A European Project for Measuring Employability Skills for Young People

Who are our Guests?

Your interest in Measuring and Assessing Soft Skills?

Teachers/trainers

Managers

Policy Makers – local/regional/national/European

Academics/researchers

Other

WHAT IS THE MASS PROJECT?

MASS Partnership

Angus College, Scotland

Adult Learning and Employment, SwedenRoc Aventus, Netherlands

Bureau Zuidema, Netherlands

Second Chance Schoolof Neapolis, Greece

Teacher Training CentreOf Bucharest, Romania

• WP1 – Project Management• WP2 – EQF Mapping• WP3 – Preparation and Transfer

of Products

• WP4 – Needs Analysis and Piloting

• WP6 – Employer Consultation and Piloting

• WP8 - Website

MASS Project – the full picture

A Leonardo da Vinci Transfer of Innovation Project

• Unemployed• In initial vocational

education/training• Experiencing

disadvantage –– Drug/alcohol abuse– Low literacy skills– Social or emotional

problems– At risk of drop out/social

exclusion

Target Groups

What do you think soft skills should be?

MASS Project Soft Skills

• Individualized approach• Creation of a safe

environment • Deliberate development

of soft skills

What does MASS Methodology Offer?

• Online and paper resources• Placement of assessment on

EQF• Website

www.mass-project.org• Dissemination strategy• Report of pilot study• Employer soft skills report• Participation of 49

teachers/trainers• Participation of 213 students

Project Results, Outcomes & Impacts

• Student improvement towards self & soft skills awareness

• Active participation and evident interest

• Very good feedback on resources

• Very good feedback from teachers/trainers on the adaptability of resources and coverage of soft skills needed in vocational education and training

Results, Outcomes & Impacts of Pilot

• High quality learning and teaching material

• New approaches• Improvements in soft

skills and thereby employability skills

• More enthusiastic trainers and teachers

Benefits to Learners & Staff

EU 2020 AND HOW MASS CAN HELP YOUNG PEOPLE INTO EMPLOYMENT ...

EU 2020 - Three key priorities

• Maintaining employment, creating jobs and promoting mobility

• Upgrading skills and matching labour market needs• Increasing access to employment

– Knowledge, skills and competences acquired during initial education and training can help movement into employment and adjustment to change

– Vital that adults and young people continue to learn and adapt to change for access to employment and participation in society

– Important to make education and training more relevant to work.

• Few or no qualifications• Low level technical skills• Poor soft skills• Little self awareness• History of failure• Low aspirations • Bleak future

Employability Prospects – a young person’s perspective

• Challenging job market• Few vacancies• Rising unemployment• Rise in experienced

adults looking for work• Poor skills match• Attitude of employers

Employment prospects

• MASS helps link employee to employer through development of soft skills

Linking to Employment

Employer Consultation – UK, SW, NL

Very Im

portant

Importa

nt

Of Ave

rage I

mportance

Of Lim

ited Im

portance

Not at a

ll importa

nt 0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%

Comparison between Soft Skills and Technical Skills

Social SkillsTechnical

How do these frameworks enhance our ability to transfer this methodology?

SCQF Level 4 = EQF Level 2

www.mass-project.org

2045 registered users across Europe and beyond

Personal Success Stories?

The Partnership