Francesca Carmagnola Participatory Learning and Working in Vocational and Educational Training Francesca Carmagnola, ENGIM Piemonte, Italy

Francesca Carmagnola

Participatory Learning and

Working in Vocational and

Educational Training

Francesca Carmagnola, ENGIM Piemonte, Italy

In Italy, ENGIM manages 23 Training Centres and one Study Centre. It has 4 operational centres in Piedmont which offer training and guidance services in the fields of industry and craftwork, the service industry and ICT, catering/bar and health care. ENGIM has in our centre only around 50 employees full time and around 700 learners.


ENGIM TORINOTraining courses for young people & adults in these fields: Environment ICTPersonal Development and Project ManagementCare and HealthCatering and Food sector (kitchen)

EU PROJECTSIEE: Sustainable mobility Grundtvig: Language for migrantsLeonardo: Training for SMEs


Our challenge: creating partecipation and improving collaboration and knowledge exchange between co-workers and between students.

This is what we do. But how we do it?

Between co-workers fosters innovation

Between students supports learning

PARTECIPATION


Partecipation between co-workers fosters

innovation

Partecipation as collaboration between co-workers

Collaboration is a process defined by the recursive interaction

of knowledge and mutual learning between two or more

people who are working together, in an intellectual endeavor,

toward a common goal which is typically creative in nature.

(Wikipedia) )


The process of collaboration is often associated with ‘teamwork’

The main idea of collaboration

… is of working together…

sharing of planning, making decisions, solving problems, setting goals,

assuming responsibility, working together cooperatively, communicating,

and coordinating openly (Baggs & Schmitt, 1988).

Collaborative Process Team Creation Idea Generation Decision-Making Work or Production Evaluation


A “proper” team should be made of:

Small numbers of people - < 12 Complementary skills in group members

Common purposes for working Performance goals agreed upon

Shared working approaches Mutual accountability amongst all members

(Katzenbach and Smith)

How to improve the

collaboration in a team

to achieve better

performance results?


Command and control Consensus-driven

Formal and closed Informal and open

Fear of making mistakes Explore and evaluate

Improving collaboration requires a cultural change

OLD STYLE CULTURE NEW STYLE CULTURE


… as well as a behavioural change

Old-style worker

New-style worker

I interact with the others when I have the time

I use only the e-mail

I interact with the others often and self-initiated

I use several tools


A Community of Practice is a network of individuals with common problems or interests who get together to explore

ways of working, identify common solutions, and share good practice and ideas.

(Steve Dale Director Semantix)

Team creation = connecting people

Community of Practice


CoP are not a way to bring new knowledge into an organisation, but

an opportunity to support and increase the knowledge that is already

available in the organisation.

CoP put you in touch with like-minded colleagues and peers

CoP allow you to share your experiences and learn from others

CoP allow you to collaborate and achieve common outcomes

CoP accelerate your learning

CoP provide the opportunity to innovate and create new ideas starting

from existing knowledge

Communities of Practice: features


Communities of Practice in ENGIM

Meetings facilitator

Pre-defined duration

Pre-defined number of meetings

Clear action plan with activities

Pre-defined shared goals to be achieved

Pre-defined maximum budget

Different roles, competencies and responsabilities

None chief but only shared leadership


“We didn’t get out the average of our competencies, but the preeminences of every single member have been brought to the

light”

The meeting facilitator states that…

How the success is possibile?

Shared goals and common interests

Preserved working environment

Greatly motivated team

Open network


Which tools to foster collaboration into CoP?

Email / Mailing List

Telephone Meeting

Presentation Tools

Document storage and exchange

Basic tools

Then web 2.0 and social software came providing greater

support for innovation


(Steve Dale Director Semantix)

Social software provide the infrastructure for innovation


Social software provide the infrastructure for innovation in ENGIM


Main outcomes

Behavioural change: thanks to the easiness of the partecipating tools every member of the CoP partecipates in the

creation of content

Reduction of the digital divide

Continued and growing enthusiasm for collaboration

Many self-organising networks


Partecipation between students supports learning

51% students study both on books and on web materials.

Only 41% of them use only books!

(AIE Research, 2010)

Don’t forget that our customers are the students!

Students are no more passive but active protagonists of the creation of content to be shared.

Tools like Blog, Wikis, Podcast, RSS are commonly used.


And the trainers?

The trainers need to change their role from “dispenser of information” to “generator of knowledge”

Young students are bewildered when they come in a typical environment of the XIX century that still characterizes the educational establishment

Learning can benefit from sharing of content and free access to information, typical of the new frontiers of Web 2.0

The biggest challenge, for trainers, is to interact with the digital generation.


Which tools to foster partecipation between students?


Social software provide the infrastructure also for supporting learning in ENGIM


Main outcomes

Still to be confirmed but…

We are still alive …and in good health!


Thank you for the attention

Questions

[email protected]

Documents

Francesca Carmagnola Participatory Learning and Working in Vocational and Educational Training Francesca Carmagnola, ENGIM Piemonte, Italy