:

1) synthesis of the evaluation data gathered by e-learning for each individual.


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2) a final validation by a panel made up of two experienced tutors from partner institutions.

Synthesis of evaluations on the e-learning platform: after each training course each trainee gives scores and

comments concerning each item of the document “evaluation by the trainee” (doc.3.a). At the end of the

three training courses, he gives a “final evaluation” (doc.3.b) where he makes a global evaluation of his

assets, his degree of satisfaction compared to his initial training objectives, the relevance of the training as

well as the quality of the teaching and the accompaniment offered by the ECEtt helpdesks. Meta-

competencies are evaluated on the basis of a table of synthesis comprising about fifty knowledge and

know-how skills, about each of which two opinions are given by combining the evaluation documents

submitted by the trainees (3a & 3b), by the host-experts (doc.3d), their employers (doc.3e), and their

national helpdesk. All this knowledge and know-how is gathered by categories, enabling the meta-

competencies (attitudes) which are characteristic of the “C1”training courses to be evaluated by a process

of deduction.

(image of the workshops of the panel)

The trainees present themselves at the panel within a workshop made up of three trainees who present, in

turn, their good practice and their implementation project, and two tutors (taking care that trainees are not

evaluated by tutors from their own institution). The tutors are experts appointed by the main partner

institutions who have at least five years of practice in the topics concerned and can communicate in

English. Trainees are invited to start discussion around the GPs and projects presented by each one of them

while the tutors observe how each trainee expresses himself, listens, interacts, takes part in the discussions

and reflects. They focus particularly on the level of maturity and meta-competencies of the trainees. The e-

learning treatment of the evaluation data and the presentation of good practices and implementation

projects to the panel make it possible to certify the trainees’ meta-competencies and their aptitude to start

an implementation project and to validate the good practices which are intended to enrich the professional

frame of reference. The evaluation of the good practices and meta-competencies can underline gaps and

involve recommendations or injunctions aiming at supplementing what would be unfinished.

In the “B2” and “C2” alternative, the mode of validation of competencies undergoes some adaptations:

after their training course, the trainees give to their superior or their teacher a self-evaluation concerning

the competencies indicated in the “good practice card” used as a guiding theme for their training course,

and the host-expert issues a certificate indicating that all the activities related to the good practice and the

planning of the course were accomplished, with comments where appropriate.

2.4 Validation of good practices

After assessing the trainees’ meta-competencies, the tutors examine each good practice and screen it in the

light of five validation criteria : filled in properly, understandable, relevant (ECEtt ethics, EFTC standards),

detailed and informative for others and critical reflection. There are three possible scores: 0 = insufficient, 1

= acceptable and 2 = excellent. A report is submitted to the trainees for each one of their good practices. To

be validated, a good practice cannot include any scores of 0. The trainees are invited to rectify or

supplement the fields for which they would have obtained one zero. Validated practices are published in

the database of good practices which is accessible online. A Wiki system enables published good practices

to be added to by other trainees as well as by the experts of the host centres.

2.5 Certification of “C” skills needed to start a “D” course:

The validation of the good practices and certification by the panel result in a certificate of aptitude to start a

“D” course which will be signed by the representatives of the six helpdesks. After the “C” trainees have

been certified and recognized as ready to launch a process of implementation (“D” course), these trainees


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are invited to choose two coaches, one in their organization of origin and the other among the foreign

ECEtt tutors. These have a framework and references for the implementation (stages of the benchmarking,

construction of a logical framework, etc) in order to accompany the “D” trainee in putting new techniques

into practice in his work situation and to adjust the strategy so that the implementation answers the problem

for which it was intended. The “D” trainees start with the elaboration of a strategy to motivate their

managers and other colleagues to join the implementation effort and to take part in a new wave of training

visits to host-experts. The coach helps the “D” trainee to analyze the favourable and unfavourable factors in

his work environment and to solve the organization and implementation problems linked to the

implementation of the project.

2.6 Feedback to the employers and to the training organizer

The e-learning platform gives every actor in the training system access to the feedback of the people he was

involved with. Hosts and trainees can see what has been appreciated and what can be improved. The

evaluations of trainees and hosts (3d) also give important feedback to the employer and the team who

granted availability to “their” trainee. And the evaluation of the employer (doc.3e) shows if he perceives a

“return” for the institution in terms of reinforcement of the aptitudes and the motivation of the worker and

if he wishes to continue or repeat this type of training course.

The e-learning platform makes it possible to collect all the evaluations resulting from all the trainees, the

hosts, the employers and the experts in connection with all the training courses and to immediately

visualize the average levels of appreciation and identify the parameters which are in most urgent need of

re-examination. The comments of the trainees, the hosts and the employers concerning the strong points of

the accompaniment by ECEtt and the points to be improved enable the central office to refine the teaching

methods further.

The ECEtt-Pilot trial has been assessed by the University of Ghent which in September 2008 will issue an

evaluation report on the effectiveness and the relevance of the method of journeyman apprenticeship

transferred by ECEtt to the professions of social education.

Conclusions for the ECEtt-Pilot experience

The ECEtt Pilot experiment was a challenge in many ways. First of all, it was essential to focus simultaneously on two targets:

a) the psychopedagogic objectives of the ECEtt network : to reinforce the competencies of the therapeutic communities for drug addicted persons.

b) the mandate to describe and evaluate a professional training process which had to be innovative and transferable and was the main “product” to be delivered to the project’s funding body (the European Union).

The originality of ECEtt-Pilot was the transfer of the “journeyman apprenticeship” method (which has been used for centuries for the training of manual trades for young people from 16 to 26 years) to the lifelong learning of professionals working with addicted people, and more widely, to other professions in the profit or non-profit sectors. The principles of the journeyman traditions may be summed up as follows: transmission of knowledge by a direct contact and on the ground between an expert and an apprentice, a succession of meetings by means of travel, the search for excellence, solidarity through the reception of apprentices and the free retransmission of what one has learned. The training by the journeyman tradition makes it possible to develop particular training courses for each apprentice by entrusting to each of them the role of protagonist in the development of his training course. Each applicant trainee is invited to define what he wishes to learn, to seek one potential host among the expertise centers included in the data bases, to organize his voyage, and to be effective in the exchanges of knowledge in order to bring back good practices to his institution of origin with a view to implementing them and improving the quality of the services.


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In the case of ECEtt-Pilot, the stage of the concerned profession (therapeutic communities for drug addicts) was a second challenge. Indeed, the training objectives to be achieved by travel could not be described a priori because the experts had not recorded either their good practices or the competencies in a standardized and usable way. The solution has been to involve all the trainees in the identification and the description of the good practices which they were going to discover (bottom-up movement) in order to build together a referential framework of good practices that could be used later on by other trainees who would then be able to travel to specific places of expertise in order to learn particular good practices and competencies described in the referential framework (top-down movement). The synthesis of two processes: a) knowledge exchange and b) knowledge creation, is one of the most powerful aspects of the ECEtt system.

The diversity of the training objectives (60 individual courses correspond to 60 different objectives) and the lack of written definitions of the competencies involved in the sought-after good practices ( ) generated problems around the evaluation criteria to be used after the return from the training course. This unclear situation concerning competencies obliged us to move up to a higher logical level: that of meta-competencies. These are the competencies necessary to seek and identify good practices, to describe them, analyze them, transmit them in one’s team of origin, propose ways of implementing them and ensure that these are pursued further. The evaluation of these meta-competencies (which are common for all the “bottom-up” training courses) was undertaken using the evaluation questionnaires filled out after each training course by the trainees, their hosts and their employers and centralized by the researcher at the University of Ghent. The synthesis of these evaluations was largely facilitated by the e-learning platform which opens up excellent prospects for the development for this type of journeyman apprenticeship. A synthesis of these evaluations was then submitted to a panel of judges, composed of tutor-experts appointed by the partner institutions, before which the trainees presented one good practice of their choice as well as an implementation project. The validation of the good practices and of the meta-competencies of the trainees by the panel leads to the certification of the good practices before these are published in an on line data base as well as to the certification of the trainees’ capacity to move on to the following stage: the “D” course. The certification of the “C” trainees within the ECEtt-Pilot project invites them to set up a process of benchmarking and the implementation of good practices in their own organization and to conclude with the presentation of a “master-piece” to a future panel. This new stage for the certified trainees will also be a new stage for the ECEtt helpdesks who will have to accompany them. This “D” course could be the subject of a new Pilot project for the description of an innovative teaching method.

The journeyman apprenticeship would be impossible without a coherent network of institutions motivated by knowledge exchanges. An enormous effort was made by all the partners in building this network, in developing procedures to solve language and practical problems, in organizing the accompaniment of the trainees at each administrative step. The accounting management of the Pilot project between eight countries presented the coordinator and the partners with a considerable overload of work, without any subsidy available to fund extra staff. The ongoing cooperation between the partners to resolve tensions required a lot of time and goodwill on the part of all. The culture and the values shared by the partner institutions represented a valuable basis of good attitudes for regulating problems without losing any partners.

The majority of the partners created “products” corresponding to their particular expertise: the Irish produced Newsletters, the Greeks offered the talents of their printers, the Polish produced a professional lexicon in seven languages and the Italians developed an e-learning system whose enormous potential for the future development of ECEtt we gradually discovered. This specific contribution of CeIS-Formazione brought to the ECEtt-Pilot project priceless added value which is already the subject of another development project.

As has been described, the core concept of ECEtt is transferable to numerous professional sectors. The brilliant “valorization” project conceived by “Proyecto Hombre” puts an unexpected and impressive light


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on the development potential of the ECEtt training concept for the caring professions, as well as for other professions of the profit and non-profit sectors.

The evaluation by the University of Ghent has been important for checking the effectiveness of the ECEtt method. The scientific report showed a very high level of quality in the knowledge exchange, and the satisfaction level of all trainees, hosts and employers was surprisingly high. We cordially thank Ilse Goethals for finding pragmatic solutions to overcome all the difficulties and for her constant concern to find tools of research which disrupted the knowledge exchange process as little as possible.

The agreement signed with the Leonardo da Vinci Agency for the ECEtt-Pilot experiment expires on September 30, 2008. To survive and develop, ECEtt has to promote its method and to answer new calls for proposals in connection with priorities established at national or European levels.

The following is a list of possible development routes for ECEtt corresponding to different financing possibilities:

a) Accredited training : “ECEtt-Convergence” is a project submitted to the ESF in partnership with HECE[1] . This project aims at offering post-graduate students accredited training through the exchange of courses in a European network. This project would give social workers the opportunity to broaden their horizons by accredited training courses in connection with their academic curriculum and to discover good practices successfully applied abroad.

b) Development of the e-learning : “ECEtt-Transversality” is a project submitted in partnership with the University of Bologna and CeIS-Formazione to the ICT & Lifelong Learning Programme agency and aims to continue the ECEtt-Pilot experiment while developing the e-learning aspect. It is an original partnership with, on the one hand, the network of the ECEtt partners who continue the creation of referential frameworks and the ongoing training of their personnel and, on the other hand, a university department in psychology which would develop the e-learning system of ECEtt for the benefit of students as well as ECEtt trainees. The originality of this project is the link between a “bottom-up” movement ensured by the professionals of the TCs which seek and describe good practices gathered in a data base and the “top-down” movement of the university students attending training in the good practices described in the ECEtt data base.

c) Self-financing: “ECEtt-Sustainable” is an option of development towards the commercial sector. If the journeyman tradition can be transferred to non-profit sectors, it is possible that it also meets the training requirements for the commercial sector. Many companies practice benchmarking and could structure the knowledge exchanges of their personnel on the basis of the ECEtt model. This type of service could generate profits for the benefit of the exchanges organized by ECEtt in the non-profit sector.

D) Survival by cutting costs : at the end of the two ECEtt-Pilot project years, while decisions on the submitted applications are awaited, the first challenge to take up for ECEtt is to ensure its survival and that of the knowledge exchange network. Without the Leonardo da Vinci subsidies (EU), ECEtt is back in its original precarious financial situation, depending on patronage and co-financing by the partners of the network. While waiting for the answers to the submitted applications (FSE-Convergence and Transversalité), a “minimal” plan based on internal funds and reducing the number of exchanges of training courses has been drawn up on the basis of the formula which made it possible ECEtt to start from 2003 to 2006: patronage and voluntary help. This “minimal” formula could be reinforced by “Mobility” grants within the applications submitted by the helpdesks to the national Leonardo da Vinci Agencies. The capacity of independence lies behind the strength of our model “Les Compagnons du Devoir” and the capacity of ECEtt to survive thanks to the patronage and the voluntary collaboration of partners makes it possible to

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escape the alternatives of building projects which are profitable but which depart from ECEtt‘s purpose or of disappearing.

We are very grateful to all those who have made the ECEtt-Pilot adventure possible: the partner teams which have invested a lot of time for free to build this knowledge exchange network, the trainees who took part with enthusiasm, seriousness and indulgence in adjusting the journeymen tradition to their profession, the Trempoline association which provided much of the co-financing from its own funds to ensure the coordination of the project and finally the European Union which placed its confidence in us by subsidizing this research. In addition to the satisfaction of having achieved our goals by delivering the promised “products” in time, this project was for all the partners a school of management which made us discover modern tools and methods for better developing our respective projects.

[1]

“High School Charleroi Europe”, post-graduates in social work.

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ECEtt-Pilot Confidential document. Property of Trempoline ...ECEtt-Pilot Confidential document. Property of Trempoline NGO, Belgium. Page 3 3 General introduction This report is the

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