Making personal learning experiences possible and visible also in a digital way - Das PerLen-Konzept

<< Background >>Many pupils find it difficult to answer the questions ‘Who am I? What can I do? What do I want?’.To ensure a successful start to vocational training, they need to be aware of their strengths and to be able to clearly communicate and justify their skills.The « Das PerLen-Konzept® » focuses on the young people's abilities. They recognise and learn to show what they can do. The attractiveness of vocational training should become more appealing to both future trainees and employers. The project helps to answer personal questions about the future in a structured, intelligent and self-confident manner and to turn visions into reality.It brings employers and young people together at an equal footing via applicant markets and thus opens up a wide range of opportunities and perspectives in the planning of vocational training. There is a clear focus on the need in schools and also amongst companies in Germany and other EU countries for targeted planning of career entry and thus, in the best case scenario, securing skilled labour and reducing the drop-out rate through a high level of professional satisfaction.<< Objectives >>The following goals were set: 1. By increasing students' awareness of their personal and professional competences, they are enabled to better plan their professional careers.2. By promoting self-reflection, students are enabled to present their competences in a cerative format, e.g. in alternative performance records using digital technologies.3. The transition rate of students into vocational training needs to be increased and the rate of students dropping out of training needs to be reduced.4. The supply of teachers in the area of vocational orientation needs to be improved. To this end, further training, guidelines and teaching materials should be jointly developed.5. The resilience of learners and teachers need to be strengthened in order to enable and celebrate learning successes and increase self-confidence and motivation.6. Teachers and students need to be trained and sensitised to the use of digital tools (e.g. for work planning, research, conducting video conferences, presentations) in their content-related work.<< Implementation >>C1-C4: The PerLen variants were carried out with the teachers and students as model lessons. The teachers observed the lessons. The materials were translated into the relevant project language in advance. After the observations, the materials were customised and adapted.C5-C7: All teachers were trained in the certificate course on how they can use the concept in their schools. Here, the idea of the Referat-PerLe was introduced by the expert and developed with the project partners. The concept was adapted based on the experience gained from training the teachers.The PerLen variants were implemented in all project schools. Over 800 pupils took part in the evaluation. The results were analysed and the background and methodology of the concept were processed.C8-C10: The Job-PerLen and applicant markets were organised with the the respective groups of pupils from the partner schools and companies in every region. Meetings with multipliers and entrepreneurs took place at the same time as the job fairs to publicise the project. C11: During the final week, students and teachers worked on their experiences with the concept.The focus here was on the intercultural exchange, and on the individual development. The results were presented.<< Results >>The project resulted in:-Adaptations for the Learning-PerLe, the Subject-PerLe, the Job-PerLe in English, Lithuanian and Polish -Development of the unit PerLe in all four languages -Assessment sheets for the grading of the subject PerLe-Preparation forms for the Job-PerLe for career exploration and company exploration -Certificate course for the training of teachers - Scientific reports on methodology, scientific background and evaluation - Explanatory videos for use in the classroom- A multilingual toolkit with guidelines and support material for lessonsThese other results also deserve mention:- Good collaboration is possible across countries and carries through changes in responsibility and personnel.- Companies in all countries are very interested in good preparation for the transition to work and consider the concept to be suitable.- The students and teachers in the project have gained many new and beneficial experiences in individual learning support.