ACTIVITIES REPORT
Partners' Institution:
Bildungswerk ver.di
Project's period (from/to):
November 2007 - June 2008
WP concerned:
WP 7 - Project Management

Objectives of activities carried out:
1. Preparing for the kick-off meeting of the project. Reviewing project work packages and decisions about different roles and work to be done from the staff in the project.
2. Presentation of the Bildungswerk to other partners in the project. Explaining an action plan for dissemination.
3. Final choose of staff for the work to be done in the project. Contracts and other documents for partners and staff.
4. dissemination and evaluation activities

Description of activities carried out:
Project work started with the final confirmation of the date for the kick-off meeting of the project in Florence from 28th and 29th of February2008.
Beside the promoter of the project (PIXEL) there were new partners involved. So it was necessary to prepare a detailed presentation which gave an impression about the organisation of the Bildungswerk, his structure, the different educational programmes, experience in former European projects and an overview how Bildungswerk is part of the official and state funded system of adult education in Lower Saxony.
It was also necessary to give a short introduction and description of vocational education and training in Germany in which learning on the job is a traditional component of the education system. All vocational training is aimed at imparting comprehensive professional competence in occupation. Vocational training in Germany is guided not only by the requirements of the labour market, but also by the need for individuals to aquire skills, knowledge and competences that enable them successfully to prove themselves on the labour market.
One of the main objectives of the ELS@Work project is to encourage the inclusion of the ELS portal in the system of vocational training and education in the partner countries. So there was on the agenda of the meeting in Florence the presentation of the national contacts the partner intend to activate for the ELS project with the regional/national bodies in charge of education and training. For this Bildungswerk prepared a presentation of the contact plan which also gave an overview about the institutional framework in the field of vocational training. Responsibilities and state’s function shared out between the Federal Government and the 16 states (Länder), legal framework and crucial importance of the Vocational Education and Training (VET) Act (BBiG) and the role of the social partners. For the success of the ELS project it is important to understand and consider the partnership between unions and employers which manifests itself at federal level trough cooperation in the main committee of the VET, at Land(state) level in the competent ministry’s VET committee, and at regional level in the Chamber’s VET and examination committees. The VET committees are responsible for important tasks in the implementation and supervising of pre- and vocational training, further training and retraining.

Outcomes:

Evaluation of the work undertaken:
The main task of the project in the 3 first months after the meeting in Florence was to guarantee the production of the German course. For this a lot of communication was necessary. The work undertaken seems to be successful especially when considering quality aspects. Dissemination activities as far on a lower level due to the fact that up to now not many results could be shown to multiplyers.