About the project Print

Goals of the project:

Faced with the problems and challenges of an aging society and convinced of the importance to fully validate the knowledge, competences and skills adult learners have developed in non-formal training and/or work settings, this project:

developed an instrument to assess and validate the competences men and women have obtained in family life: the Family Competences Portfolio (FamCompass).

The portfolio methodology allows for a well documented basis for the individual planning of training and/or work careers. Such a tool can be the basis for the official certification of knowledge, skills and competences acquired in family life and care.

The portfolio methodology is a process that strongly stimulates self reflexion on one’s own strong/week points and is very much empowering: it learns applicants to reflect on their own possibilities and to identify ways to improve them, e.g. via schooling and training.

We hope th FamCompass will help lower the barriers to lifelong learning programmes for target groups that currently face a low participation in formal schooling programmes, e.g. women, elder citizens and immigrants, and increase their employability and career opportunities.

This project was launched on 1st November 2007 and ran until the end of October 2009.

>> Partners in this project

 

Conference & Expert Seminar:

On Friday 23 October we presented the FamCompass instrument during the conference 'FamCompass: Assessing and validating Family Competences' in Brussels, introduced by Mr. Maroš Šefčovič, European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Youth.

On Saturday 24 October we concluded the project with an Expert Seminar.

>> Download presentations and minutes of both meetings

 

Booklet FamCompass:

In the booklet 'FamCompass: Assessing and validating Family Competences' we present the instrument in detail, we elaborate on the methodology used to construct it and we explain how to make the best use of it. We also present the project and how it relates to the European policy for lifelong learning. Part 2 of the booklet contains the English version of the instrument in full text, the user's manual and the assessor's manual.

You can order this booklet from any of the participating partners, or contact the coordinating partner at:

Higher Institute for Family Sciences
Huart Hamoirlaan 136
1030 Brussels

tel. ++32 (2) 240 68 40
fax ++32 (2) 240 68 49
www.hig.be – This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it


Using the instrument:

The use of the FamCompass instrument is free of charge. However, the copyrights remain with the project partners who designed and developed this tool. We invite organisations interested in using the FamCompass instrument to contact any of the partners.

>> More information on copyrights & use

 

Full text version in different languages:

The FamCompass is available in English and in the languages of the project partners.The following pdf-files contain:

(1) the full text of all 4 parts of the instrument
(2) the user's manual
(3) the assessor's manual

icon Instrument & manuals: English version ( 2009-10-29 12:52:30)

icon Instrument & manuals: Dutch version ( 2009-10-29 12:53:26)

icon Instrument & manuals: Polish version ( 2009-10-29 12:54:00)

icon Instrument & manuals: German version ( 2009-12-18 08:23:25)

icon Instrument & manuals: Slovakian version ( 2009-10-29 12:55:11)

icon Instrument & manuals: Finnish version ( 2009-10-29 12:55:44)

icon Instrument & manuals: Lithuanian version ( 2009-10-29 12:56:27)

icon Instrument & manuals: Romanian version ( 2009-10-29 12:57:07)

 

Project leaflets and presentations:

icon Project leaflet (English version)

icon Project leaflet (Dutch version)

icon Project leaflet (Slovak version) ( 2008-10-10 13:27:30)

icon Project leaflet (Polish version)

icon Project leaflet (German version) ( 2008-11-14 16:01:21)

icon Project leaflet (Lithuanian version) ( 2008-11-14 15:54:08)

icon Project leaflet (Romanian version) ( 2008-11-28 08:40:14)

 

Articles & other dissemination activities:

On 25th May 2010 Joris Dewispelaere (BE) had the chance to present FamCompass during the EUROPEAN CAREER Guidance Counseling Conference 2010 in Cyprus.

Also in May, Július Matulcik and Veronika Vasilova (SK) presented FamCompass during a workshop at the IBAK-conference (Identifikácia, Hodnotenie A Uznávanie Informálne Získaných Kompetencií) in Bratislava.

Article by Joris Dewispelaere and Gaby Jennes (HIG) on the development of the FamCompass

English version1 : icon Family experience as relevant practical training for studying family sciences ( 2008-12-04 12:56:54)

A first version (in Dutch) was published in Grundtvig-Scoop (Dec. 2008)

Nederlandse versie 1: icon Gezinservaring als relevante leerplek voor de opleiding Gezinswetenschappen ( 2008-10-10 13:43:22)

A second version (in Dutch) was published in September 2009 in a special edition of the 'Gezinsbond' (Flemish League of families) on 'Parents at work at home and the call of the labor market':

Nederlandse versie 2: icon Het gezin als relevante leerplek. Ontwikkeling van het Gezinscompetentiesportfolio (FamCompass). ( 2009-11-30 10:28:45)

 

Kompetent durch Familienarbeit? by Barbara Thiessen and Lucia Schuhegger (DJI)
Article published in the Journal “Weiterbildung” (Further Education), 2009, April/May, p 14-16.

icon Kompetent durch Familienarbeit? ( 2009-04-28 10:51:58)


Dokument des Unsichtbaren by Lucia Schuhegger and Barbara Thiessen (DJI)
Article published in DJI Bulletin 89 (1/2010), p. 27-28

icon Dokument des Unsichtbaren ( 2010-05-03 09:59:40)

 

Articles published by the Slovak partner (Comenius University, Philosophical Faculty, Department of Andragogy):

- Projekt zhodnotenia rodinných kompetencií. In: 'Our University', May 2009

- FamCompass: Hodnotenie portfólia rodinných kompetencií. In: 'Social Policy and Employment', September 2009.

 

Articles published by the Polish partner (Institute for Creative Proceedings):

- Zarządzanie kompetencjami rodzinnymi w procesie kształtowania kapitału intelektualnego przedsiębiorstwa:

icon Family management skills in the development of intellectual capital company ( 2009-11-30 11:18:43)

- Portfolio kompetencji nabytych w rodzinie szansą powrotu na rynek pracy:

icon Portfolio of competences acquired in the family a chance to return to the labour market ( 2009-11-30 11:19:36)

 

Article to be published in the Journal of Education Magazine (Spring/Summer 2010)
by Dewispelaere J., Jennes G., Schuhegger L., Thiessen B.:

icon Family Competences Portfolio. Validating Competences Acquired in Family Life. ( 2009-11-30 11:34:03)

Miscellanea

icon Het gezin als leerschool - De Bond, 4 December 2009

icon FamCompass - korte voorstelling - E-newsletter '6 minutes', 15 October 2009

In March 2010 Joris Dewispelaere (BE) was interviewed by 'Scoop', a magazine for human resources managers. This magazine plans a second article on FamCompass in their next issue, that focuses on 'future competences':

icon FamCompass - Scoop March 2010

 

Planned:

Article for the Journal of Educational Sciences (to be published in the final issue of 2010).

 

Paper 'LLL and APL in Europe':

The FamCompass project wants to stimulate the debate on lifelong learning and the accreditation of prior learning in the European Union. We hope to influence local, national and international authorities to take the necessary steps for the official recognition and validation of skills and competences obtained in the non-formal settings of family life and care.

In view of this aim all partners participating in this project have made a short analysis of the LLL and APL policy in their country and compared them with the goals set by the EU. The Belgian coordinator, the Higher Institute for Family Sciences, has summarized their input in the following article:

icon LLL and APL in the countries involved in the FamCompass project (paper)

 

Presentations of the project on partner's websites:

The Vilnius College of Higher Education (LT) presents several articles on its website, reporting on the partner meeting and dissemination activities:

- Presentation in Vilnius College, Faculty of Pedagogics (Nov. 2009)

- Article about final conference (Nov. 2009)

- Promotion of the project during international seminar in Vilnius (Nov. 2009)

- Promotion of the project during international seminar in Greece (April 2009)

- Article on the partner meeting in Munich (June 2008)

- Article on the partner meeting in Helsinki (Jan 2008)

- General information on the project

 

The Comenius University, Philosophical Faculty, Department of Andragogy (SK) posted a presentation on its website:

- presentation of FamCompass in Slovak

 

Deutsches Jugendinstitut e. V. (DE):

- presentation and link to final version of the instrument in German

 

Miscellanea:

- Mentioning (in Romanian) of the project on the 2009 IREA calendar (Romanian partner)

- AD (in Dutch) to promote the FamCompass in the printed programme of National Women's Day in Belgium (Flanders, 11 Nov 2009):

icon Doe iets met wat je in je gezin hebt geleerd! ( 2009-11-30 11:48:23)

- Project poster-AD, published in The Parliament Magazine, issue 284 (16th March), p. 35:

icon Poster-ad in English ( 2009-03-20 17:27:24)

icon Poster-ad German version ( 2009-04-21 08:28:25)

icon Poster-ad Romanian version ( 2009-04-21 08:29:51)

icon Poster-ad Slovak version ( 2009-04-21 08:29:04)

Poster in Dutch:

Poster presenting the project (in Dutch)