From the 25th until the 27th of October 2017, the VISKA-partners met up for the first progress meeting since the start of the project in February of 2017. The colleagues of the Education and Training Boards Ireland welcomed all partners in their offices in Naas, Ireland.
The first objective of the meeting was to discuss and agree on the final paper describing the common understanding of transversal skills in VISKA-project. Throughout the meeting, the partners offered feedback on the work ETSC had done before the meeting. The result of this work can be found in the Results section on this website.
The main body of work for the second day of the meeting in Ireland was related to Tools development and adaptation (WP3) and the local field trials (WP4). With regards to the tools, the partners presented what they thought they could contribute. Several instruments for identification of skills were presented during the meeting. The partners learned about the Norwegian tool for self-registration, offered in Norwegian, English and twelve other languages. The Icelandic tool (Next Step) for validation of around 50 different curricula was also presented. This tool is used by, among others, guidance counselors, to see what steps the learner can take. The partners also discussed the EU Skills Profile Tool for Third Country Nationals. This tool is intended for use by any service that may be offering assistance services to third country nationals. Every partner gave a short presentation about how they will conduct the local field trials, as was reported to the research partner as a basis for the experimentation protocol.
The third and final day, there was a focus on the internal evaluation of the project, communication and dissemination and some general housekeeping for the remainder of the project.
The next progress meeting will be in Oslo, Norway, from the 25th of April to the 27th. Stay tuned for more updates!