#3 - July 2009 Welcome The Family Competences Portfolio, in short 'FamCompass', allows to assess and validate 'family competences', competences men and woman have acquired in the informal settings of family life, in their roles as educators, home makers and care workers.
The portfolio tool was tested several times and will be finished by the end of September 2009. The FamCompass tool will be presented during an international conference, Friday 23rd October in Brussels.
Content
1. Second and final testing completed
2. Use FamCompass in your institution
3. The FamCompass conference: program
The coloury mirror of FamCompass
Second testing of the FamCompass tool completed
The FamCompass was tested for a second time in May and June, with 84 persons in seven European countries, mostly - but not exclusively - women, their age ranging from 20 to 60. On average it took about 3 hours to complete the portfolio. We thank all the participants for the energy and the time they invested to fill out the questionnaire, to give examples of the family competences they acquired, to elaborate on cases and give evidence of their family competences and knowledge. Colorful profile
For the second testing we specifically tried to reach a broader diversity in level of education and cultural background, reflecting the diversity of the targeted users. In view of this, the partners invited organisations who work with these target groups to participate in the testing. For instance in Belgium, 14 persons coached by Vokans and 4 persons coached by Job & Co participated. Both organisations work specifically with persons with a low level of education and/or members of cultural minority groups and migrating families. Testimonial on working with lower schooled participants, Belgium:
" Preparing for the testing, I had a meeting with four women, coached by Job & Co in Ghent. I was impressed by the lucid way they questioned the aims and the content of the tool. This conversation offered me the occasion to motivate the use of FamCompass and to discuss the potentials of family competences. I was most impressed by the rich portfolio presented by a Turkish woman who only had the chance to finish primary school. In search for a job in child day care, she gave very good proof of the competences she required within her partner relationship and during the education of her children."
Joris Dewispelaere, HIG. Experiences in using FamCompass
A majority of the test users found the FamCompass good (55%) or sufficient enough (36,6%) to make relevant competences acquired in family life visible; 8.4% of them gave suggestions for further development. A more detailed analysis showed that the quality of the portfolios is independent from the level of education, or the cultural background of the participants. However, some participants might need more coaching and/or the possibility to have parts of the portfolio done by interview. To answer some of the remarks and suggestions, we will rephrase some of the introductions and parts of the user's and assessor's manuals. Testimonial from Germany:
" The FamCompass was a great chance to discover, specify and remember forgotten competencies I acquired in family work. It was very interesting to me to work on my portfolio and to contribute to the project."
A participant Digital version
With the remarks and suggestions of the second testing we can now complete the digital version of the tool. This was tested on a smaller scale: 4 persons, who mainly focused on the user-friendliness of the tool. The digital version will be made available on the FamCompass website, in English and in Dutch. Back to menu
How to use FamCompass in your organisation?
The FamCompass gives a very broad and still in-depth view on family competences. Since the list of competences used in the FamCompass were derived from relevant educational and job profiles in care, education etc, many of the competences required in these sectors, can be tested with the FamCompass.
Depending on the needs and goals of the different users, some parts will be more important than others. For example, an employer in a day care center will be more interested in the applicant's competences in education and care for young children than in his or hers capability to handle care for elder family members. One of the strengths of the FamCompass is that it allows to be modified following the needs of the users. One might focus on one or some parts of the portfolio or give some parts and aspects more 'weight' in the assessment. The manual will show institutions, employers and other potential users how they can set 'indicators', criteria for a relevant and useful assessment that meets their aims and needs. Furthermore, the application of the FamCompass can be combined with the use of other assessment or coaching tools. "FamCompass is a very interesting and quite necessary possibility to document and prove family competencies."
Voice of an institution, Germany Back to menu
The FamCompass conference: 23rd October 2009, Brussels
The conference of Friday 23rd October 2009 will launch the FamCompass instrument. The main goal of this meeting is to convince representatives of the educational system, employers, experts in APL, as well as policy makers responsible for the validation of prior learning, of the importance of the acknowledgement of family related learning. The conference will motivate them to use the FamCompass to assess and validate family competences. It will show how the FamCompass can help to lower the barriers to lifelong learning programs for target groups that currently face a low participation in formal schooling programs, for example women, elder citizens and immigrants, and increase their employability and career opportunities.
During the morning session several experts will elaborate on the difficulties and opportunities in recognizing and validating APL in different settings. The debate in the afternoon will focus on the difficulties and opportunities of the validation of family competences in particular. From each country participating in the project, two experts will be invited. Have already agreed to participate as a keynote speaker:
- Dr Gesa Münchhausen, Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training, Germany
- Frank Vandenbroucke, Flemish Minister of Education and Labor, Belgium Have agreed to participate in the debate:
- Veerle Depauw, Manager of Diversity of VDAB, Flemish Agency for Employment, Belgium
- Emil Paun, University of Bucharest, Romania
- Izabela Witczak, Voivodship Job Agency, Lódz, Poland
Moderator will be Georges Monard, former Secretary General of the Flemish Ministry of Education and currently president of the P&O Department in the Belgian federal administration. To the conference we specifically welcome:
- institutions offering educational programs in care, education, family relations;
- organisations and companies seeking to employ persons who acquired family competences: organisations for social and/or medical care, care for the elderly, child (day) care, teacher assistants...;
- centers for job coaching, especially for the quoted target groups;
- trade unions;
- organisations assessing and validating APL;
- policy makers responsible for the validation of APL, education, labor... The Committee of the Regions of the European Union in Brussels will be our host.
For more details on the program and registration facilities, please go to www.famcompass.eu or contact us at
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. We hope to welcome you in Brussels, 23rd October! | 
