Co-funded by the European Union

Brief Report of the research and implementation of the Validation Process for TCNs’ formal, non-

formal and informal SKC

Provided by Karlshochschule International University

Karlsruhe, Dec 15th 2014

The Stakeholder-Workshops

The main purpose of the Stakeholder-Dialogues was the gathering of multi-perspectives of stake-

holders from several areas in order to design an audit-scheme for the recognition of Third-

Country-Nationals’ SKC. Accordingly, 17 experts were united to take part in the two Stakeholder-

Workshops on May 5th and June 2nd of 2014 at Karlshochschule International University. The ex-

perts derived from the following fields: public authorities, professional chambers and unions,

migrant lobbyists and organizations, educational and counseling facilities, relevant individuals.

Unfortunately, representatives of consulates localized in the region could not be won to take part

at the meetings. The participants were chosen for being pronounced experts in the topics of

recognition practices, of the needs of Third Country Nationals or of the requirements of the labor

market (or in two or all of these topics).

Initially, at the first Stakeholder-Workshop on May 5th 2014 the purpose of the project was ex-

plained and the present experts introduced themselves briefly. Subsequently, the status quo of

recognition of formal, non-formal and informal qualifications of TCN was brainstormed and evalu-

ated by means of buzzwords. The main part of the Stakeholder-Workshop consisted of a World

Café composed of three central questions:

2

1st: What should a recognition and validation scheme for non- and informal SKCs of TCNs have to

supply?

2nd: How should this instrument have to be designed in order to meet the needs of all stakehold-

ers?

3rd: Which consequence would such an instrument have on an operative and on a social level?

The results of the first Stakeholder-Workshop were carefully taken into consideration and en-

riched in the following weeks by the expert interviews and findings through the literature review.

The aim was to design a general audit-scheme for the registration, assessment and validation of

TCNs’ formal, non-formal and informal qualifications, as described in the “Validation Process

Overview” (document that was sent to Annavittoria Sarli by Jutta Walz on June 16th, 2014, as at-

tachment to the mail with the subject: “WP 4: audit scheme for TCNs’ SKC assessment”).

The audit-scheme designed by the project team at Karlshochschule International University was

presented to a selected audience on the second Stakeholder-Meeting on June 2nd 2014. The pro-

gramme of the meeting envisaged an open discussion about strong and weak points of the audit-

scheme from the multiple stakeholder perspectives. On the basis of these comments and the out-

come of further reflections the final audit scheme was developed and sent to the project coordina-

tion in Milan on June 15th 2014. The testing of the audit scheme is described further down.

These were the participants of the two Stakeholder-Dialogues:

N

r

Name Institution Field 05.05. 02.06.

1 Uhlig, Meri Bureau of Integration for the City

of Karlsruhe, Director (Integration

Commissioner)

Public Authority x x

2 Schmid, Melis EURegKA – Coordination Unit for

European and regional relations

Karlsruhe, Assistant

Public Authority x -

3 Dickgießer,

Dirk

Federal Employment Agency

Karlsruhe, Migration Commission-

er

Public Authority x x

4 Drakul, Petar Department of State of Integration,

Head of the Division for Integra-

tion, Labor Market and recognition

of foreign qualifications

Public Authority x x

3

5 Runge, Ivo Chamber of Industry and Com-

merce Karlsruhe, officer for con-

tinuing and vocational training

Professional

chambers and

unions

x x

6 Kettner,

Rainer

Chamber of Crafts Mannheim, As-

sisting business unit manager for

vocational training and education-

al counseling

Professional

chambers and

unions

x -

7 Grekova, Na-

talia

Chamber of Crafts Mannheim,

Contact person for “alternative

methods” of recognition

Professional

chambers and

unions

- x

8 Ertunç,

Hüseyin

Ikubiz Mannheim, Coordinator of

the IQ Network Baden-

Württemberg

educational and

counseling facil-

ities

x -

9 Sommer,

Benita

Internationaler Bund Karlsruhe,

Division Manager for Integration

educational and

counseling facil-

ities

x x

1

0

Kersten, Bir-

git

Internationaler Bund Karlsruhe,

Supervisor for Youth Migration

Service

educational and

counseling facil-

ities

x x

1

1

Dr. Sardara-

bady, Iris

Internationales Be-

gegnungszentrum Karlsruhe,

Chairwoman

migrant lobby-

ists and organi-

zations

x x

1

2

Althen, Jörg Adult Education Centre (Volks-

hochschule) Karlsruhe, Division

Manager for German and Integra-

tion Courses

educational and

counseling facil-

ities

x -

1

3

Windsor, An-

ke

Freelancing counselor of educa-

tion, Karlsruhe

relevant individ-

ual

x x

1

4

Dreutler, Udo Freunde für Fremde e.V. Karls-

ruhe, vice chairman

migrant lobby-

ists and organi-

zations

x -

1

5

Kerstin, Wer-

ner

Stoffwechsel e.V. Karlsruhe,

chairman

migrant lobby-

ists and organi-

zations

- x

1

6

Maric, Dani-

jela

Mechanical engineer, Karlsruhe relevant individ-

ual

- x

1 Beltran, Eric Architect, Karlsruhe relevant individ- - x

4

7 ual

Table 1: Participants of the two stakeholder meetings

Key aspects of the audit scheme (Summary of the process as given in the Validation

Process Overview)

There is a framework requirement for the whole process which determines the criteria

which has to be considered or incorporated in order to apply the process reasonably.

The validation process consists of four phases: Registration of SKC, Assessment, Vali-

dation, (Final) Consultancy. In a first step (phase 1), the candidate’s SKC are registered

by the candidate himself/herself in cooperation with a counsellor. Afterwards the SKC

are assessed by the candidate (phase 2) and reasonable SKC are identified to be sub-

sequently validated by an expert for the aspired profession (phase 3) on the basis of

European-wide established Learning Outcome Units. Some of several possible meth-

ods of validation are skills demonstrations, oral exams or project works.

Finally, the candidate is certified for the result of the validation. In a final consultancy the

next steps in the candidate’s occupational history are discussed. The candidate may

use his/her certification/formalization of non- and informal SKC to complete his/her doc-

uments and continue pursuing his/her individual occupational history, which may mean

the formal acceptance procedure, a professional re-orientation, occupational career or a

job application.

5

Figure 1: Audit-Scheme

Although the described process allows the registration, assessment and validation of

both, on the one hand formal and on the other hand non- and informal SKC, it develops

its main asset in registering non- and informal SKC, since the process of recognition of

formal SKC has already been implemented to some extent successfully in Germany.

Hence, the result of the process (certification/formalization of SKC) is meant to be a

completion or extension of the candidate´s so far existing formal documents or, in the

case of lacking of any formal certificates, the exclusive proof of SKC.

6

The herewith presented audit-scheme leans fundamentally on the provisional DIVERSE

audit scheme shared during the first meeting of DIVERSE members in Milano (January

2014) (see figure below).

Figure 2: provisional validation procedure.

The following table clarifies in which phase of the Karlshochschule Audit-Scheme the

steps of the provisional Audit-Scheme are incorporated:

Provisional Audit-Scheme as provided in First Partners Meeting

Audit-Scheme as elabo-rated at Karlshochschule Inter-national University

Explanation (if necessary)

Information Guidance and Counseling

Interview with the candi-date

0) Framework Require-ments; 1) Registration

The candidates needs and perspectives are the non plus ultra of the procedure and therefore considered in the framework requirements and initially at phase 1) Reg-istration

Inform the candidate 0) Framework Require- The candidates needs and

7

ments; 1) Registration perspectives are the ne plus ultra of the procedure and therefore considered in the framework requirements and initially at phase 1) Registra-tion

Gather information about the candidates skills, espe-cially those related to their migratory background

1) Registration Especially “Lifeworld e” Special incidents.

Using the europass CV - A CV is not generated dur-ing the procedure (especial-ly because the focus is on non- and informal SKC)

Guide the candidate to those skills that can be recognized in the national qualifications system

4) Final consultancy Especially connections to helpdesks like “Netzwerk IQ”

Collection of Evidence and Description of Skills

Interview with the candi-date

1) Registration

Promote actions of skills assessment

2) Assessment; 3) Valida-tion

Using examples of portfolio methods

1) Registration Using the questionnaire, SKC are investigated and named like in the portfolio method

Help the candidate to col-lect and document evi-dence of the skills pos-essed

1) Registration, 2) as-sessment, 3) validation

Assessment

Assess the competences collected and verified by third parts in order to be ready for certification

2) Assessment, 3) Valida-tion

Assessment is conducted by the candidate him/herself. Validation is conducted by competent authorities

Using a wide range of methods and tools accord-ing to the type of Skills

3) Validation Validation is conducted on the basis of European-wide Learning Outcome Units. Several methods of valida-tion can be considered (cf. Westdeutscher Handwerk-skammertag 2013:13; CEDEFOP 2009:59ff.; Netzwerk IQ 2008:10):

8

Skills-Demonstration / test piece, Written Tests Multi-ple-Choice or free-text, Oral Exam, Project-Work, As-sessment-Center, Presenta-tion, Simulation, Role-Play, Monitored internship, Com-bination of several methods

Certification

Certify the skills possessed 3) Validation / Formalisa-tion

Ensure compliance with the procedures and rules in force in each country

3) Validation / Formalisa-tion

The expert should pref-erably come from the part icular inst i tut ion which is l ikewise re-sponsible for the formal acceptance procedure for foreign quali f ica-t ions.

Involve the public authority and or other stakeholders

1) Registration, 2) As-sessment, 3) Valdiation, 4) Final Consultancy

Stakeholders involved: Helpdesks (Netzwerk IQ), competent authorities (e.g. chambers), Employment Offices

Table 2: Integration of the provisional Audit-Scheme in the finally suggested Audit-

Scheme

The Process and Results of the Testing Phase

In order to find out difficulties and weaknesses that could arise throughout the usage of

the presented audit-scheme for both, TCN and auditor, it was tested on 11 volunteers in

two sessions. The sessions took place on July 14th and July 21st 2014 at

Karlshochschule International University (Karlsruhe). They took 2.5 hours each and

were absolved by a German class (of level B-2 and C-1) of the association Internatio-

naler Bund which showed its interest in the project. Furthermore, three members of the

Karlshochschule project team conducted the testing.

Due to the fact that there was no trained auditor available, not all parts of the audit

scheme could be tested adequately. Especially, it was not possible to test phase 3: val-

9

idation, which would have caused expenses of at least a four-digit amount of Euro.

Therefore, the testing limited to the phases 1 (Registration) and 2 (Assessment).

In addition, the focus group was apparently not representative relating to their nationali-

ty distribution and their average educational background, as well as their knowledge of

the German language. Anyway, representativeness was not the purpose of the qualita-

tive procedure and the group could still give helpful advice for the improvement of the

current scheme.

Acquisition of participants: Participants were acquired with the support of one of the

leading experts who had been interviewed beforehand. Birgit Kersten (Supervisor for

Youth Migration Service at Internationaler Bund in Karlsruhe) invited the project team to

one of her German classes which take place within programmes of the Internationaler

Bund. After a short presentation of the DIVERSE project many participants were con-

vinced and almost all of them attended one or both meetings, as can be seen in the ta-

ble below:

Name 14th July 2014 21st July 2014

Omar M. X

Alaa T. X x

Laila A. X

Alex A. X x

Svetlana S. X x

Natalia W. X x

Engin A. X

Sandra E. X x

10

Name 14th July 2014 21st July 2014

Olga G. X x

Kersha W. X x

Angela C. X

N.N. x

Table 3: Participants of the two testing sessions

Participants’ sketch: The participants were aged between 19 and 35 years and mainly

college graduates with foreign certificates that are not recognised in Germany (8 out of

12); all participants had absolved at least five years of secondary school. Even though

no participant had spent more than three years in Germany, all of them could speak and

understand German at a B2 level or higher, according to the Common European

Framework of Reference for Languages (6 participants were absolving a C1 level

course, 6 participants were absolving a B2 level course). They originated from Egypt,

Brazil, Colombia (2x), Libya, Morocco, Russia, Syria (2x), Turkey, Ukraine (2x),

Tested parts of the audit scheme: As mentioned before, not all parts of the audit-

scheme could be tested so that only two sections were selected to be tested in the two

sessions: in a first step the registration of the candidates’ SKC by themselves and their

assessment in a second step. However, phase three –validation– was not undertaken in

the testing sessions because an external validation of the participants’ SKC could not

be carried out.

Procedure of the testing sessions: The questionnaire was designed in order to register

the participants´ formal, non- and informal SKC and was inspired by the well-proven

method ProfilPASS, which is referred to in the Validation Process Overview. All partici-

pants completed that questionnaire which was divided into five topics (Life Worlds; see

11

below). Furthermore, the questions in all topics were divided into three parts: registra-

tion, interpretation and assessment. The topics (Life Worlds) were as follows:

a) Family and household

Questions in this topic referred to current or former responsibilities at home which the

participant has or used to have in his/her life. For example, it was inquired about rela-

tives or pets the candidate might have been caring for. Besides, duties in the overall

housekeeping were asked about.

b) Educational career

Not only schooling and potential study programmes or traineeships, but extracurricular

experiences were mentioned in this topic as well.

c) Professional career

Questions on jobs, internships and any other work experiences were set in this section.

d) Hobbies and voluntary dedication

The context of hobbies and voluntary dedication seemed to be the largest part of the

questionnaire. Hobbies and voluntary dedication may include sport, artistic or other lei-

sure activities as well as social, political and unionized commitment.

e) Special incidents

Special incidents were chosen to be asked for in order to emphasise the potential of

individual experiences which may have a high impact on a personality. This topic refers

to special incidents like a wedding, an own illness or illness of a near relative, migration

or flight.

12

The following figure illustrates the scheme of the questionnaire:

Figure 3: Scheme of the questionnaire

The questionnaire had the same structure in each topic. First, general information was

requested in order to register the correspondent SKC, e.g. which kind of activity had

been practiced and for how long (German: “Benennen und Beschreiben”). It was also

asked for any kind of proof for the activities, such as certificates or similar documents.

The transition to the next steps, interpretation and validation, showed difficulties for

many participants: they had to infer specific SKC which they could have improved from

abstract activities. In the second step, everything that had been named and described in

the first step should be interpreted. Corresponding questions were about the partici-

pant‘s motivation to do a certain activity (German: “Interpretieren”).

Finally, participants were asked to assess their own skills on a scale from “basic

knowledge” to “professional knowledge” (German: “Bewerten”). This scale was based

on the European Qualifications Framework. Please take notice of the “Validation Pro-

Family and

household

Family and

household

Family and

household

Family and

household

Family and

household

Family and

household

Family and

household

Family and

household

Family and

household

Candidate

candidate

candidate

candidate

candidate

candidate

candidate

candidate

candidate

candidate

Educational

career

Educational

career

Educational

career

Educational

career

Educational

career

Educational

career

Educational

career

Educational

career

Educational

career

Professional

career

Professional

career

Professional

career

Professional

career

Professional

career

Professional

career

Professional

career

Professional

career

Hobbies and

voluntary de-

dication

Hobbies and

voluntary de-

dications

Hobbies and

voluntary de-

dications

Hobbies and

voluntary de-

dications

Hobbies and

voluntary de-

dications

Hobbies and

voluntary de-

dications

Special in-

cidents

Special in-

cidents

Special in-

cidents

Special in-

cidents

Special in-

cidents

Special in-

cidents

Special in-

cidents

Special in-

1) Registration of SKC

2) Interpretation of

SKC

3) Assessment of SKC

1) Registration of SKC

2) Interpretation of

SKC

3) Assesment of SKC

1) Registration of SKC

2) Interpretation of

SKC

3) Assesment of SKC

1) Registration of SKC

2) Interpretation of

SKC

3) Assesment of SKC

1) Registration of SKC

2) Interpretation of

SKC

1) Registration of SKC

2) Interpretation of

SKC

3) Assessment of SKC

1) Registration of SKC

2) Interpretation of

SKC

3) Assesment of SKC

1) Registration of SKC

2) Interpretation of

SKC

3) Assesment of SKC

1) Registration of SKC

2) Interpretation of

SKC

3) Assesment of SKC

1) Registration of SKC

2) Interpretation of

SKC

1) Registration of SKC

2) Interpretation of

SKC

3) Assessment of SKC

1) Registration of SKC

2) Interpretation of

SKC

3) Assesment of SKC

1) Registration of SKC

2) Interpretation of

SKC

3) Assesment of SKC

1) Registration of SKC

2) Interpretation of

SKC

3) Assesment of SKC

1) Registration of SKC

2) Interpretation of

SKC

3) Assessment of SKC

1) Registration of SKC

2) Interpretation of

SKC

3) Assesment of SKC

1) Registration of SKC

2) Interpretation of

SKC

3) Assesment of SKC

1) Registration of SKC

2) Interpretation of

1) Registration of SKC

2) Interpretation of

SKC

3) Assessment of SKC

1) Registration of SKC

2) Interpretation of

SKC

3) Assesment of SKC

1) Registration of SKC

2) Interpretation of

SKC

3) Assesment of SKC

1) Registration of SKC

2) Interpretation of

SKC

3) Assesment of SKC

13

cess Overview” (pages 10-15) where this procedure and the development of the as-

sessment scale are described in detail.

In order to facilitate the answering to the questions, especially the assessment, there

were individual tables provided for each topic. The present members of the

Karlshochschule project team helped with the specific questions. Thus, participants

could deal with the topics at their own tempo and had time to reflect on the questions

after each topic as well. Besides, the participants were allowed to answer the first two

parts of the questionnaire in their native language. Nevertheless, most of them an-

swered all three parts in German.

The following figure depicts precisely the stages which have undergone a testing pro-

cess:

Phase Subitem Method Duration Operator Method of support

1) Registra-tion

Family and household

Questionnaire part 1 (Regis-tration of SKC)

10-60 min Member of the local DIVERSE-Team

Group-mentoring; one-on-one-dialogue

2) Assess-ment

Family and household

Questionnaire part 2 (interpre-tation) & part 3 (assessment of SKC)

10-60 min Member of the local DIVERSE-Team

Group-mentoring; one-on-one-dialogue

1) Registra-tion

Educational career

Questionnaire part 1 (Regis-tration of SKC)

10-60 min Member of the local DIVERSE-Team

Group-mentoring; one-on-one-dialogue

2) Assess-ment

Educational career

Questionnaire part 2 (interpre-tation) & part 3 (assessment of SKC)

10-60 min Member of the local DIVERSE-Team

Group-mentoring; one-on-one-dialogue

1) Registra-tion

Special in-cidents

Questionnaire part 1 (Regis-tration of SKC)

10-60 min Member of the local DIVERSE-Team

Group-mentoring; one-on-one-

14

dialogue

2) Assess-ment

Special in-cidents

Questionnaire part 2 (interpre-tation) & part 3 (assessment of SKC)

10-60 min Member of the local DIVERSE-Team

Group-mentoring; one-on-one-dialogue

1) Registra-tion

Hobbies and volun-tary dedica-tion

Questionnaire part 1 (Regis-tration of SKC)

10-60 min Member of the local DIVERSE-Team

Group-mentoring; one-on-one-dialogue

2) Assess-ment

Hobbies and volun-tary dedica-tions

Questionnaire part 2 (interpre-tation) & part 3 (assessment of SKC)

10-60 min Member of the local DIVERSE-Team

Group-mentoring; one-on-one-dialogue

1) Registra-tion

Professional career

Questionnaire part 1 (Regis-tration of SKC)

10-60 min Member of the local DIVERSE-Team

Group-mentoring; one-on-one-dialogue

2) Assess-ment

Professional career

Questionnaire part 2 (interpre-tation) & part 3 (assessment of SKC)

10-60 min Member of the local DIVERSE-Team

Group-mentoring; one-on-one-dialogue

Table 4: Precise display of the stages which have undergone a testing process

Participants’ feedback: The majority of the participants were of the opinion that the pro-

vided questionnaire fulfilled its goal to name and value individual knowledge, skills and

competences: 71% of all participants said that it helped very well to name their compe-

tences and 57% of all participants said that it helped to value their competences. 71%

also found the overall procedure appropriate, while no participant had difficulties in re-

plying to the questionnaire in German.

Conclusion from the testing of the audit scheme: For the members of the Karls-

hochschule project team, the testing of the audit scheme was of considerable useful-

ness. It helped to point out several weak (and strong) points of the audit scheme.

15

1st: Previous Interview: Eliciting TCNs’ SKC through the tested procedure is not sensible

for all TCNs in general. Especially, it is important to regard the candidates´ previous

education. As the present group consisted of students with a respectable educational

and professional career, the detailed questions on informal learning settings did not

support all their needs. They knew quite well which were their strong and weak points

and did not need the support of the advisors to find out hidden potentials.

As a result, one can say that a preceding interview to find out the individual‘s educa-

tional qualifications and his or her personal goals (referring to possible employments in

Germany) is crucial and only afterwards it might be recommended to assess and vali-

date non- and informal SKC.

2nd: Support by an advisor: The testing of the audit scheme was carried out in the way

that the participants filled in the questionnaires individually. Three advisors were pre-

sent, which calculative means that one advisor was responsible for four participants at a

time. The participants were all along free to address to the advisors. Anyway, not all of

the participants made use of this offer; a fact which may have caused a misunderstand-

ing of the questionnaire procedure. Especially the participants showed difficulties on the

third stage, the self-assessment of the SKC in view of the ad hoc designed scaling sys-

tem basing on the European Qualifications Framework. Hence, a more personal assis-

tance of the participants during the validation process is recommendable.

3rd: Language: The present group showed no problems at using German during the

testing procedure. Anyway, this topic is to be kept in mind in order to make sure that the

testing of SKC does not lead to a testing of German language knowledge. In the Valida-

tion Process Overview (page 7) some important remarks referring to this point have

been made.