Centre of the Republic of Slovenia for Mobility and European Educational and Training Programmes
Enriching lives,
opening minds.
Erasmus+
CLEAR Assessment
Collaboration on the Levelling-up of Erasmus+ Assessors through developing and testing a common Resource set for KA2 assessment
Background
Erasmus+ National Agencies provide quality assessments that rely on expert and peer review, with a view to delivering high-quality, transparent and impartial assessments and ensuring the equal treatment of all applicants. National Agencies are required to inform all actors involved in the grant award process, in particular external experts, about the actions on which they will work and the associated assessment criteria and grant award rules, providing adequate training and written guidelines.
Building on the successes of the previous Erasmus+ programme, in which a model for assessor training and a common set of assessor briefing materials were each developed, an opportunity was recognised for a long-term activity, or LTA, involving multiple National Agencies cooperating on the development of a common resource set for the training of experts working on decentralised actions in the new Erasmus+ programme.
Project objectives
The CLEAR ASSESSMENT LTA centres on plans to review, refresh, extend and complement the existing assessor training model and resource set, ensuring that it is fit-for-purpose for the new Erasmus+ programme and that it is sufficiently robust to embrace programme changes and developments (e.g. move to a lump sum financing model) going forward.
Led by CMEPIUS, and securing input from an experienced expert and evaluator (Paul Guest, Orientra), a three year programme of activities was agreed, looking predominantly at decentralised actions within Key Action 2, and addressing the four sub-fields of adult, higher, school and vocational education.
1. To agree on the required components for assessor training with a view to enhancing quality and consistency in decentralised assessments for Key Action 2 in the fields of adult, higher, school and vocational education;
2. To modularise the agreed components, introducing specific learning outcomes and notional learning hours;
3. To design a blended training delivery model for use during assessor training;
4. To renew and refresh existing written resources for use in the blended training delivery model for assessors;
5. To develop new digital resources for use in the blended training delivery model for assessors;
6. To undertake a first year pilot involving assessors in the countries of the core participating NAs (single event);
7. To revise the blended training delivery model resource set taking into account first year pilot feedback;
8. To consider extension of the resource set for additional use in the KA1 action: prior to second year piloting;
9. To undertake a second year pilot involving assessors from all Erasmus+ programme countries (three events);
10. To review the final blended training delivery model and resource set ensuring that it is fit-for-purpose;
11. To outline options for the future training of assessors, including bilateral/multilateral training opportunities;
12. To extend the blended training delivery model and resource set to cover final report assessment activity.
Resource set
Assessing Final reports KA 210
Assessing application forms KA2 – 2024
Assessing application forms KA2 – 2023
Year One
In year one of the CLEAR ASSESSMENT LTA, the focus will be on objectives 4 and 5 (renewal of written resources; initial digital resource development) and with plans to move forward in the development of a modularised training model for use in 2023. Additionally, the focus will be on agreeing the required components for assessor training (objectives 1 and 2) and developing resources that can be used in the delivery of virtual and physical assessor training events in the future (objective 5). A first year training pilot (objective 6) will focus on trialling some of the existing resources whilst also inviting expert assessors and National Agency staff to contribute to the overall development process.
Years Two and Three
In year two, the focus will be on extending participation in the CLEAR ASSESSMENT LTA to all Erasmus+ National Agencies (objective 9), relying on a series of training events during which assessors and National Agency staff can share perspectives on the core elements that need to be addressed by those assessing decentralised proposals, with the overall concept based on a model where capacity is built among a small number of staff who then cascade this learning during local assessor training events. In year three, the focus will be on finalising the blended training delivery model and resource set (objective 10), outlining options for the future training of assessors (objective 11) and looking at options for extending the resource set to cover final report assessment (objective 12).
Participating NAs
In the first year of activity, a core group of 12 National Agencies has been invited to work on review, development and early-stage piloting of the blended training model and resource set for which a single face-to-face training event expects to be held in the autumn of 2022. This core group involves National Agencies from Belgium-Flanders, Cyprus, Germany, Finland, France, Iceland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Slovenia and Sweden. In the second and third years of activity, all Erasmus+ National Agencies will be invited to participate in one or more training or development actions.
National Agencies are expected to:
- participate in planning, consultation and review meetings with the lead NA and appointed expert;
- provide occasional input to digital resources (e.g. short videos for use in Ted-style talks);
- provide feedback on core deliverables;
- and ensure the participation of internal/external assessors in training and piloting events.
