National training in Poland is on the way

The goal of the field trial phase in the TRANSVAL-EU project is to test out the Curriculum and Toolkit developed for the guidance and validation practitioners who would like to incorporate transversal competences into their work. The process will be divided into three steps:

  1. National Trainings: Each field trial partner (Austria, Belgium, Italy, Lithuania and Poland) should organise National Training based on the content of the European Training that took place in Perugia, 10-11 May 2022.
  2. Validation processes: Practitioners trained during the National Trainings will conduct the validation process with candidates using the provided toolkit.
  3. Monitoring and evaluation: With the use of several instruments for monitoring and evaluation, the practitioners as well as the candidates will evaluate their performance during the validation processes.
  4. Recommendations: The project partners will provide a comparative analysis of the results and will provide recommendations on professionalizing validation of transversal skills and competences.

Following the partners from Austria and Italy, we are starting preparations in Poland for our national training. It will be held in Warsaw at the end of September 2022. The training will be mainly organized as face-to-face meetings followed by an on-line post-session. The core of the stationary training will cover the Transversal Competence Framework (TCF), the Competence Profile for Validation and Guidance Practitioners, the validation process of competences – with particular emphasis on transversal competences, and the tools for validation.

The on-line post-session will be of a different and more technical nature: its aim is to debrief and to kick-off the practitioners into field trials involving conducting validation processes with the candidates. The practitioners will be instructed how to proceed and which instruments to apply but there still will be some room to discuss their needs and expectations regarding the trials.

There is a specific feature of the Polish National Training: we plan to invite guidance counsellors working at secondary and/or vocational schools. On the basis of the “Law on School Education” (Journal Of Laws of 2017, item 59, art. 26a), career counselling has become a mandatory school subject taught in the majority of school types and levels. It can be taught by career counsellors with teaching certificate or by teachers (of various domains) who have additionally completed postgraduate studies on career counselling. The core curriculum of the career counseling covers the following topics: (1) knowing students’ assets, (2) the world of professions and the labor market, (3) educational market and lifelong learning, and (4) planning one’s own development and making educational and professional decisions.

We are strongly convinced that focusing teachers attention on the validation and transversal competences will reveal an additional aspect of the topics taught. The teachers will also conduct identification and documentation of students’ competences (validation). This will equip students with the portfolio of transversal skills, which can be a significant added value. On one hand, it might be a document which students will be able to present to potential employers before they gain any professional experience. On the other hand, the process of identifying and documenting competences will make students aware of not only their strengths but also of areas for development; eventually it might guide their educational and professional choices.