At the turn of March and April, a delegation from the FFW Educational Projects Department went on a study visit to Estonia. The trip was part of a new project implemented by the Cooperation Fund Foundation, titled “European Solutions in Quality Assurance – ESQA.” FFW’s partners in the project, which comes from the European Commission’s new “Erasmus+” program and is financed by the European Union, are Estonia, England, and Slovenia. The aim of the project is to exchange experiences and information on quality assurance in vocational education in partner countries, with the aim of creating a catalog of good practices that will support schools and supervisory authorities in implementing tasks related to this issue.
The visit to the Estonian capital was the first in a series and aimed to examine the practical operation of the local quality assurance system at the vocational school level. The Estonian partner, the Innove Foundation, prepared a comprehensive program for the participants, starting with a visit to the Ministry of Education and a presentation about the Estonian vocational education system and quality assurance system. Employees of the Cooperation Fund Foundation had the opportunity to visit institutions involved in the vocational school accreditation system, as well as the vocational schools themselves, which prepare students for various professions – from forestry and construction to the catering and service industries. Participants of the study visit participated in a presentation of school quality assurance systems and discussed the practical applications, advantages, and disadvantages of the implemented solutions with vocational school staff.
“We toured schools, admired the well-equipped workshops, and observed students practicing their professional skills. An interesting feature from the Polish perspective is the solution in place in every school we visited: a separate development director position, someone responsible for the broad development of the school, from infrastructure development and program development to staff development and quality assurance,” says Agnieszka Luck, head of the Educational Projects Department at FFW.
After the official sessions, participants took a guided tour of Tallinn’s medieval Old Town and visited the oldest pharmacy in Europe, which has operated continuously in the same location since the mid-15th century.
Further study visits are planned in the coming months; in June, the Cooperation Fund Foundation will host project partners in Warsaw.
Evaluation reports have already been prepared in all countries implementing the ESQA project, compiling the best practices for quality assurance in vocational schools. A report summarizing these solutions in all partner countries will soon be prepared, and based on it, a database presenting best practices in vocational education will be created. The directory will support schools and supervisory bodies in their quality assurance tasks.
