1. Challenge

Last year when I was working in pilot project for developing Polish Qualification Framework,  I had to cooperate with many stakeholders. Unfortunately idea of qualification framework,  learning outcomes etc. was something new for many people in Poland. And our team had to  explain a lot of new and complicated solutions, processes, tools. A Polish glossary only was  then created. Our stakeholders were representatives of schools, craft, different businesses,  industry, academia. They had different needs, different experiences and, what was crucial,  they used to work in different environments and had own vocabulary. In our team we had to  looking for an universal way of explaining - images , non- abstract and universal forms! But  some conceptions are difficult to i.e. be drawn.

2. Selection

A storytelling is a very good tool to explain complex processes. Fortunately, in our project  we had several study visits in countries that had more experience in qualification  frameworks than we had. During our travels we met a lot of people and learnt about  their  stories. These examples were a good inspiration for us. That’s why we used a storytelling,  supported with pictures, drawing etc. to explain ideas and processes crucial for new model  of education.

3. Application

Among new ideas, crucial for improvement skills of working people is process of recognition  of prior learning (RPL) that means a way of identify and validate learning outcomes,  achieved by person in informal way (i.e. in work, hobby etc.). To explain what RPL is, and  how important is discovering the unconscious skills, I told to a group of stakeholders  (teachers, managers, a member of trade union and a coach – most of them were male) a  story based on the example that I met during one of my visit abroad. The story was about a  man who was working in a factory as a foreman. After 18 years of good job he could  became a supervisor, but he needed confirm his manager skills. Fortunately a RPL  assessor(HR advisor) ask him about his hobby, his spare time. And the foreman told that he  is a president of a local, unprofessional football club. In a brief conversation the man  discovered his management skills. That story was a good point to next step, to talk about  methods of validation i.e. portfiolio.

4. Insight:

For a group of different people the story of the president of unprofessional football club was  very clear. They found that RPL is an important tool for professional development. But the  most important was to show how crucial is a role of assessor/advisor.

5. Approach:

An example of a worker who is a football club activist, was quit good for group of men who  were interested in sport. I think for other people a main character of story, should have  different  hobby.

A weakness of my story was the lack of information on tasks of a director/president of a local

football club. To continue workshop on RPL and ways of skills validation, such information  would be usefull

