Development of a Subsystem for the Assessment and Recognition of Qualifications Acquired in the Work of Specialists in the Transport Sector

<< Background >>In a rapidly changing world, new challenges arise in the day-to-day, but the competencies acquired through education are often insufficient to solve them. Educational qualifications usually save in typical situations by applying standard solutions, but in an atypical situation in the workplace a graduate often lacks knowledge to take further action. In finding the right solution, employees often rely on their experience and precedents, seek advice and help from more experienced or longer-term colleagues, and seek information online or from other available sources. In this way, the employee acquires knowledge and skills that significantly supplement and expand the educational qualification in the long run, which facilitates finding solutions in atypical situations. This is where the PROBLEM arises: the educational qualification awarded to a person guarantees the possession of general and slightly deeper knowledge and skills, as well as, ideally, the ability to adapt to a job, but there are no instruments to measure the experience gained by a person at work .<< Objectives >>The main idea of the project was to create opportunities to identify, assess and validate the competencies / qualifications acquired in a person's work (QAWA). Especially now - in the post-pandemic period - it is becoming clear that the processes of assessing a person's competencies can and must rise to the electronic space, as there are many means by which a person's abilities or part of them can be validated remotely. Moreover, the process of competence assessment must be transferred to the electronic space for its maximum convenience and friendliness to interested parties, because remote assessments can be performed even without a person leaving his / her real place of work and demonstrating his / her abilities in it. The process of checking a person's accumulated theoretical knowledge would be even simpler.<< Implementation >>1 ACTIVITY. When DEVELOPING A COMPETENCIES / QUALIFIACTIONS ACQUIRED IN WORK ACTIVITIES (QAWA) ASSESMENT METHODOLOGY, it was necessary to clearly define the purpose and methodological rationale for this assessment, identifying its benefits at the regional, sector, specific institution or associated structure, and at the individual level. In order to determine whether and how a person is qualified to perform a certain level of professional activity, or what level of mastery he / she has achieved through non-formal learning in the workplace, a person's QAWA should be assessed. The methodological framework was based on the core idea that competence could be assessed when it is deconstructed into measurable categories specific to an activity, such as knowledge, (general) abilities, practical skills and values. The QAWA assessment process and methods include the assessment of all four of these components. Different categories required the selection of the most appropriate methods for their evaluation. The most obvious and easiest was to assess knowledge (using elementary knowledge tests), perhaps the most difficult was to see, recognize and evaluate personal qualities and values in work (recognized in the practice of employers and personnel management professionals as no less important and determinants of success than specific professional skills). 2 ACTIVITY. The needs of individual economic sectors to implement QAWA may vary. Therefore, before PREPARING A TRANSPORT SECTOR DESCRIPTIONS OF THE COMPETENCIES / QUALIFIACTIONSACQUIRED IN WORK ACTIVITIES (QAWA) (5 descripsions was prepared), it was necessary to perform an analysis of the economic sector based on the following sources: sector strategy documents and normative legal documents; research and other problematic analyzes of the sector (reports, scientific articles, etc.); statistics on the financial situation of the sector and its enterprises, exports and imports of services and / or goods, size of enterprises, number of employees; job descriptions for employees; professional standards setting state qualifications in the formal education system; other documents. only after gathering all this information the QAWA descriptions of 5 professions (long-distance driver, freight forwarder, logistics specialist, warehouse worker, customs broker) were prepared.3 ACTIVITY. When DEVELOPING TRAINING MATERIALS (including assessment training materials, assessment practice / procedures manual - recommendations) FOR QAWA ASSESORS, it was necessary to anticipate and present recommended assessment methods, and to clearly justify their logical choice based on a formally defined and agreed concept of competence.<< Results >>During the implementation of the project the following results were achieved:1. (R1) - the methodology for assessment and recognition of competencies acquired in work activities was developed in EN language. 2. (R2) - 1 set of descriptions of competencies / qualifications acquired in work in the transport sector was prepared, covering the following professions: long-distance driver, freight forwarder, logistics specialist, warehouse worker, customs broker was prepared in EN language. 3. (R3) - training material (as well as assessment manual) for the assessment and recognition of work related competencies for practitioners was prepared.3.1. 12 assessors of work-related competencies were trained by piloting the training material (3 LT, 3 LV, 3 PL, 3 ESP), 3.2. Pilot assessments of 20 people (transport workers) were carried out during the piloting of the developed system (5 LT, 5 LV, 5 PL, 5 ESP). This impact was also a part of the process of preparing evaluators, as evaluators needed to demonstrate their learning while testing the proper functioning of R1 and R2 products.