Transcript Presentation final conference_GR

Pilot Implementation of the
Digital Portfolio in Greece
Zoe Albani
Vocational Counselor
European Projects Development
and Management
IEKEP
The pilot implementation of the Digital Portfolio method in Greece
took place in two phases:
• January 2009 with the participation of 7 operators and 5 clients
belonging to different target groups and
• December 2009 with 9 operators and 10 clients (old and new)
The operators were psychologists, career counselors, school
guidance counselors, sociologists, social workers and probation
officer.
Profile of operators
They work at different organizations dealing with various socially
vulnerable groups. More specifically:
• Four are working as career counselors at the Greek Council for the
Refugees
• Two work at the Working Youth Center of a public organization
dealing with various types of socially vulnerable groups
• Two work at the education department of a Drug Rehabilitation
Center and are responsible for the social and occupational
integration of ex drug addicts
• Two are working at a center providing social and psychological
support to immigrants, repatriates and refugees
Profile of operators cont.
• Two are free lance career counselors
• One works as a career counselor at a municipal center for social
policies while another one works at a municipal unemployment
center
• One is a Probation Officer at the Juvenile District Attorney office
• One works as a School Career Counselor at a public school and
• One provides psychosocial support to people with mental health
problems during their rehabilitation period
None of the operators had any previous experience with this
type of tool
Beneficiaries
The clients who were involved in the experimentation and
developed their digital portfolio were:
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Two drop outs
Two young unemployed individuals
One ex drug addict at his rehabilitation phase
Two immigrants
One immigrant with mental health problems
Two refugees
One young offender
One young woman who have completed high school but lacks
the necessary credentials to enter the labor market in the
sector she is interested in
Operators’ Training
Before each of the two phases, a training of the operators was
implemented. This proved to be a valuable asset for the
successful implementation of the digital portfolio method since it
provided the operators with:
• the necessary theoretical background mainly concerning the 3
types of learning and the importance of non formal and informal
learning
• the necessary technical information
Operators’ Training
The operators’ training in Greece included two additions that
played an important role:
• a role playing exercise where each participant alternated
between the roles of the client and the operator so as to
familiarize themselves with making non formal and formal
competencies visible
• time was devoted for the operators to enter the platform,
create and modify portfolios, upload prepared photographs
and videos and get acquainted with the technical part of the
digital portfolio methodology
What helped
•
The training provided to the operators
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The methodological and technical guidelines
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The support material
•
The constant support from IEKEP, mainly on the
technological, technical issues
•
The willingness of the beneficiaries to participate
Feedback: Positive points
• All operators consider this method as a very helpful tool for the
successful vocational integration or reintegration of their target groups
• It was an extremely empowering process for all the clients
• It provided self motivation for some of the clients to continue their
personal and/or vocational pathway
• It constituted a kind of “remembering” for some of them
• Familiarizes them with ITC and the opportunities it may present
• It promotes the networking of the individual (client), the service and the
labor market, enhancing the communication among the employment
triangle
Feedback: Weak points
•
It is a time consuming process both for the
operator and the client
•
It requires a framework that allows and supports a
long-term relationship with the client
•
It requires some knowledge on new technologies as
well as access to it
•
In some cases, access to actual work places is
needed
Feedback: Weak points cont.
• There were some practical difficulties such as the
limited duration of the videos and the encoding of
the material
• Some of the clients did not feel comfortable being
videotaped
• For certain target groups showing their face or
revealing their names is not an option
Conclusions
• The experimentation of the digital portfolio in Greece
has shown that it can be a valuable tool
• The Greek educational system as well as the issue of
certification are characterized by a number of
particularities and as a result certain modifications
are needed in order to address these particularities
• Operators expressed some reservations concerning
the degree of readiness of the Greek labor market to
accept such a tool
Conclusions cont.
The methodology of the digital portfolio method
consists an extremely helpful tool both for the
promotion of different socially vulnerably
groups to employment but most importantly for
their empowerment and self motivation
regarding their personal and vocational
development