“Scaling New Heights in VET: adapting the Rickter® Scale Process to improve and monitor the journey of marginalised groups towards employability”

Karen George

    Research output: Book/ReportCommissioned report

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    Abstract

    “Scaling New Heights in VET: adapting the Rickter® Scale Process to improve and monitor the journey of marginalised groups towards employability” is a project funded under the EU Leonardo da Vinci Multilateral Projects Transfer of Innovation programme. The project started in October 2011 and finished in September 2013. The aim of “Scaling New Heights in VET: adapting the Rickter® Scale Process to improve and monitor the journey of marginalised groups towards employability” is to increase the quality of Vocational Education and Training (VET) in Germany, Greece and Italy by transferring and adapting the innovative Rickter® Scale Process from the UK to new legal, systemic, sector, linguistic, socio-cultural and geographic environments. The innovation to be transferred is the Rickter Scale® Process itself, is a motivational assessment, evaluation, action planning and impact measurement package, which can provide the evidence of what works by measuring soft indicators and distance travelled. The project partners all work within their own countries to provide opportunities for marginalised groups to engage with education, training and employability, and to gain recognition for existing and newly acquired skills. The project identifies how the Rickter Scale® Process can be developed for use across the diverse cultures of the European partners, and by extension to other European countries. The focus of the project is to adapt the existing Rickter Scale® Process to the needs of the participating organisations’ target groups to aid their progression towards employability or opportunity readiness. The Partners are collaborating to develop language and culture-specific versions of the Rickter Scale® Process, their Practitioners having been trained in the use of the Rickter Scale® Process by the UK Partner, The Rickter Company. This project also aligns with the recommendation of the European Parliament and Council of 18 June 2009 on the establishment of EQARF for VET, by providing practical tools that will enable the implementation of quality criteria concerning the evaluation of outcomes and processes, which should be regularly carried out and supported by measurement and review. This project will have a direct relationship to indicator number one, “Relevance of quality assurance systems for VET providers”, as it will demonstrate how VET providers can apply a comprehensive quality assurance system which is designed around the Rickter Scale® Process and thoroughly proven by the TOI Partners to reflect their own needs. In autumn 2011 Northumbria University were appointed as External Evaluator to the project. A formative evaluation strategy has been in place, with a series of questionnaires, feedback sessions and semi-structured interviews that contribute to the learning, development and review processes of the project. This report collates information gathered from the project during its two year lifetime, from October 2011 to August 2013, prior to the results being presented at a final International Conference in Newcastle, UK on 4 September 2013. It also outlines the evaluation strategy and methodology employed. The project gathers information in a solution-focused manner through discussions, narratives and questionnaires to gain qualitative and quantitative data, whilst giving ownership to the stakeholders involved.
    Original languageEnglish
    Place of PublicationADAM, the Project and Product Portal for Leonardo da Vinci
    PublisherEuropean Commission, DG Education and Culture
    Number of pages97
    Publication statusAccepted/In press - Sept 2013

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