2nd Newsletter, November 2009
Written by marturias Monday, 23 November 2009 15:10
Dear Reader,
With our second news letter we would like to inform you about the activities and the first products developed during the first twelve months of the project till the end of November 2009 for the SKRAT (Strategic practices for Know-how Retention And Transmission within organizations) project:
- Production of National reports in partner’s countries;
- Project meeting in Bucharest;
- Production of a “Tool Grid” report;
- Internal Evaluation of project development;
- Valorisation plan, tools and events.
1. Production of National reports in partner’s countries
All partners of the project have conducted a national research – field and desktop work- to identify key elements related to know-how transfer and know-how retention in SMEs in the metal sector. That is:
- Demographic changes and future forecast;
- Competence changes and needs for the future;
- Matching / gaps in job descriptions and needed competences by the company;
- Learning process and methodologies in companies. Transfer of know how;
- Learning path, Personal Learning Environment ( PLE);
- Know-how management;
- Succession planning;
The reports have been produced in English.
2. Project meeting in Bucharest
The second meeting of the project has been successful in validating the National reports, presented by the partners and also in designing a common strategy for the development of the “Tool grid” to establish Strategic Practices for know how retention
3. Production of a “Tool Grid”
The National reports have produced good results as input to the “Tool Grid” report which contains key aspects for an integral process of retention and transmission of know-how in SMEs in the metal sector on the base of ECVET system.
However, considering the complexity of work the finalization of the Tool Grid took more time than expected, what allowed to increase its usability..
An overview of the report is already available in English language on the project website, for public consultation. To access published files in the web, it is suggested to become a “registered user” by providing own e-mail address and password.
The “Tool Grid“ report is an accessory to the “Tool Kit” and is a comprehensive set of tools for the processes of retention and transmission of know-how in SMEs in the metal sector.
The report explores a set of tools that are highly relevant for each of this main steps specific to the SKRAT approach (running around the axis motivation – satisfaction – rewards/incentives, staff maintenance and continuing staff improvement) transferable in a working environment specific to a SME in the metal sector: It is expected, by an attentive and systematic use of these tools, to create the internal capacity of the SMEs to transform this activities in a daily HRD routine. Thus, SKRAT approach is proposing more than a simple collection of tools, by offering an in-depth presentation of the contexts and conditions of using each of this, so the process -company-related one and a worker-oriented- influences directly their overall managerial and economic performance.
The National reports all reflect commonalities of the situation in respect of both skills losses and know how transfer. In addition, there is some similarity in the approaches that are being considered to address these problems – for example there is a strong awareness of the importance of succession planning. The approaches are all described in full in the Transnational Report.
However, there are noticeable variations on the manner in which occupational analysis is carried out (if at all).
Furthermore, there is little evidence that occupational profiles have been agreed at even sector level in some countries. It is these profiles that should provide at least the foundation for benchmarks of competence in all sectors, and without them there can be little to provide a control element in the implementation of any remedial action to address skills shortfalls or the transfer of know-how.
In other words, there is frequently little information on which to build a credible National framework of skill needs and produce a valid skills-gap analysis. To a large degree, where this issue is being dealt with it is at organisational level (rather than sectoral, regional or National levels) and is more-often-than-not “task-orientated” rather than being focused on transferable competencies. As these tasks can be very specific to individual enterprises, this factor is inhibiting the mobility of workers – sometimes even within their chosen sector – and could be considered as the weakest link in an otherwise strong chain of initiative and intent in the area of know-how transfer.
4. Internal Evaluation of Project Development
The project has set up a process for the internal evaluation of the project process. Aim of the evaluation exercise is to anticipate user needs and to introduce these perspectives to the discussions of the project (formative evaluation). Responsible partner for this evaluation is ISOB GmbH Regensburg Germany, a research and consultancy company specialising in the scientific guidance of innovative projects in vocational training. ISOB will contribute an interim and a final evaluation report that will introduce stakeholders and the general public to the project and its results, demonstrate the user feedback from the field testing of the material and highlight lessons learned from the development and testing. The interim evaluation report, which will be on-line from Dec. 2009, will conclude that the project is expected to achieve its main aims. It will highlight that, in spite of quite different situations in the partner countries, a common structure for identifying knowledge needs and a prototypical process of transferring knowledge has been identified. This structure is supported by a small selection of transferable tools from the partner countries. It can be expected therefore, that the project will be able to develop an operational guideline which will be helpful in the field testing exercise foreseen and which will be accepted and welcomed by the target audience.
- 6. Valorisation plan, tools and events.
The whole partnership has extensive experience in promoting dissemination activities at National and International levels. The basic tools for dissemination are available from the beginning of the project – web site (http://www.know-how-retention.eu/) and leaflets – in multiple languages of the partnership. All partners have also been printed 200 copies of the leaflets in national languages for distribution. Dissemination events have been organized to inform HRD (Human Resource Development) managers, VET training providers, owners of SMEs, educational experts, Trade Unions and Public office in Education. Each event has been recorded in a common form to keep track of the number of attendees.
Partners are following the valorisation activity according to the Valorisation plan .
Leaflets are also available on the web in digital format and in multiple languages.
The web site is accessible to the public with no registration, without the privilege of accessing restricted files or accessing in the modality of registered user.
Future Activities
In the next few months, at the end of 2009 and beginning of 2010, the partnership will be engaged in finalizing the “Tool Kit”, and translating it into each partner’s languages. This major product will be available on the web for consultation.
The “Tool kit“ will be implemented and tested in a group of SMEs in the metal sector, in every partner country from the beginning of 2010. Partners will have to organize the implementation and testing activity by starting with the identification of the target organizations in the territory.
Contact
SKRAT is coordinated by the International Projects team at Fundación Metal Asturias, Spain (Marta Méndez-Fuente, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )
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