Transparency and Validation of Professional Linguistic Skills (Transvalp)

ALTE Contact: Martin Nuttall
t: +44 1223 552780
alte@ucles.org.uk

Project start date: October 2005

Project end date: September 2007

Project funding body: Leonardo da Vinci

Project partners: AFPA, ALTE, CCCU, EMMERCE, FOREM, INEM

Project aims

Among the priorities of 2004-2006 stated by the Lisbon Strategy, the issue of the recognition of vocational qualifications in Europe is amongst the most necessary investments in the area of Education and Lifelong Learning.

On 14 December 2004, Ministries and social partners from 32 European countries as well as the European Commission, gathered in Maastricht and decided there was a need to strengthen their cooperation. In January 2005, they created the New Europass to allow for all Europeans gaining the qualifications and competences they needed to fully integrate in the emerging "knowledge society". The aim of the Europass was to increase transparency and recognition of competences, thus helping mobility throughout Europe.

TRANSVALP stemmed from this particular priority and the Europass as it aims to design an on-line evaluation system to recognize vocational language competences via an on-line evaluation tool.

Vocational language competences are competences which relate to the use of the language in a number of job-related activities and tasks at the appropriate level. Transvalp addresses the evaluation of languages for specific and job-related purposes

The jobs that TRANSVALP will focus on are jobs from the following sectors:

Tourism
Event management & organisation
Catering
Information technology
Transports & logistics
The levels (both language and vocational qualification) will be the first vocational qualification levels (levels 1 to 3) and the first language levels (A1-B1)

The system will eventually allow the end-users (workers, unemployed and trainees) to demonstrate their competences when applying for jobs or as part of career development.
The main characteristics of the system will be:

Transparency: based on the norms and thresholds clearly defined in the jobs standards and leading to a clear recognition of the candidates' competences,
Standardisation: designed from the Common European Framework of References for Languages (CEFRL),
Transferability: developed in the consortium's languages (French, English & Spanish) but easily transferable to other languages,
Efficiency and rationalisation of the organisation: a secured on-line system with automated results,
Close link with vocational qualification: the recognition of the vocational languages competences will be closely linked to the vocational qualification (and/or work experience).

Results, products and methodology

Starting with the job standards, we shall collect and analyse vocational language competences. The results of this phase will allow the design and production of the following:

Language profiles identifying the vocational language competences together with language descriptors based on the Common European Framework. Language profiles will be developed for all the jobs that are part of the project, i.e. between 5 and 8 profiles.
Evaluation items grouped in questionnaires and based on the vocational language competences. Those items will then be put on line within an automated and secure system.

And, the ultimate goal of our project :

A recommendations for the integration and the valorisation of the system in the National Vocational Qualification Systems of the test developing partners involved in the project.

Project phases

Phase I: Functional specifications of the global system (including language profiles and corpora)
Phase II: Technical specifications
Phase III: Design and production of the on-line evaluation tests
Phase IV: Trialling
Phase V: Models of integration in the national vocational qualification systems
Phase VI: Steering of the project and valorisation

All phases will be monitored and evaluated by an external expert, Mr Michel Feutrie, general rapporteur of the French National Commission for Vocational Qualifications.

Valorisation

27th September 2007, Paris, TRANSVALP Conference

TRANSVALP will be holding an end of project conference, Assessing Vocational Language Skills, which forms part of the valorisation of the project. This one day conference will take place at the City University, Paris. Working languages: Fr, Es, En.