Collection of Good Practices & Tools for Profiling

ProfilPASS in easy language is a colourful and example-based document suitable for group or individuals with cognitive impairments or learning difficulties. The document is easy to understand and allows users to assess their competences.  

The practice was developed by DAFNI KEK and DIE (German Institute for adult education) and it was implemented in Greece.

ProfilPASS is structured as playful and easy to understand questionnaire that can be filled by individual or in workshop groups with the help of educators. The same figure will additionally collect information about the learner through personal interviews, focus groups and job centres. 

The GP deals with the following diversity types (with regard to Erasmus+ priorities):  Barriers to education; Cultural differences, Social, economic barriers,  Barriers linked to discrimination. 

Due to its nature and adaptability to content and requirements of the addressing target, the ProfilPASS is easy to transfer to other educational contexts and audiences.

It consists in a competitive assessment procedure of student candidates of the Master Program Social Work at FHJ in Graz in order to identify and understand different needs and previous (professional and scientific) experience of learners in the Master curriculum to allow them to be lifted up to a common level. 

The candidates are diverse according to their previous learning experience, differing in the extent of experience in social work training, other disciplines qualifications, and professional experience in social work, so that three groups can be kept distinct.  

Information about learner are acquired during the application process through the following steps: 1) a Curriculum Vitae of the applicant; 2) an essay or exposé on an intended topic of a Master thesis (reflecting different competencies in doing scientific research); and 3) an oral interview with a commission. On the basis of these tools of the application process, the commission decides on the admission of the students and assigns them to three different groups. 4) Self-identification: Accepted students are also asked whether they can fundamentally confirm the requirements for this group assignment (extent of previous academic and professional experience). 

In order to bring the three groups mentioned to a similar level of knowledge by the end of the first semester, they will receive tailor-made training: (1) Group A receives an introduction to the theory and empiricism of social work; (2) Group B will have the opportunity to gain more professional experience in social work; (3) Group C receives a “Studium Generale” to support academic work. This tailored training in the first semester of study provides three scenarios, methodologies or methods to take into account the diversity and different needs of the three groups of students.  The GP deals with the following diversity types (with regard to Erasmus+ priorities): barriers linked to education and training system.  The GP transferability is limited, since this is an assessment procedure for a specific program. However, the GP is innovative in dealing with diverse barriers linked to education and training system and its main ideas are adaptable for other contexts as well.

Instructors/ educators of the course “International and Intercultural Social Work” (1st semester Bachelor study Social Work – FHJ -Graz) use this questionnaire to point out the knowledge and application/use of the English language by their students. This also discovers diverse prepositions of the students regarding their experience and attitude in the application and use of English in various contexts (semester abroad, internship abroad, voluntary work, migration background etc.).  

The questionnaire collects biographical information, about schooling and education, past work experience, skills and competences: Specifically collected was biographical info (year of school graduation; type of school; experience/longer stays abroad). Moreover, the questionnaire asked about familiarity with the English language. 

The GP deals with the following diversity types (with regard to Erasmus+ priorities): differences according to language, multilingualism, internationalization.

The GP is highly transferable as it’s a questionnaire.

Educational staff at La Blanca Paloma VET Centre in La Zubia (Granada, Spain) daily implements 'Active Learning Methodologies' tailored to the unique composition of each student group (ranging from ages 16 to 50+), addressing diversity in age, cultural background, nationality, and SEN. 

The educators make use of diverse educational methods such as project-based learning, flipped classroom and gamification based on the specific needs and composition of the group. 

Information about students is carried out through detailed evaluation of individual students and the overall group by the educational staff.  

The GP deals with the following diversity types (with regard to Erasmus+ priorities): learners with disabilities, barriers linked to discrimination, health problems, barriers to education, cultural differences, social and/or economic barriers, and geographical barriers. 

The GP is highly adaptable to various educational settings with diverse student populations.

The GP is an informal Tool which was developed by the General Education teachers (Language, Mathematics, History, Geography) of a Public SEN School Unit in Patras (Greece) in order to better understand who are the students they ‘receive’ at the beginning of the School year since the School receives  a significant number of students with mild or more severe SEN, who had been identified by Specialists that these students need special and complementary Support. 

The educators decided to construct this tool in order to build the necessary balance of skills and competences of the students and facilitate the powerful dynamic of the team of students than isolating or disempower ones form being active in learning and socializing.

The tools is a questionnaire easy to perform in which users are free to reply in written or oral mode. The questionnaire is proposed to SEN students during a personal interview. 

The results of the questionnaire allow teachers to better place and value the specific diversities of students.

The GP deals with the following diversity types (with regard to Erasmus+ priorities): Learners with disabilities, Barriers linked to discrimination.

The program was developed in Austria (Graz) by the “Genderwerkstätte” (network of experts coming from different fields dealing with gender and diversity) it consists of several seminars and teaches central theoretical principles in the areas of gender, diversity and intersectionality.

It’s a fee-based continuing education program consisting of several workshops, seminars, or professional qualification courses for educators in adult education who are dealing with diverse settings. The target group of the program are interested persons, current and prospective future experts working in areas such as adult education, university, research, labour market policy, public relations, social work, gender and diversity and equal opportunities.

The collection of information about educators attending the course includes generic background information: biographical information, about schooling and training, in particular past work experience, training/educational skills and competences. 

Methods for collecting information about participants include discussion and reflection groups (reflecting own previous knowledge, new knowledge gained in the program, transfer knowledge relevant for working in different fields of expertise), self-guided learning, consciousness-raising, presentations and practice work (done individually or in groups). The aim is the use or the transfer of program contents into the own area of work and expertise. Results from practice-based work are presented and discussed as part of the program of seminar series.

The GP deals with the following diversity types (with regard to Erasmus+ priorities): gender, sexuality, barriers linked to discrimination.

The transferability of the GP to additional contexts of organizations in adult education is regarded as very high.

A government program coordinated by the Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality (CIG) and INCoDe.2030, in conjunction with the Portuguese Association for Diversity and Inclusion (APPDI), the Instituto Superior Técnico and the Order of Engineers and supported by a network of 101 partner organizations and schools that promotes the choice of engineering and technology among female students from secondary, vocational and primary schools and aged between 10 and 20, deconstructing the idea that these are male domains. 

The focus of the initiative is on training, empowering, hiring and retaining more girls and women in the field of technology and engineering by proposing various activities, including laboratory practices, role modelling sessions and mentoring.

In order to schedule the learning sessions information about students’ areas of study and ages are collected. The information was collected by the teacher in charge of the class, who carried out a survey on age, activity preferences and tastes. After this survey, the data was sent to us, who filtered it to find out which activities were best suited to this audience.  

There is a transferability to areas outside its target audience in order to extend the project's lifespan.

The GP deals with the following diversity types (with regard to Erasmus+ priorities): Social, economic barriers, Barriers linked to discrimination.

This good practice is implemented by the training organization Coop. Cramars in Italy and it deals with the organization of 4 hours lesson in form of focus group with a Psychologist expert in different types of gender violence, to arise awareness from learners about the subject and give advice if needed about where and whom to ask in case of need. This practice represents an indirect form of student profiling (considering the delicacy and privacy factor related to the subject matter) since, from experience, afterwards participants who find themselves in a situation of discomfort related to violence address the teacher or the course tutor/coordinator, defining how this discomfort limits their training effectiveness and asking for support.

The practice is aimed at learners, in particular women, participating to the Health Care assistance courses promoted by the training organization.

Information about learners, in this case sensitive data about their family distress in relation to the topic of domestic violence, is collected by the psychologist during the workshop through direct reports. 

The practice tackles gender discrimination (with regard to Erasmus+ priorities).

It’s possible to adapt the GP to other contexts and audiences.

This good practice developed by the Cooperativa Cramars in Italy comes from a funded equal opportunities project whose aim was to bring together groups of adult, entrepreneurship-oriented women to foster mutual collaboration in order to create long-term creative links and partnerships as drivers for gender equality and social cohesion and inspire participants to change in the fields of arts, culture, tourism and sustainable development. 

This was done by organizing a system of training breakfasts run at the local, national and community levels, involving female participants in meetings aimed at transferring specific creativity and creative thinking skills to them and sharing their challenges and opinions. 

Already from the first meeting, the informal mode, the common problems, the drive for exchange and change allowed an easy and reciprocal openness that enabled the organizers to collect sensitive data declined in expectations, objectives, hopes, need for help and support, need for exchange and to define common training needs (even if only pills) and to allow the educational center to focus the training on the requested topics. 

This was intended to promote active participation and women's empowerment by creating a community of practice that would encourage women to support causes close to their hearts and a supportive environment in which they could take advantage of informal learning and peer-mentoring also to develop new projects or business ideas for social change.  

In addition to sharing a training breakfast, an online exchange platform was implemented that enabled the women's group formed to activate networking opportunities and to share knowledge and experiences.

The practice is scalable on different geographical areas, different training contents and target groups.

The practice tackles diversity based on gender.

It's a specific approach in adult education developed within an Erasmus cooperation project based on realizing the importance of your own experience. It's used in groups of learners or educators which start discussing and consulting between peers. Afterwards the educator slightly enters in the discussion giving feedback. The method is based on four foundational principles: psychological safety, equality, mutual support, and growth mindset. The application of these principles allows to create a safe space for learning and enable the group of learners to feel safe and trusting enough to share experiences and discuss problems that may tackle traumatic past references.

Part of the information about participants is provided by job centers, another part results from the participation of peers in the workshop.

The GP deals with the following diversity types (with regard to Erasmus+ priorities):  Learners with disabilities, Barriers linked to discrimination.

The methodology can be applied in whatever context.