Final evaluation report

Evaluation Report – Final Report GREEN SKILLS - Adapting Green Skills to Vocational Education LLP - Leonardo Da Vinci Partnership Project

GREEN SKILLS Adapting Green Skills to Vocational Education

Evaluation Report – Final Report GREEN SKILLS - Adapting Green Skills to Vocational Education LLP - Leonardo Da Vinci Partnership Project

Index Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................... 3 Methodology ..................................................................................................................................................... 3 Partnership ........................................................................................................................................................ 4 Project Management ......................................................................................................................................... 7 Project products ................................................................................................................................................ 9 Conclusions and recommendations ................................................................................................................ 12

Evaluation Report – Final Report GREEN SKILLS - Adapting Green Skills to Vocational Education LLP - Leonardo Da Vinci Partnership Project

Introduction GREEN SKILLS - Adapting Green Skills to Vocational Education is Leonardo Da Vinci Partnership Project that was approved in the framework of Lifelong Learning Programme. The project started on 1st August 2013 and its implementation project lifetime was completed on 31st July 2015.

GREEN SKILLS incudes seven partners from five different countries - HATİCE BAYRAKTAR TEKNİK VE ENDÜSTRİ MESLEK LİSESİ (Turkey), Landward Research Ltd (UK), Köyceğiz Mesleki ve Teknik Eğitim Merkezi Müdürlüğü (Turkey), Stratum GmbH (Germany), Riva (Czech Republic), Bildungsinstitut PSCHERER (Germany) and Konstantin Stamov Ltd (Bulgaria). GREEN SKILLS project then brought together partners with experience and expertise in research, vocational training, developing of training courses and methodologies but also project management.

GREEN SKILLS project lasted 24 months. Its interim report was delivered to National Agencies 30th June 2014. In general, it was stated that the project has been well progressing and the project activities had been in compliance with its objectives. The work programme was reviewed according to the current needs.

The main objectives and purpose of this final report is to evaluate the implementation of the project activities and provide an view on the relations between the goals, activities, outputs and timetable specified in the original project application form and the overall work progress and results, quality and success of the project and to what extend they were reached.

Methodology The final evaluation report was created by the Czech partner who was responsible for the whole evaluation of the project and its lifetime. The final evaluation report is based mainly on the review and assessment of the project documents, such as:  Project application form  Evaluation of the meetings  Meeting minutes

Evaluation Report – Final Report GREEN SKILLS - Adapting Green Skills to Vocational Education LLP - Leonardo Da Vinci Partnership Project

 Final evaluation questionnaires (see in the attachment)  Project outputs and products

The project evaluation focuses on: 1. Project quality management 2. Internal aspects of the project partnership 3. Assessment of developed products/outputs These areas were evaluated from the point of view of the project performance addressing project management, partners’ contribution and distribution of tasks, coherence between the activities previewed and real outcomes developed and fulfilled during the project lifetime, as well as quality of these outcomes. This evaluation report is then oriented on the qualitative character of the GREEN SKILLS project rather than the quantitative one. That is also why, the project partners were involved in the internal evaluation process and collaborated with the fulfilment of the final evaluation forms prepared by the Czech partner responsible for the elaboration of this report.

The evaluation was mainly assured through the following methods and techniques:  Comparison – key form of the evaluation; comparing the current state of the project with the original activities and timetable identified in the project proposal.  Desk analysis – analysing of the project outputs quality, timetable and budget allocation.  Questionnaire research.

Partnership This part aims to briefly describe and assess the internal functioning of the partnership consortium. Furthermore, the short look will be taken on the mutual cooperation among the partners, approach to the fulfilling of the tasks by individuals and overall satisfaction of the partners with the progress of the project based on the internal questionnaires distributed among project partners.

Evaluation Report – Final Report GREEN SKILLS - Adapting Green Skills to Vocational Education LLP - Leonardo Da Vinci Partnership Project

Originally, the project partnership was created from thirteen organisations, but as mentioned above, the project was approved in seven partners from five different countries:  HATİCE BAYRAKTAR TEKNİK VE ENDÜSTRİ MESLEK LİSESİ (Turkey)  Landward Research Ltd (UK)  Köyceğiz Mesleki ve Teknik Eğitim Merkezi Müdürlüğü (Turkey)  Stratum GmbH (Germany)  Riva (Czech Republic)  Bildungsinstitut PSCHERER (Germany)  Konstantin Stamov Ltd (Bulgaria).

At the beginning of the project, the task were redistributed and agreed by all seven partners and the decreased number of the project partners did not influenced the successful implementation of the project and fulfilment of the tasks.

Seeing the results from the evaluation questionnaires below, the internal functioning of the consortium can be considered satisfying (6,4). One of the partners considered the partnership weak (4). The cooperation should be more effective than, as well as the partners should strengthen more the teamwork and collaboration as a group. On the other hand, it was stated that the partners always managed to reach the objectives and outputs agreed.

Graphic n. 1: Cooperation among partnership

Evaluation Report – Final Report GREEN SKILLS - Adapting Green Skills to Vocational Education LLP - Leonardo Da Vinci Partnership Project

According to the comments from the evaluation questionnaires, the cooperation among partners could be improved in the fields of:  Better involvement of the partners in the common project outputs  Deeper cooperation as a group  Communication among partners (using skype conferences, tools for sharing documents, more frequent communication  Respecting deadlines  Avoid working as individuals on separate project parts  More goal – oriented communication and higher control from the side of the project coordinator  Language difficulties – some of the project partners did not send English speaking representative on the meeting and the efficiency of the meeting was then lower.

On the other hand, the partners appreciated the flexibility of the partners and ability to find new solutions.

Involvement of the partners The project partners were also asked to reflect and self-evaluate their own participation and involvement in the project. In general, all partners agreed to improve the communication and responsibilities of tasks and delivery deadlines. On the other hand, the project partners were finally able to implement all activities and reach the objectives of the project and the delays did not endanger the project results. The project partners also learnt a lot from this cooperation and particularly, the project partners, they realized that they should: -

Be more goal oriented

-

Improve self-responsibility

-

Improve the language skills

-

Deeper involvement of the learners in the project activities

Evaluation Report – Final Report GREEN SKILLS - Adapting Green Skills to Vocational Education LLP - Leonardo Da Vinci Partnership Project

-

Use the full potential of the partners

-

Manage better the changes in the national project teams

Project Management The project management was assured and led by the Turkish partner HATİCE BAYRAKTAR TEKNİK VE ENDÜSTRİ MESLEK LİSESİ and supported by the project coordinator Mr. Alptug Calik in cooperation with other partners. The project management was quite well organised, but stricter and deadline demanding approach was required. There were 5 project meetings organised during the whole project lifetime: -

1st meeting in Berlin (Germany)

-

2nd meeting in London (UK)

-

3rd meeting in Burgas (Bulgaria)

-

4th meeting in Ostrava (Czech Republic)

-

5th meeting in Gebze (Turkey)

The project meeting were focused both on the project management issues in order to assure smooth implementation of the project, as well as on the educational part for the learners attending the meetings.

Seeing the results from the evaluation questionnaires distributed at the end of the meetings to all participants, it can be said, the meetings were very well organised, just few organisational issues were indicated such different meeting room more suitable for discussions etc.

It was also found out, that all project partners should send at least one representative for each meeting, as there were some tasks that were not fully completed and needed to be reviewed and agreed by all project partners. (e.g. German partners at Burgas’ meeting, Bulgarian partners at Ostrava’s meeting).

Evaluation Report – Final Report GREEN SKILLS - Adapting Green Skills to Vocational Education LLP - Leonardo Da Vinci Partnership Project

Graphic n. 2: Project management

On the base of the questionnaire evaluation undertaken, it was found out that the average satisfaction with project management is ranked by 7,1 (9 being the highest score and 5 the lowest from the maximal total of 10) and there were considered the following points: -

More effective time management and better control of the timetable

-

Task division and redistribution of the tasks if some of the partners is not able to complete it on 100%

-

To be more transparent on about the status quo of the project (on the regular basis)

-

Better division of the task in the case there are two partners from one country

-

More detailed agendas to be prepared for the meetings

-

Respecting deadlines and responsibilities for the deadlines

Seeing the progress and lifetime of the project, some of the tasks and outputs delivery were postponed, what finally did not influence the delivery and the products, neither the final closing of the project and its impact.

Evaluation Report – Final Report GREEN SKILLS - Adapting Green Skills to Vocational Education LLP - Leonardo Da Vinci Partnership Project

Graphic n. 3: Implementation of the project according to the timetable.

The evaluation of the timetable was stated at 6,4 from 10, which shows satisfying results.

However the deadlines and task delivery were revised in several cases, the project outputs were fully completed and successfully implemented. The project partners indicated the following suggestions concerning this point: -

More goal oriented implementation of the project and development of the products

-

Defining more interim goals within the products

-

Involve more time for review and analysis and providing feedback on the products.

Project products For the purposes of the final project evaluation, there were assessed the following main products developed and available under the GREEN SKILLS project: -

Framework on situation on VET

-

Report on national policies

-

Project website

Evaluation Report – Final Report GREEN SKILLS - Adapting Green Skills to Vocational Education LLP - Leonardo Da Vinci Partnership Project

The recommendation guide was not fully developed at the stage of the evaluation questionnaires and therefor is not included in this evaluation report.

Framework on situation on VET The survey on situation on VET was created on the bases on the survey of educators and employers in partners countries. It was identified that employers consider green skills to be relevant, important and needed in their workplaces. However, they do not consider that their staffs always have the relevant skills, and there is a mismatch between the green skills needed and the green skills actually being used. Educators consider the broader area of green skills to be a developing area, within which they prioritise the field of environmental awareness. While employers also consider this to be an important area, they also have VET needs in the fields of expert procedural knowledge and practical involvement, suggesting there is a need (and an opportunity, as the delivery models develop) to more closely align the skills being taught by VET providers to those needed in the workplace. The framework is available on the GREEN SKILLS project website.

Graphic n. 4: Framework on situation on VET

Evaluation Report – Final Report GREEN SKILLS - Adapting Green Skills to Vocational Education LLP - Leonardo Da Vinci Partnership Project

The partners were asked to provide the feedback on the Framework on situation on VET via questionnaire, too. In general, partners were satisfied with the results and no more suggestions were defined. Some of the partners missed more analytical approach and further reflection on findings concerning practical improvements for green skills.

Report on national policies The main objective of this output was to analyse and compare the national policies and approaches to the implementation of green skills in VET in the partners’ countries. It was, of course, found out that the environmental policy in all countries is embedded in and influenced by European and international frameworks, but in addition to the requirements of the EU there are also national defined objectives.

The report was considered as very good and complex. However, the resources available and documents coming from different years may affect the consistency of this output.

Graphic n.5: Report on national policies

Evaluation Report – Final Report GREEN SKILLS - Adapting Green Skills to Vocational Education LLP - Leonardo Da Vinci Partnership Project

Project website The project website was developed as an informative and dissemination tool. The website contains basic information about the GREEN SKILLS project, project partnership and meetings, as well as it is possible to freely download the main products and outputs of the project.

Graphic n.6: Project website

The project website was well evaluated with the average rate of 8,3. The project website was permanently and continuously updated. It was only suggested to involve more information concerning t the national activities and dissemination in the particular countries. It was also stated to have an area with the documents to be downloaded, which was taken into the consideration and updated.

Section related to the upcoming events and news would be also appreciated.

Conclusions and recommendations Although there were some delays in tasks delivery, the project implementation could be considered as successful and the project partnership fulfilled the aims and goals as set up in the original application form. GREEN SKILLS project was mainly strong in the issues related to the

Evaluation Report – Final Report GREEN SKILLS - Adapting Green Skills to Vocational Education LLP - Leonardo Da Vinci Partnership Project

flexibility of the partnership, qualitative fulfilment of the tasks and local activities. On the other hand, there are some fields, which should be taken more attention.

Recommendations found out from the evaluation questionnaires: -

Better communication tools and systems allowing sharing documents

-

Defining interim goals

-

More working time and contextual discussions during the project meetings

-

More effective task planning, using e.g. project roadmap, progress reports on national activities

-

As the project budget was quite low in comparison to the activities to be filled in, the project and its objectives should be created more realistically

-

It was found out that there is a big need to work more deeply on the topic of the green skills and ERASMUS+ project as Strategic partnership could be good solution how to continue to work on this issues.

-

Clear definition of the scope of the project

Evaluation Report – Final Report GREEN SKILLS - Adapting Green Skills to Vocational Education LLP - Leonardo Da Vinci Partnership Project

Annex 1. Final Evaluation Form

Adapting Green Skills to Vocational Education (LLP - Leonardo Da Vinci partnership project) In order to elaborate the final internal evaluation report of the project, we would like to kindly ask you to fill in this questionnaire.

On questions 1-6, please give a score between 1 and 10; additional comments are also useful. The definition of the scores is the following:

BAD 1

2

WEAK 3

4

SATISFYING 5

6

GOOD 7 8

EXCELLENT 9

10

1. Evaluate the cooperation among the partnership (score 1-10).

What can be improved? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

2. Evaluate the project management of the project (score 1-10).

What can be improved? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Evaluation Report – Final Report GREEN SKILLS - Adapting Green Skills to Vocational Education LLP - Leonardo Da Vinci Partnership Project 3. Evaluate the products created: Framework on situation on VET (score 1-10)

What can be improved? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

4. Evaluate the products created: Report on national policies (score 1-10)

What can be improved? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

5. Evaluate the products created: project website (score 1-10)

What can be improved? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

6. Evaluate the implementation of the project according to the time-schedule.

What can be improved? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

6. How would you self-evaluate your personal and your organization's role for the implementation of the project so far? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Evaluation Report – Final Report GREEN SKILLS - Adapting Green Skills to Vocational Education LLP - Leonardo Da Vinci Partnership Project ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

7. What comments/suggestions do you have to improve the project and cooperation in furute in general? …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………