Moje izkušnje

Flemish Ministry of Education (DBO) recommends Moje izkušnje

In their project Optie VakWerk, financed from European Social Fund, the Flemish Ministry of Education (DBO) has identified 3 examples of good practice connected to recognition of non-formal knowledge gained by work. Among them Slovenian Moje izkušnje, Finnish Jobi-project and Danish Curriculim. Read more...

On January 1st 2012 we started a transnational European Social Fund-project under the Flemish name OPTIE VAK.WERK. This abbreviation stands for Counting each Individual Experience, Vacation Work.

My colleague Gerda Greunlinx and I work for the DBO or ‘Service for Vocational Training’, which is a part of the Flemish Department for Education and Training in Belgium. We belong to the entity Institutions and students of Secondary education. For years, our service hasbeen taking  part in European projects and has become the co-ordinating organisation for educational projects of the European Social Fund (ESF) within several objectives. DBO helps scholars and stakeholders by developing instruments and methods that create a maximum of qualification and developmentchances and an optimal transition between education and work.

OPTIE VAK.WERK was part of call 201 of the Flemish ESF Agency, Transnationality Type 2, Priority 5. The total duration of the project was 18 months. Phase 1 contained a deskresearch period and during phase 2 there wereforeign study visits, meetings of the focus and resonance groups, a peer review with the three foreign countries and the development of Flemish tools/instruments.

On May 30th2013 the findings and tools were disseminated at a big exchange event.

The main aims of the project were to examine which initiatives can be taken from within Education to efficiently join both the labour market and youngsters looking for a spare time job. At the same time the projectwanted to acknowledge the recognition and certification of the competences youngsters acquire during the course of their student job.For ourinspiration we mainly focused on foreign good practices, but also on some successful Flemish initiatives.

The three retained foreign good practices were Moje izkušnje from Slovenia, the Finnish JOBI-project that focuses on the further development of the system for validation and certification of competences gained bynon-formal and informal learning and the curriculum in Denmark, where labour market education is foreseen from the age of 12 on and where career counseling is considered of major importance.

Within the field of recognition of non-formal and informal learning Moje izkušnje was an excellent practice and a great source of inspiration. The fact that all the information is gathered in one central database and the easy access for both students and employers are a huge asset. Moje izkušnje is an efficient combination of data on both work experience and competences. The system works fluently and is not time-consuming. Moreover, youngsters can easily print out their cv and a motivation letter. We haven’t come across any other similar systems in other European countries and are convinced that Mojeizkušnje could be an added value to many others.

Since so far in Flanders not all the information on student labour has been centrally gathered we could not import the Slovenian system as a whole. We did however inform the different institutions and organisations that are active in the field and they will consider the further development of a system that combines the advantages of both Moje izkušnje and the yet existing tools and applications.

Based on all our findings we developed a.o. mytalent@work, an (auto)evaluation tool which gives youngsters feedback about their employment-related skills and which helps them to manage their own competences. The skills can be obtained at school, via a spare time job, voluntary work, internships, on the job learning, … in either a formal or a non-formal/informal context.

Hilde Wynen, Project Manager  OPTIE VAK.WERK
Ruben Plees, Secretary Epon vzw

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