Transcript MASS Measuring and Assessing Soft Skills Iverene Bromfield

A European Project for Measuring
Employability Skills for Young People
Who are our Guests?
Your interest in Measuring and
Assessing Soft Skills?
Teachers/trainers
Managers
Policy Makers –
local/regional/national/European
Academics/researchers
Other
WHAT IS THE MASS PROJECT?
MASS Partnership
Bureau Zuidema, Netherlands
Roc Aventus, Netherlands
Angus College,
Scotland
Adult Learning and
Employment, Sweden
Teacher Training Centre
Of Bucharest, Romania
Second Chance School
of Neapolis, Greece
MASS Project – the full picture
• WP1 – Project Management
• WP2 – EQF Mapping
• WP3 – Preparation and Transfer
of Products
• WP4 – Needs Analysis and
Piloting
• WP6 – Employer Consultation
and Piloting
• WP8 - Website
A Leonardo da Vinci Transfer of
Innovation Project
Target Groups
• Unemployed
• In initial vocational
education/training
• Experiencing
disadvantage –
– Drug/alcohol abuse
– Low literacy skills
– Social or emotional
problems
– At risk of drop out/social
exclusion
What do you think soft skills should
be?
MASS Project Soft Skills
What does MASS Methodology Offer?
• Individualized approach
• Creation of a safe
environment
• Deliberate development
of soft skills
Project Results, Outcomes & Impacts
• Online and paper resources
• Placement of assessment on
EQF
• Website www.massproject.org
• Dissemination strategy
• Report of pilot study
• Employer soft skills report
• Participation of 49
teachers/trainers
• Participation of 213 students
Results, Outcomes & Impacts of Pilot
• Student improvement towards
self & soft skills awareness
• Active participation and evident
interest
• Very good feedback on
resources
• Very good feedback from
teachers/trainers on the
adaptability of resources and
coverage of soft skills needed in
vocational education and
training
Benefits to Learners & Staff
• High quality learning
and teaching material
• New approaches
• Improvements in soft
skills and thereby
employability skills
• More enthusiastic
trainers and teachers
EU 2020 AND HOW MASS CAN HELP
YOUNG PEOPLE INTO
EMPLOYMENT ...
EU 2020 - Three key priorities
• Maintaining employment, creating jobs and promoting
mobility
• Upgrading skills and matching labour market needs
• Increasing access to employment
– Knowledge, skills and competences acquired during initial education
and training can help movement into employment and adjustment to
change
– Vital that adults and young people continue to learn and adapt to
change for access to employment and participation in society
– Important to make education and training more relevant to work.
Employability Prospects – a young
person’s perspective
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Few or no qualifications
Low level technical skills
Poor soft skills
Little self awareness
History of failure
Low aspirations
Bleak future
Employment prospects
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Challenging job market
Few vacancies
Rising unemployment
Rise in experienced
adults looking for work
• Poor skills match
• Attitude of employers
Linking to Employment
• MASS helps link
employee to
employer
through
development of
soft skills
Employer Consultation – UK, SW, NL
Comparison between Soft Skills and Technical Skills
50%
45%
40%
35%
30%
Social Skills
25%
Technical
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Very Important
Important
Of Average
Importance
Of Limited
Importance
Not at all
important
How do these frameworks
enhance our ability to
transfer this
methodology?
SCQF Level 4 = EQF Level 2
www.mass-project.org
2045 registered users across Europe and beyond
Personal Success Stories?
The Partnership