Best times for trainers professional appraisal

Wednesday May 3rd, 2017 - 9 minutes read

Trainers professional development appraisal takes new steps in Europe. We seek for new ways to assess our professional competencies and support the development of practices to achieve better recognition of people working in the training field.

Last year, International Youth Work Trainers Guild (further in the text – Trainers Guild) successfully piloted the prototype of 360° review system to support the (self-)assessment of trainer competences. The system was build around the European Training Strategy (ETS) competence model for trainers and offered the online solution to collect the feedback from training participants, colleagues and training service contractors.

Further more, during the Bridges for Trainers event, SALTO Training and Cooperation Resource Centre introduced the new manual with tools and methodologies to support the professional assessment and development of trainers. Being present at the event, members of the Trainers Guild took the decision to initiate the design and development of the digital tools to support trainers professional appraisal.

Based on the initial trainer needs analysis and best practices of performing professional appraisal, the Trainers Guild together with 5 other partners presented the application and secured co-funding from the Erasmus+ for the KA2 strategic partnership project “AppRaiser”.

Here we are, ready to share ideas and present the “AppRaiser. 360° professional development appraisal service for trainers”.

Trainers professional appraisal will have new solutions

AppRaiser will enable creating and offering the new web solutions for professional development appraisal which will be adapted to the needs and practices of trainers. After registering to the AppRaiser virtual environment, trainers wishing to carry out with the (self-) assessment of their professional competences and practices will find tools and guidelines to perform self-assessment, collect feedback from their participants, trainer colleagues and training service contractors. This virtual spaces will have tools to support the plan and monitoring of trainers professional development.

 

The Trainers Guild plan to support the professional development of trainers through the system of Learning Trios. Trainers will be offered systemic support from at least 2 other colleagues during the live or online meetings.

Inspired and informed by the best practices

AppRaiser developments will be carried out following the principles and methodologies which guide the innovation design and progressive assessment practices.

  • Goal-oriented design. All of the solutions will be built with the careful consideration of typical user personas, their goals and desired actions.
  • Design thinking process. The innovation process will be managed through the well-planned design cycle: 1) observation and research; 2) ideation; 3) prototyping; and 4) building and implementation.
  • Appreciative inquiry. Change management approach which is based on affirmation and recognises the best aspects in people, affirms past and present strengths, assets and potentials.
  • 360° feedback/review. This model will enable receive confidential, anonymous feedback from the people who are involved and related to the training activity.

We plan to involve the wider community of trainers in the development of solutions for professional development appraisal of trainers. If you are interested to support and/or test the developments, write to us info@iywt.org

Main features of the appraisal service

The professional development appraisal service will offer trainers virtual environment to access and use web tools to self-assess their competencies, collect feedback from other people, plan and monitor professional growth.

Virtual environment

Trainers professional appraisal will be supported through the virtual environment and web solutions. In the virtual space, trainers will be able to take the following actions:

  • Mokymų vadovų profesinis įvertinimas virtualių įrankių pagalbaRegister/Login (incl. Terms of Use and Privacy policy information)
  • Manage training event references (add/remove training events, describe/modify events (similar to SALTO TOY reference/LinkedIn projects)
  • Manager user lists (add/remove users, sent invitations/notifications)
  • Manage trainer profile (private/public, permission settings, add/modify information, account management, manage achievements using digital Open Badges)

Self-assessment of competencies

Trainers professional appraisal will start from the self-assessment of trainer competencies. There will be used the ETS competence model for trainers. Trainers will be able to take self-assessment actions by using these online tools:

Mokymų vadovų profesinis įvertinimas prasideda nuo savo kompetencijų įsivertinimo

  • Competence map (visual and interactive ETS competence model)
  • Rating scales (performance-based and linked to competence assessment indicators)
  • Evidence upload (any type of file (text, media, document), leave specific comment to explain better the context of the uploaded evidence.)
  • Progress bar (view and monitor the progress of self-assessment)
  • Digital Open Badges (display and share competences, benefit from the global standard of recognition)

External feedback/review

Trainers professional appraisal will be strengthened with the feedback given by training participants, trainer colleagues and training service contractors. Virtual space will enable trainers to:

Mokymų vadovų profesinis įvertinimas - grįžtamojo ryšio svarba

  • Sent/Accept requests to review trainers performance (sent to training participants, colleagues and contractors)
  • View/handle notifications (push notifications and alerts when someone completed the review)
  • View/handle reminders (set automatic reminders to be send for feedback)
  • Grant permissions to View/access data (manage permissions for other)

Professional development

Trainers professional appraisal will be reinforced through the professional development activities. Virtual space will offer such tools to plan and monitor learning and change of practice:

Mokymų vadovų profesinis įvetinimas per nuolatinį tobulėjimą

  • Specify objectives and actions for professional development (link with areas of competences, set goals, view progress)
  • Identify and collect sources for learning (upload links and materials)
  • Set the time frame (link with the personal calendar, configure reminders)
  • Track the progress of learning (view/manage progress, upload new evidence)
  • Invite other trainers to support their professional development (organise Learning Trio)

Support from the trainer colleagues

Trainers professional appraisal will be supported through the all steps described previously. Virtual environment will enable to contact other trainer colleagues and establish Learning Trio. The colleagues will enable:

Mokymų vaodvų profesinis įvertinimas kartu su kolegomis

  • Supporting the professional development (formulate goals, plan learning action, support learning)
  • Supporting self-assessment (help in reviewing and interpreting collected data)
  • Feedback (constructive motivational and/or developmental feedback, structured reflection)
  • Coaching and mentoring (coaching questions, sharing good practice)
  • Live and online meetings (provisionally, 2 meetings are planned during a 1 year cycle)

Steps to develop and build appraisal service

Trainers professional development appraisal service will be developed during September 2017 and Feruary 2020

We aim to increase the quality of youth work and training activities in Europe by developing a web-based 360° professional development appraisal service for trainers and other training stakeholders.

By the end of this project we expect to achieve the following:

  • A well functioning and engaging web environment
  • Minimum 200 trainer self-assessments completed
  • Minimum 750 external reviews collected
  • Minimum 100 professional development plans submitted
  • Minimum 50 peer support meetings happened online or in person

Should you wish to be one of the first to test and use AppRaiser services, contact us info@iywt.org

AppRaiser project partners and funding

AppRaiser service is imitated and developed in partnership with:

This project is co-funded through the European Union’s programme “Erasmus+“.

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