SOLITY – VET SOCIAL UTILITY MONITOR
Project Objectives
The project aims at developing a new approach to measure the social impact and performance of VET providers, starting from the state-of-the-art and from a model developed by one of its partners. The novelty of the approach is based on its attempt to develop a bottom-up system that encompasses what is already in place in the field of performance/quality assessment for VET and that shifts the focus on the social utility of VET, which means linking the measurement of VET performance to a concept of accountability (and transparency) towards society.
The aim of the project is to set up a solid, shared and transferable model to measure VET social utility, based on a specific pool of qualitative and quantitative indicators. The definition of these indicators will be based upon what is already in place in the field of quality systems for VET, both at transnational (EQAVET, ISO) and national (Accreditation systems, AFPA model) level.
Starting from this vast and heterogeneous basis, and by following a strong and large cooperative approach, the project’s aim is to get to the definition and testing of a common, feasible and effective model that can measure the social utility of a VET provider.
Impact (fits the EU priorities –“making VET a first choice” as declared in the 2016 New Skills Agenda for Europe)
- raise the quality of European VET, by allowing a system of benchmarking. This also means that it would be possible to push VET provision towards excellence by, for example, awarding those VET centres that turn out to excel in some specific area (e.g. boosting innovation technology, fostering solid partnerships with the business industry, etc.
- identify more easily the cause of low performance (especially in a situation of equality, i.e. with the same/similar factors in place) and, if necessary, put into place incentives or policy measures to correct the situation
- ensure VET customers (citizens but also enterprises) the transparency to choose the best performing VET centres for their education and training.
Main Activities & Outputs
1. Conduct a thorough research to:
- Synthetise the state-of-the-art in the field of vet quality assessment
- Highlight specific experiences of vet positive impact that can be used as case studies
2. Involve core partners’ experts but also experts coming from all other eu countries not directly represented
3. Develop a common methodological framework to measure vet social utility, which means to agree on:
- A common definition of social utility,
- A common set of indicators,
- A common set of evaluation criteria,
- A common statistical approach to collect the data
4. Disseminate the project’s outcomes
Duration
- 2 years (24 months)