The Family Competences Portfolio (FamCompass) assesses family competences: knowledge, skills and attitudes men and women have obtained in family life, in their roles as educators, home makers and care givers.

The FamCompass will be of particular use for:

• Institutes offering training programs that seek to attract more adult learners in several fields, e.g. education, social work/psychosocial work, family coaching and assistance, foster care, teacher assistance, family learning, street corner work, etc.
• Adult learners who want to apply for these training programs, in view of possible employment in these professions.
• Employers in these sectors.
• Centers for job coaching.

Copyrights

The Family Competences Portfolio, in short the ‘FamCompass’, is the result of a multilateral cooperation ‘Grundtvig I’ project and was realized with the support of the ‘Lifelong Learning Programme’ of the European Union [Project number 134054- LLP-1-2007-BE-GRUNDTVIG-GMP].

The use of the FamCompass instrument is free of charge. However, the copyrights remain with the project partners who designed and developed this tool:

• Comenius University, Philosophical Faculty, Department of Andragogy (SK)
• Deutsches Jugendinstitut e. V. (DE)
• Higher Institute for Family Sciences (BE) [coordinating partner]
• Institute for Creative Proceedings (PL)
• Romanian Institute for Adult Education (IREA) (RO)
• Västra Nylands folkhögskola (FI)
• Vilnius College of Higher Education (LT)

The FamCompass consists of different parts. An assessment of family competences is preferably based on the fulfillment of the tasks described in all parts. However, a flexible use of the instrument is possible. Depending on one’s aims, one might focus on some part(s) of the list of competences in part 1. On the other hand, one might find it necessary to add (a) part(s).

When using the complete instrument, the official title ‘Family Competences Portfolio’ is to be mentioned in any announcement and/or report on its use.
When important changes are made, the official title ‘Family Competences Portfolio’ can no longer be used. Still, for any use of any part of the FamCompass, however limited, reference must be made to the original instrument.

However, no changes can be made to the instrument without the permission of the coordinating partner, and, if relevant, the project partner located in his/her country.

Therefore we invite any organization or individual using the FamCompass in any of the available language versions, be it printed or digital, to contact the coordinating partner and/or, if relevant, the project partner located in his/her country.
This will allow us to discuss with the user if the instrument fits his/her needs and, if needed, to communicate about changes the user plans to make.

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

Full text version in different languages:

The FamCompass is available in English and in the languages of the project partners.

To support the use of the instrument, different manuals were developed.
The user’s manual gives an overview of the various steps by which the portfolio is to be completed. The criteria that will be used by the assessor are listed to help the applicant to make his/her portfolio as ‘strong’ as possible.
An assessor’s manual specifies the general and specific criteria the assessor has to take into account.
Not enclosed in the files, but also available for interested users, is a manual for guides or coaches. This offers insight in some experiences from the testing phases to address different target groups in the best possible way.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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