Evaluation support for gibb Berufsfachschule Bern’s IT Training 4.0 project
Switzerland's dual vocational education and training system is to become more flexible and modular and thus more attractive for training companies and trainees. The gibb Berufsfachschule Bern tackled these challenges from the ‘VET 2030’ guiding principles in the “Informatics Training 4.0’ pilot project. This project aimed to make VET for an Informatics Specialist with the Federal VET diploma more attractive for learners and host companies with a flexible and requirements-led training model.
‘Informatics Training 4.0’ is an innovation programme of the gibb Berufsfachschule Bern which aims to provide modular informatics training. It consists of three projects:
- The requirements-led improvement in flexibility of informatics training enables learners to complete informatics modules at the best time for them so that what they’ve learned can be optimally applied in workplace training.
- A three-level model was created as part of the self-organised learning (SOL) project which provides learners with supported self-study options at the appropriate level.
- A skills-oriented digital learning and exam platform was created in the Smartlearn platform.
The ‘Informatics Training 4.0’ innovation programme was launched in line with the goals of the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) as part of ‘VET 2030’ to address outstanding issues in modular informatics training. While the modular system of ‘ICT Berufsbildung Schweiz’ provides many flexible and individual options, insufficient use has been made of them so far. This is what the three-project programme focuses on. SFUVET’s Evaluation Unit provided support with evaluation from 2018 to 2022.
In order to establish an information basis for improvements and developments, workshops were organised with vocational school teachers and workplace trainers. In addition, learners will be asked to fill out questionnaires.
In order to analyse impact, a longitudinal study was conducted. Learners were asked to take part in online surveys so that information could be gathered regarding the new training course and benchmark classes at various points in time during training. These surveys provided information about learner self-esteem, skills acquisition to gauge learning progress, the level of motivation to learn and achieve, extent of classroom participation, etc.
Fleba
The initial focus on time-related flexibility in the ‘Fleba’ project was a worthwhile first step, but did not fully harness the potential available. In terms of learning performance, there are only marginal to no differences between learners using Fleba and those who do not. The assessment of the acquisition and development of skills was also comparable. On one hand, this is unsurprising as only the sequence changed, but rarely the actual content. On the other, teaching staff indicate that the flexibility provided by Fleba is barely used by learners. During the presentation of the project results, the reason for this given by teaching staff was that the modular system was not flexible enough and improvement was needed in this respect.
Teaching staff feel Fleba creates a heavier workload. The reason: a poorly introduced switch from two to four lessons a week (with the same total number of lessons (40) which cuts the teaching period from one semester to a quarter of a semester). There is a link with SOL3 here: Learners can spend half a day (4 lessons) in the host company instead of at school which was not feasible with two lessons. Teaching staff also believe they can teach the learning content just as well without ‘Fleba’. After initial criticism, the learning materials adapted to the 4-lesson blocks and the new VET ordinance received positive assessment from teaching staff and learners.
Getting the host companies on board is a huge challenge. Many workplace VET trainers are not sufficiently familiar with the Fleba scheme and many would like more information from gibb. However, few people took part in the workshops provided indicating that better networking between schools and host companies is needed. At some other schools such events have been used for regular networking and to improve relations. At this point, it remains to be seen how strong the interest of host companies is in such activities – even though over 80% of VET workplace trainers see professional collaboration between host companies and VET schools as desirable. Experience in other places also provides encouraging signs that investment in such relationship-building may be worthwhile. Various Fleba features received very neutral scores on average. However, around half indicated that learners could be deployed in the company at an earlier stage which was a key project goal.
SOL
The concept of self-organised learning was developed into SOL3 over the course of the project. SOL plays a key role at gibb. The model is well received and is now also very familiar to VET workplace trainers, most of whom also give SOL3 a positive rating. The initial results with SOL3 – albeit with a small number of learners – are also promising with another improvement on SOL1 and SOL2, but indicate it is particularly useful for top-performing and well-motivated young people. How great demand really is still requires evaluation. The legal viability (e.g. absence from school) must be specifically addressed in the event of expansion.
Smartlearn
Most learners believe Smartlearn makes a positive contribution to their learning process and Smartlearn’s content is rated highly by teaching staff. There are still problems with some features and keeping content up to date. However, such teething problems are common during the initial stages.