Tools For Policy Learning And Policy Transfer Def

TOOLS FOR POLICY LEARNING AND POLICY TRANSFER

Research Project: Prevalet
European Commission-Leonardo Da Vinci
project EUR/05/C/F/RF-84802 Agreement 2005-2030/001-001

Research team
Scientific Committee
Carina Abrèu, Örebro University
Paolo Federighi, Università di Firenze (Director of Scientific Committee)
Ekkehard Nuissl von Rein, Duisburg Universität and Deutsches Institute für Erwachsenenbildung

Regional governments research teams

Andalusia
Carmen Fernández-Salguero Suárez
Andrés Martínez Goicoechea

Basque Country
Rosario Diaz de Cerio
Josu Sierra

Bulgaria – Vidin
Elena Kasiyanova
Aneliya Vlahovska

Toscana
Elio Satti

Vejle
Helle Knudsen
Lisbeth Katrine Nielsen
Marianne Horsdal

Wales
Richard Mulcahy

Earlall Project Management
Gloria Crosato
Jenny Pentler
Cristiana Picchi

Methodological and technical support
Samuele Borri
Gianluca Ventani, Web design
Francesca Torlone, Università di Firenze

Tools for Policy Learning
and Policy Transfer
Supporting Regional Lifelong Learning Policies

Paolo Federighi, Marianne Horsdal, Helle Knudsen,
Ekkehard Nuissl, Josu Sierra Orrantia, Francesca Torlone

With contributions from
Carina Abreu, Samuele Borri, Gloria Crosato,
Rosario Diaz de Cerio, Carmen Fernandez Salguero,
Elena Kasiyanova, Richard Mulcahy, Elio Satti

Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
detailed bibliographic data is available in the Internet at <http://dnb.d-nb.de>.

The sole responsibility lies with the authors and the European Commission is not responsible for any use that
may be made of the information contained therein.

This work was carried out as part of the Prevalet Project, co-financed by the European Commission.

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Summary

Presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

1. Benchmarking in the Soft Open Method of Coordination –
Josu Sierra Orrantia, Paolo Federighi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.1 The Soft Open Method of Coordination (SMOC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.2 Benchmarking in the SMOC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.3 Data available in Eurostat about Regions Nuts Level 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

2. Tools to be used for the analysis of the measures in lifelong
learning policies – Francesca Torlone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.1 Defining common concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.2 Some key terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.3 Background surveys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.4 Policy measures analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.5 Study visits and peer monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.6 Policy learning outcomes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

3. Virtual support service for mutual learning – Francesca Torlone . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.1 Virtual service supporting the Soft Open Method of Coordination . . . . 51
3.2 Contents of the virtual support service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.3 Planning a website for supporting policy learning processes . . . . . . . . . 53
3.4 Online service tool for mutual learning – the database . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
3.5 The search engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
3.6 Background documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
3.7 Further sources and published works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

4. The Initiation of Policy Transfer – Marianne Horsdal, Helle Knudsen . . . . . . 61
4.1 The project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
4.2 Selection of measures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
4.3 The visits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
4.4 The important steps of policy transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
4.5 The wider perspectives of policy transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Summary 5

5. Indicators for quality management of policy learning and policy transfer –
Ekkehard Nuissl von Rein . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
5.1 Network and governance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
5.2 Implementation of quality management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
5.3 Quality management in transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
5.4 Quality management in the political process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

6 Summary

Presentation

The “Prevalet” research programme has been designed to investigate in what ways
the regional governments can upgrade the quality of policies affecting vocational
education and training, and, more generally, lifelong learning, through transac-
tional cooperation and mutual learning.

This second volume is devoted to the presentation of the instruments and the
methods, which can be used to practice mutual learning between Regions. This
volume forms an integral unit with the first (Learning among Regional Governments.
Quality of Policy Learning and Policy Transfer in Regional Lifelong Learning Policies,
Bielefeld, 2007), which presented the theoretical and methodological bases of the
proposal of a model of cooperation between regional governments, simplified in
comparison with the Open Method of Coordination, but still capable of supporting
policy learning and policy transfer.

The proposed model is the outcome of an applied research initiative which has, over
a period of two years, directly involved the regional governments of Andalusia, the
Basque country, Tuscany (acting as coordinator), Västra Götaland, Vidin, and Wales,
under the direction of Earlall and with the support of three research centres (Flo-
rence University, Örebro University and the Deutsches Institut für Erwachsenen-
bildung). Over this period of time (2005–2007), members of the regional govern-
ments, civil servants and researchers have established a mutual learning process
dealing with the policies of lifelong learning (initially dealing only with the areas of
informal adult learning and the drop-out situation) and from there they moved on to
the actual and effective transfer of concrete measures for the activation of the poli-
cies. This process has been planned, monitored and assessed using suitable backup
and observation tools. This has made it possible to gather a large quantity of empiri-
cal material on both institutional learning pathways and on the more complex routes
of policy transfer and innovation, based on transnational cooperation. The complex-
ity and the time needed for the processes of policy transfer have lent support to the
idea of including prior experiments undertaken by the actual regional governments
involved in the research into the empirical material. This has been enormously use-
ful, since it has made it possible to observe the phenomenon as it develops over the
long term: cases occurring over a period of more than seven years have been recon-

Presentation 7

structed. However, the cooperative and voluntary transfer procedures turned out to
be smoother than expected, which means that in some cases it has been possible to
directly observe the initial phases of the progress from policy learning to policy trans-
fer over the course of the actual Prevalet project itself.

The research concentrated mainly on the forms of cooperative and voluntary policy
learning and policy transfer between regional governments, and it has been thanks
to this approach that a proposal for the Soft Open Method of Coordination (SMOC)
has been developed. The aim of this proposal is to arrive at a procedure described
via its stages of progress, which will be backed by working tools used to analyse pol-
icy and interchange information between the institutions, as well as web-based
support services.

The research has taken the purpose of policy learning to be the measures of the pol-
icy, understood as the way in which the ideas and objectives of a policy are put into
practice. This choice has been motivated by the consideration that, apart from the
ideas, it is the measures that can more easily move from one country to another,
overcoming resistance to the voluntary transfer of other objectives. An example
would be the difficulty of transferring public regulations or systems, particularly in
the field of education and training. The approach through measures had already
been adopted by a comparative research programme promoted in 2005 by Isfol -
Comparative Research on measures and actions to foster participation in Lifelong Learn-
ing in four European countries (France, Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom). Fol-
lowing this, also on the basis of the positive results made possible by this approach,
the same method was adopted by the Youth Research project (2007), the subject
of which was youth policies in the 27 countries of the EU, which concluded by pro-
viding support for the European Commission in its drafting of the flexicurity guide-
lines. The same approach was also adopted by the comparative research carried out
on policies relating to the older worker in Italy, Ireland and Denmark (Senior at
work, 2006–2007) promoted by the Province of Livorno and in researching policies
on innovation transfer (Costa della Conoscenza [The Cost of Knowledge], 2006–2007),
promoted by Provincia Livorno Sviluppo [Leghorn Province Development]. The re-
sults of the Prevalet research mean that they can now be implemented, and this will
take place by the activation of an inter-regional mutual learning service supported
by Earlall with database fed by members of the network (www.mutual-learning.eu).
Inevitably a service such as this will have greater possibilities of usage and devel-
opment if the European Union is able to and wishes to promote inter-regional
cooperation in the area of lifelong learning policy as well.

Carina Abrèu, Paolo Federighi, Ekkehard Nuissl von Rein

8 Presentation

1. Benchmarking in the Soft Open
Method of Coordination
Josu Sierra Orrantia, Paolo Federighi

1.1 The Soft Open Method of Coordination (SMOC)

In the SMOC model worked out and tested in the course of the Prevalet research
(Federighi, Abrèu, Nuissl, 2007), the basic stages via which the coordination pro-
cedure between regional governments are brought to a conclusion as policy learn-
ing and policy transfer are broken down into the following principle phases:

Box 1 – The SMOC model
Policy learning:
Institutional motivation
Definitions of the reasons that cause governments to learn from others.
Selection of the pathway for policy learning
Definition of the type of relationship – indirect, direct, cooperative – to be established between institu-
tional partners.
Selection and analysis of measures
Identification of the subjects to be studied with a view to the possible transfer and analysis of the de-
vices and results achieved in prior experiments.
Evaluation and adaptation of measures
Evaluation of the policy measures from the viewpoint of transferring them to the destination country,
assessment of their potential impact and their desirability and sustainability, and their possible suit-
ability and partial or total conversion.
Policy transfer:
Creation of institutional conditions for transfer
Preparation of conditions favourable to the introduction of innovations by the ‘importer’ institution via
the creation of the desire for change in the institution itself, among the stakeholders and in the systems.
The choice of the process for the transfer
Choice of the type of process to be adopted: by inspiration, imitation, or adaptation through coopera-
tion between the institutional partners.

Benchmarking in the Soft Open Method of Coordination 9

Decision-making process of the transfer
Activation of the decision-making process whereby transfer becomes possible, as well as through pro-
gressive adaptations.
Implementation of transfer
Introduction of the innovations, standards, as an experimental procedure.
Institutionalisation and follow up
Adoption of the innovation and development of new policy measures and their progressive adaptation.

1.2 Benchmarking in the SMOC

In the SMOC benchmarking can be a useful work method both at the ‘Institutional
motivation’ stage and the ‘Evaluation and adaptation of measures’ stage.

Benchmarking is a working method that supports improvements in regional policy,
and therefore of the transfer of the measures associated with it, based on a compar-
ison of the results of the effects produced. Benchmarking is no longer merely quan-
titative, nor can it be restricted to a preliminary startup in the processes of coopera-
tion between regional governments. Benchmarking has both quantitative and
qualitative features and is a procedure that initiates rather than establishes a rela-
tionship between institutions and continues even when the direct relationship has
ended. When two regional governments decide to cooperate, it is because they have
already acquired preliminary information regarding the potential partner and be-
lieve that they can gain advantages from comparison and collaboration.

At the quantitative level, the comparison that arises from the adoption of the
benchmarking method involves the partners in a constant process of comparing
concepts, measurement models and outcomes, both at the policy learning stage
and, possibly, in the subsequent stages of policy transfer.

Quantitative benchmarking implies a capability and ability to analyse a policy, or,
more simply, a measurement of the basis of the results and the effect this has pro-
duced.

This type of exercise in Europe is still far from easy.

The difficulties arise from the fact that only in a small number of countries policies
and measures are measured, monitored and evaluated according to the effects
produced. Approval and, to some degree, financial sustainability would appear to
be the guiding criteria. The weakness and limited spread of the cultural effect of

10 Josu Sierra Orrantia, Paolo Federighi

policy based on the evidence of the results produced or which may be expected
from the measures adopted makes a specific benchmarking exercise difficult.

The automatic collection of data on the effects of lifelong learning policies and meas-
ures is non-existent. This means that it is difficult to set up objectives for quantitative
comparison and it would be a mistake to attempt to put something in the place of
this cultural and historical missing part in the Regions, which are interested in initi-
ating a coordination and collaboration process. The comparability of usable quanti-
tative data at the conclusion on the assessment of the respective performances may
be the result of the process, but not its starting point. If, for example, two regional
governments intend to compare the results of their respective policies in the area of
the promotion of mobility for reasons of study and work, the veracity of the results
and how usable they are is greater if this takes place in the framework of a mobility po-
licy cooperation procedure and a comparison of the areas of applicability, the targets,
the concepts, the measures, and the instruments adopted by each for such a purpose.

In our opinion this requirement will only meet with a useful and convincing re-
sponse if the regional governments also cooperate in the construction of a large
database, a tool for collecting information on the individual measures within life-
long learning policies. It was intended that the work of the Prevalet project and the
www.mutual-learning.eu website would be a contribution in this direction.

What can, however, be achieved with some benefit is the collection and compari-
son of the data that do exist, and of the standards relating to the performances of
groups of policies (what are known as the Lisbon benchmarks). These procedures
will reveal the educative conditions of the population more than the effectiveness
of the individual measures adopted. In some cases this includes available data re-
lating to the populations of the different regional territories which are therefore
useful in providing a basic general idea of the educative conditions of the pop-
ulations and the training systems involved. We shall then proceed to provide an
example of the use made in the Prevalet research of the Eurostat sources relating
to two European benchmarks and to the following Regions: Andalusia (Spain), Ve-
jile (Denmark), Tuscany (Italy), Västra Götaland (Sweden), Wales (The United
Kingdom), the Basque Country (Spain).

1.3 Data available in Eurostat about Regions Nuts Level 2

a. Definitions
The two benchmarks selected are the following:


Lifelong learning. The percentage of the population aged 25–64 in education or
training. Lifelong learning refers to persons aged 25 to 64 who stated that they
received education or training in the four weeks preceding the survey (numerator).
The denominator consists of the total population of the same age group, excluding
those who did not answer to the question 'participation in education and training'.

Early school-leavers. The percentage of the population aged 18–24 with, at most,
lower secondary education and not in further education or training.

Dropout (Data to be collected with specific surveys).
– Percentage of students 14–16 years old enrolled in ISCED 2 not attending
classes, without a justified reason, for one month or more and not having had
a transferred file to another district.
– Percentage of students 17–19 years old attending no training or educational ac-
tivity.

b. Early school-leavers: rate and evolution
The data shown in Box 2 show comparative aspects of the educative conditions of
a specific stratum of the population of each of the six Regions concerned. The use-
fulness of this type of comparison is considerable, although the data represent the
outcome of the policies implemented over preceding decades.

Box 2 – Early School-Leavers Rate Total 2005

40.00 37.14
35.00
30.00
25.00
20.00
15.24 16.23 16.23
13.92 12.68
15.00
10.93
10.00
5.00
0.00
PAIS V ANDAL EU–25 TOSCA VASTG WWAL EASTW

Explanation: TOSCA: TOSCANA (I)
PAIS V: BASQUE COUNTRY (E) VASTG: VÄSTRA GÖTALAND (S)
ANDAL: ANDALUSIA (E) WWAL: WEST WALES (UK)
EU-25: EUROPEAN UNION, 25 MEMBERS EASTW: EAST WALES (UK)


The data shown in Box 3 show elements that can be used to assess the effect of the
policies adopted during the course of the period in question. For the purposes of
assessing the effects of policies, this type of data is more interesting, even though
the results may depend on the aggregation of more political measures and on
macroeconomic factors.

Box 3 – Early School-Leavers Rate Total Evolution
EVOLUTION
45.00
40.00
35.00 2000
30.00 2001
25.00 2002
20.00 2003
15.00 2004
10.00 2005
5.00
0.00
PAIS V ANDAL EU–25 TOSCA VASTG WWAL EASTW

c. Lifelong learning participation: rates and evolution
The data shown in Box 4 show comparative aspects of the educative conditions of
a specific stratum of the populations of each of the six Regions in question. The
usefulness of this type of comparison is considerable, although the data represent
the outcome of the policies implemented over preceding decades.

Box 4

LIFELONG LEARNING PARTIC.Rate – TOTAL 2005
35.00
32,42
27,21 27,40 * Vejle
30.00
24,42 Region is
25.00 represented
by Denmark
20.00
(DENM).
12,65
15.00
9,50 10,23
10.00 6,91
5.00
0.00
PAIS V ANDAL EU–25 TOSCA VASTG WWAL EASTW DENM


The data shown in Box 5 show elements that can be used to assess the effect of the
policies adopted during the course of the period in question. For the purposes of
assessing the effects of policies this type of data is more interesting, even though
the results may depend on the aggregation of more political measures and on
macroeconomic factors.

Box 5

LIFELONG LEARNING PARTICIPATION RATE, EVOLUTION

35.00
30.00 2000
25.00 2001
20.00 2002
15.00 2003
10.00 2004
5.00 2005
0.00
PAIS V ANDAL EU–25 TOSCA VASTG WWAL EASTW DENM

Note: *Break in series 2003 VASTG, Wales, Denmark, 2004 Toscana, 2005 Basque, Andalusia due to me-
thodological reasons.

References
Arrowsmith, J., Sisson, K. and Marginson, P. (2004), What can ‘benchmarking’ offer the open
method of co-ordination?, Journal of European Public Policy 11:2 April 2004: 311–328

European Commission (2007), Growing Regions, growing Europe – Fourth report on economic
and social cohesion, Luxembourg, Office for Official Publications of the European Commu-
nities

Federighi, P., Abreu, C., Nuissl, E. (2007), Learning among Regional Governments. Quality of Pol-
icy Learning and Policy Transfer in Regional Lifelong Learning Policies, Bonn, W. Bertelsmann
Verlag

Koellreuter, C. (2002), Regional Benchmarking and Policymaking, BAK Basel Economics, adapted
and further developed version of the paper entitled “Regional Benchmarking: A tool to
improve regional foresight”, presented by the author to the European Commission’s
STRATA-ETAN Expert Group “Mobilising regional foresight potential for an enlarged EU”,
of which he was a member, on 15 April and 23/24 September 2002 in Brussels


Owen, J. (2002), Benchmarking for the learning and skill sector, London, Learning and Skills
Development Agency

Page, Edward C. (2000), Future Governance and the Literature on Policy Transfer and Lesson Draw-
ing, ESRC Future Governance Programme Workshop on Policy Transfer, 28 January 2000,
Britannia House, London


Tools For Policy Learning And Policy Transfer Def

2. Tools to be used for the analysis
of the measures in lifelong learning
policies
Francesca Torlone

2.1 Defining common concepts

Policy learning requires that all the terms, keywords and concepts underpinning
and used in the procedure should be common and shared. In the model of the Soft
Open Method of Coordination between regional governments, in order to fully un-
derstand “what is politically possible and desirable” (Laffan and Shaw, 2005) it is
important that instruments and devices underpinning mutual learning be pre-
pared at the policy learning stage.

Encouraging and promoting awareness of, and learning from, experience gained
in other local contexts is reminiscent of the concepts found in the ‘soft system of
governance’ (Trubek, Cottrell and Nance, 2005), and of “discursive regulatory
mechanisms” (Jacobsson, 2004), which are capable of producing “a more subtle
impact” within the systems of government concerned. For this reason the compo-
nents of these mechanisms have been identified by Jacobsson (2004:2):
1. joint language use (key concepts and discourse, like lifelong learning, measure,
policy for the reduction of drop-out and non-formal adult education)
2. development of common classifications and common operationalisations (like
indicators)
3. building of a common knowledge base (including collection and standardisa-
tion of statistics)
4. the strategic use of comparisons and evaluations (benchmarking and good
practices)
5. diffusion of knowledge and evaluation results, combined with social pressure
(…) and time pressure.

Tools to be used for the analysis of the measures in lifelong learning policies 17

This means that policy learning is closely connected to a number of factors, such
as: the use of a common language including concepts, words and subject areas re-
ferring to one or more areas of joint action; the development of shared classifica-
tions fulfilling requirements in the reading and interpretation of the information
from a perspective of comparison; the production and exchange of knowledge,
concluding in an awareness of the details of the solutions adopted; the availability
and use of comparative studies and evaluation of documents regarding policies
and the individual measures adopted. A further component to which policy learn-
ing is connected turns out to be ‘meaning making’ understood as a “social activity
that is conducted jointly – collaboratively – by a community, rather than by indi-
viduals” (Stahl, 2003:523). This lays the foundations for ‘institutional learning’
characterised by “an exchange of ideas and beliefs (cognitive and/or normative ori-
entations), skills, or competencies as a result of the observation and interpretation
of experience” (Hemerijck and Visser, 2003:5).

Laid out in this way, the learning of the institutional players who are responsible
for the innovative actions, is introductory and functional in the process of policy
transfer in the cooperative model suggested here.

2.2 Some key terms

Within the field of research restricted to training and permanent learning policies
we can identify some keywords (although the list is far from complete), regarding
which it may be useful to concentrate our efforts on arriving at common defini-
tions, among the systems in which the devices and contents are applied. With
these keywords in mind, the following pages will investigate in depth the method-
ological approaches and instruments of use to the institutional players in the vari-
ous stages in which the process of coordination between the levels of regional gov-
ernment is articulated.

The concept of measure (also covered in chapter 2.4) is useful because in the first
place it allows the subject of the possible policy transfer to be identified. Moreover,
it is certainly this concept which represents the aim of ensuring that it is possible
to measure the result achieved by a policy, by the ways in which it is implemented
and by the strategies adopted (in the short, medium and long term) by the various
regional governments for the purpose of recognising and affirming “the right to an
education for the entire population” (Federighi, 1990:53), in the light of the effect
that a measure has (or has had) on a territory and of the ‘institutional solution’ it
represents in a given local context. The concept of measure in the policies of life-

18 Francesca Torlone

long learning calls to mind that of ‘learning policies’ which define the general and
specific goals for the action and, according to that, resources, time frame and
power/roles of the main actors. The learning policies are then activated by the
measures which achieve its objectives, either individually or in combination (in
this latter case the pursuit of more objectives can be ensured by the addition of
more measures).

The problem arises of the definition of the areas of application of mutual learning.
The differences between the training concepts and training systems are often an
obstacle to communication. In the Soft Open Method of Coordination little is to be
gained by establishing the objective of achieving a complete, in-depth understand-
ing of the reasons for the difference; what is useful, however, is to understand in
what way it may be possible to create concepts for common use. Below we show
two examples which fulfilled the initial requirements for inter-regional coopera-
tion in the framework of the Prevalet project.

The term ‘policy for the reduction of dropouts from the formal education system’ is
used to refer to regional policies – in the field of education, training, labour, social
policies and so forth) aiming to influence the drop-out rate reaching a formal cer-
tification in the education and training system. These policies are targeted at:
– Students 14-16 years old enrolled in Isced 2 not attending classes, without a jus-
tified reason, for one month or more and not transferred to another district
– Students 17-19 years old attending no training or educational activity.

By “policy for non-formal adult education” we mean regional policies devoted to in-
creasing the standard of participation in lifelong learning activities of people more
than 24 years old through learning organised activities not ending with a diploma
or a professional certificate.

The examples of investigation and context instruments, available in this volume,
refer to actions and strategies connected, to some extent, to policies related to
dropouts and non-formal education.

2.3 Background surveys

The analysis of the quality and effectiveness of the measures used in policies relat-
ing to training and lifelong learning is the focus of the research activities, and has
led to the creation and development of instruments underpinning regional policy
learning. This analysis cannot, however, proceed without a context study which fac-


tors in the functions of the policy, the institutional bodies involved in defining and
implementing this policy, and the respective roles and tasks formally assigned
according to the wide range of institutional and administrative facilities that char-
acterise the actual regional European situations. Without wishing to waste time
with studies of the systems (which are numerous and freely available: an example
is the OECD survey of 2003), consideration should, however, be given to the nor-
mative, organisational and financial development of lifelong learning systems,
since a knowledge of the permanent learning and training systems is of crucial
importance, as it is within these systems that action practices are to be found de-
signed to achieve the triple objective of personal development, social cohesion and
economic growth in complex modern societies (OECD, 1997).

The beneficiaries of public policy are often ‘marginal’ user groups, in the majority
of cases those who are of little economic value since they are “non-active individu-
als” in the labour market, and unconnected, for a variety of reasons, with habits of
study, with training facilities and centres of cultural encounter and participation. A
considerable portion of the policies and measures covered in the survey is directed
at these groups; the measures and policies are located in the context of a standard-
ised system framework intended to promote learning from pre-school to post-re-
tirement, and cover the whole range of formal, non-formal and informal learning
methods (Council of the European Union, 2002; European Commission, 2006).

The background analysis therefore mirrors an approach that is open to gathering
data from, and sharing data with, the normative and regulatory sources to be found
within state and local government, and not excluding arrangements where codified
standards are absent. What needs to be stressed here is the match between the var-
ious institutional bodies and the consequent distribution of powers (with areas of
independence described in a variety of ways, according to the recent devolutionary
procedures which have taken place in various countries) and the specificity of re-
gional policy making and decision making. The documentation and analysis of the
context pay particular attention to policies aimed at the re-inclusion of labour mar-
ket dropouts and training, as well as increasing the participation of adults in non
formal educational activities.

The background analysis is the result of the sharing of a survey model (included
below) used by the research bodies in each of the territories concerned. As an
example, we include the document describing the non-formal education policies
implemented in institutional facilities in the Basque Country. The documentation
produced on the backgrounds is available at www.mutual-learning.eu (about which
more in-depth details will be provided in chapter 3).


Box 6 – Background documentation survey model for collecting and analysing con-
text sources

Index
1. Main policies at national level
2. Role of institutions (State, Regions, Counties, Communes): competences, financial power
3. Organisation and structure of the system
4. Suppliers
5. Programmes and activities
6. Services
7. Policy of demand
8. Personnel

Comments
1. Main policies of adult learning at national level
Goals and strategy
Laws, regulative decisions (decree, agreements, etc.)
Supporting documentation
2. Role of institutions
Information and short description about the task and role of each one of the institutional actors:
(State, Regions, Communes, etc.) concerning legislation, planning, programmes, contents, etc.
3. Organisation: actors per system and functions
Description of the structure
4. Suppliers
Description of who is responsible for delivery
Description of the typology of programmes and activities
6. Services
Services Functions Organisation Suppliers Financing
Demand
Motivation
Information
Guidance
Validation
Certification
Others
Supply
Quality control
Distance learning
Resource centres
Teacher training


7. Policy of demand
Description of policy aimed at supporting individuals at financial level, and intervening on other fac-
tors facilitating the expression of individual demand (e.g. personalisation)
8. Personnel
Selection and description of measures concerning the personnel involved in the implementation of
the policy

Box 7 – Example of the compilation of the abovementioned model respecting the
background context of the non-formal education policies in existence in the Basque
Country1

Author: Rosario Diaz de Cerio

Non-formal adult education in the Basque Country
Comments
Main policies at regional level
Goals and strategy
The Basque strategy in the field of lifelong learning was defined in the White Paper approved by the
Basque Cabinet in 2003 with the aim of providing people of all ages, active or inactive the opportunity
to design their own lifelong learning itineraries and to undertake learning experiences in formal, non-
formal and informal contexts, in line with their itineraries.
The strategy was conceived for the entire regional society by all Basque institutions, with the participa-
tion of society as a whole, through its structures and from all levels.
The mission the Basque institutions must assign themselves with regard to the vision of the Basque
Country as a learning Region consists in assuring that all residents of the Basque Country have a real
opportunity to learn, in a different, more flexible way adapted to their needs. The idea is to attract more
people to learning, by making it increasingly attractive, better acknowledged and more valued socially.
The specific objectives defined in the White Paper in relation to non-formal adult training policies are
the following:
Specific objectives linked to social inclusion:
1. Define the basic competence levels people need to have for their personal and professional develop-
ment in the knowledge-based society;
2. Ensure that the entire population, and particularly the underprivileged sectors, have the chance to
acquire and develop these basic competence levels and skills;
3. Ensure that everyone and particularly the underprivileged, have access to information, mediation,
guidance and tutoring;
4. Facilitate the access of the immigrant population to basic training, particularly as regards social and
linguistic spheres, that help them to integrate;

1 The information was updated in December 2006.


5. Give priority to have access to information, by giving everyone, and in particular the underprivileged,
basic ICT skills;
6. Reduce the number of people who leave the educational system without basic qualifications and
look for suitable ways to assure that such people acquire basic competence;
7. Promote online training, with quality guarantees, flexibility and the access of handicapped people or
people from zones with little chance of access to learning;
8. Facilitate the necessary public and private resources and investments, including the possibility of tax
measures to provide incentives for investment in such resources;
9. Recognise competences achieved through non-formal or informal ways.
Specific objectives related to active citizenship:
10. Encourage people to participate throughout their lives in organisations of social, socio-economic
and political interest, (NGOs, volunteer work, political parties, trade unions and business associa-
tions, etc.) and in cultural foundations and associations;
11. Inform everyone about their social, economic and political institutions and facilitate knowledge of
their rights and duties, as active members of society;
12. Facilitate knowledge of our milieu, language and culture, particularly among immigrants.
Laws, regulative decisions (Decrees, Agreements, etc.)
– White Paper on Lifelong Learning
– Decree 298/2002, 17 December, regulating aid for the implementation of lifelong learning initia-
tives (Official Journal of the Basque Country no. 248, 30 December 2002)
– Decree 143/2004, 13 July, regulating the general framework to encourage learning foreign lan-
guages through multimedia systems (Official Journal of the Basque Country no. 141, 26 July
2004)
– Decree 70/2004 of 27 April regulating the examinations for qualification as a Specific Vocational
Training Technician and Higher-level Technician (Official Journal of the Basque Country, 5 May
2004)
– “The Basque Country in the Information Society” Plan
– Agreements with Provincial Councils.

2. Role of institutions
Information and short description about the task and role of each one of the institutional actors: (State,
Regions, Commune, etc) concerning legislation, planning, programmes, contents, etc.

Legislative Planning Financing Curricula Others
steering

State

Regions X X X X

Counties X X X X

Communes X X X

Since non-formal education does not lead to formalised certification, the Basque Autonomous Com-
munity, through the Basque Parliament and the Basque Government Cabinet, can regulate and plan
the policy in relation to this matter on its own. Similarly, the three Provincial Councils of Araba,
Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa can do that through their Government Cabinets and “Juntas Generales” (County
Parliament).


Supporting documentation: www.euskadi.net/eeuskadi
www.euskadi.net/etengabeikasi
www.euskadi.net/lanbidez

3. Organisation: actors per system and functions
Description of the structure
Actors: NGOs, VET centres, specific adult education centres, universities, municipalities, provincial
councils, enterprises, entrepreneurs or unions confederations/associations, development agencies,
etc.
Functions: They develop the measures foreseen in the regulations or agreements and are subsidized
by the Basque Government according to those regulations. Provincial councils and municipalities de-
velop their own measures with their own resources or subsidised by the Basque Government or/and
ESF.

4. Suppliers
Description of who is responsible for delivering
Please see section 3.

Description of the typology of programmes and activities

Programme and Type of activity

5.1 “Basque Country in the Information Society” Plan
The plan's overall strategic goal, which will guide these actions, is to adapt Basque society to the
new digital age, promoting cultural change and placing the new technologies at the service of all, to
achieve greater quality of life and social balance and to generate value and wealth in our economy.
Strategic lines:
Internet for all
Digital enterprise
Administration on line
Euskadi on the Net
E-training
E-health
Contents
In order to integrate the Basque Country efficiently into the Information Society, the Plan pursues
the harmonious and balanced development of the areas of action that will form the model for
progress: users, utilising and creating contents, contents and services, contributing value to Inter-
net and context enabling users to access contents and services.
This Plan foresees a wide variety of measures, including subsidies for citizens (in order to raise the
number of computers at home connected to the Net) and for enterprises (especially small and
micro businesses, to improve their competitiveness) to purchase computers or renew their equip-
ment.


A key line of the plan is the “KZGuneak” network. In the majority of the municipalities in the
Basque Country (no matter the number of inhabitants) there is a free access training centre (KZ-
Gunea) where ITC training is provided and free use of Internet is available for everyone.
More information at www.euskadi.net/eeuskadi

5.2 Lifelong Learning actions
Decree 298/2002, 17 December, regulating aid for the implementation of lifelong learning initia-
tives (Official Journal of the Basque Country no. 248, 30 December 2002).
Aim of the Decree: To regulate subsidies for NGOs, VET centres, specific adult education centres,
universities, municipalities, provincial councils, development agencies, enterprises, with the aim
of developing non-formal learning/training activities targeted at anyone aged 25 or over.
Kind of Activities:
– Specific lifelong learning activities with the aim of fulfilling the training needs of a specific group
of people due to their lack of qualifications, their interest in a specific subject, their situation con-
cerning social inclusion or active citizenship or other kind of interest (e.g.: workshops targeted at
people with serious social difficulties in order to improve their conditions for social inclusion,
specific courses for disabled people and retired people, courses of general interest (cooking,
transversal competencies, ecology, natural resources sustainability, etc.) ITC resources centre as
a social integration tool).
– Global intervention projects for a municipality or group of municipalities. Those projects are
based on “learning mediation service” (“the learning mediator” was referred to in the Commis-
sion Staff Working Document: Lifelong Learning Practice and Indicators - SEC (2001) 1939,
Brussels 28/11/2001). That service aims:
To build and maintain updated comprehensive information about all kind of training (for-
mal, non-formal) provided in that geographical area;
To provide learning guidance to any citizen aged 25 or more who wants to improve their
skills and especially to those with social difficulties, taking into account his/her learning in-
terests and needs;
To proactively promote the idea of lifelong learning and enhance both, training supply and
demand;
To promote, design and develop training activities when the training need is not fulfilled by
anyone else.

5.3 www.hiru.com lifelong learning website
The aim of the website is to provide educational contents (free access) with the aim of making
access to knowledge for everyone easier. Those contents include mathematics, geography, chem-


istry, history, sciences, literature, etc. Besides, there are other contents related to free time, healthy
habits, environment, cinema, music, services offered by public administrations, consumer organi-
sations, etc. It is not necessary to have Internet access at home, taking into account that there is the
“KZguneak” centres network centres with free access to Internet in the majority of the municipal-
ities.
Since January 2005, it has been possible to learn foreign languages (English, French, German and
Italian) through this website. It can be done online or with CDs and the students can learn on their
own or be helped by a tutor. This programme is regulated by the Decree 143/2004, 13 July, regulat-
ing the general framework to encourage learning foreign languages through multimedia systems
(Official Journal of the Basque Country no. 141, 26 July 2004).
It is foreseen that alongside continuing to improvement and updating of the existing content and
including new ones, new courses will be available. So, any user of the website could design his/her
training pathway, with the different courses that he/she is doing, improving his/her knowledge and
skills in a non-formal and flexible way, compatible with his/her job and family life.

5.4 System for the assessment and recognition of skills achieved by non-formal
or informal means
The Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, through the Basque Government Depart-
ment of Education, Universities and Research, and specifically on the initiative of the Office of
Vocational Training and Lifelong Learning, was the first Autonomous Community in Spain to set
up a System for the Recognition of Professional Skills.
In this respect, the remit of the Basque Agency for the Assessment of Competence and Quality in
Vocational Training is to oversee and monitor the start-up of this System for the Recognition of Pro-
fessional Skills, in line with Decree 70/2004 of 27 April regulating the examinations for qualifica-
tion as a Specific Vocational Training Technician and Higher-level Technician (Official Journal of
the Basque Country, 5 May 2004).
Further information is available on the following website: www.euskadi.net/lanbidez/agencia

5.5. Learning Accounts
Developed by the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa and the Basque Government (Departments of Ed-
ucation and Labour). They have been carrying out four kinds of experiences aimed at four different
target groups:
– TXEKIN: The goal was to provide guidance to young people so that they will be able to deal with
business issues and manage small companies
– IKASTXEKIN: Training in ICT and on emotional intelligence for Secondary Education teachers
– TXEKINBIDE: Training in ICT for unemployed people
– EMAWEB – EMAWEB +: Training in basic ICT (digital literacy) for women who have been out of
the labour market for a very long time.
It has been proved that learning accounts/vouchers are a valid instrument to act on concrete target
groups (rather than the general public).
The experience has had too little scope to allow generalisation. It would be desirable to target new
groups, involve more stakeholders and invest larger amounts, using new instruments.


Now research on alternative ways to finance lifelong learning (non-formal) is being carried out in
relation to taxes, specific bank accounts for learning, etc.
Further information is available at www.gipuzkoa.net/ikasmina

5.6. Courses offered by provincial councils or municipalities
These are programmed activities in ICT, guidance, art, music, cinema, photography, theatre, mete-
orology, astronomy, wines, travelling, self-esteem, craftsmanship, etc.
The courses are organised by the provincial councils or municipalities and financed by their own
resources or subsidised by the Basque Government or, sometimes, ESF. Usually they are targeted
at people of a certain age and the content is usually adapted to the course’s target group.
Further information is available at www.vitoria-gasteiz.org
Supporting documentation: www.euskadi.net/eeuskadi
www.euskadi.net/etengabeikasi
www.euskadi.net/lanbidez/agencia
www.euskadi.net/lanbidez
www.hiru.com
www.vitoria-gasteiz.org
www.gipuzkoa.net/ikasmina

6. Policy of demand
Description of policy aimed at supporting individuals at financial level, and intervening on other fac-
tors facilitating the expression of individual demand (e.g. personalisation).
All the programmes and activities described in section 5 are free, except for some activities organised
by municipalities. In those cases the price is affordable.
As mentioned in section 5.5, there is limited experience concerning learning accounts/vouchers. In
those cases students can choose the training provider but not the kind of guidance or training.

2.4 Policy measures analysis

2.4.1 Definition

The decision to direct research at the analysis of measures rather than the analysis
of the systems and policies was dictated by the need to provide instruments for as-
sessing the effects of the policy before it is actually adopted, which would support
more effective policy making. In the process of policy learning and policy transfer,
the ‘measure’ is understood as an instrument used to implement a policy and
described by a significant proportion of the components of the policy itself


(Federighi, 2006:135): beneficiaries, objectives, institutional responsibility for im-
plementation, investment, monitoring and assessment systems, etc. The concept
of the measure is not new, since it is widely used in the area of labour policy to
identify the devices via which actions are implemented designed to increase flexi-
bility, sustain the income of the unemployed, etc.

Measures are instruments or provisions for implementing public policy (although
studies are now in progress testing their use in the field of private policy). In order
to identify them reference can (initially) be made to the normative instruments
governing the implementation of given policies.

However, measures can also be identified in laws, decrees, standards, plans, pro-
grammes, inter-institutional agreements or agreements with sectors of society. On
occasion, at the stage of policy experimentation, they may also be present within
special projects.

The concept of the measure is also to be found in the Regulations and documenta-
tion laying down European Social Fund programmes, where the term ‘measure’ is
used to mean “the instrument whereby a priority direction is taken to be followed
through a period of time of a number of years and which renders the financing of
the operation feasible”2.

By means of a similar approach it becomes possible to correlate the general princi-
ples dictated by policy to the specific terms and conditions of action of the policy
itself facilitating the evaluation of the measures, individually and in combination
with other measures and devices. This renders more feasible the transfer of meas-
ures, devices and 'best practices' in contexts other than the original ones, possibly
with adaptations and adjustments to the regional and local transfer contexts. It is
recognised that regional and local governments play a determining part in defin-
ing, activating and implementing education policies, with respect to, and in
compliance with, the constitutional and administrative power of the central level
(European Commission, 2001). Adopting a similar approach requires that the
elements (whereby the measures can be described) be identified in order to under-
stand how the policy works and acts in a given territory, with reference to the ben-
eficiaries in question and to meet specific requirements. Evaluation and monitor-
ing tools, where they exist, can then be used to assess the effectiveness of a
measure (or a group of several measures) in terms, for example, of the success of
the beneficiaries, the achievement of the objectives, and the fair allocation of

2 The definition can be checked on the European Commission website.


financial resources. The minimum elements necessary to identify a measure can
thus be summed up as follows:
• Objectives
• Beneficiaries
• Institutional levels responsible for implementation
• Devices and procedures
• Implementation time
• Costs or investment
• Evaluation and monitoring devices.

With this in mind, an analysis grid has been prepared, to be used to describe the
individual elements making up the measures and devices used in the regional con-
texts represented within the international work group. This grid, which has also
been tested in previous comparative research (Isfol3), has been used as the main
survey took in international analyses (Project Livorno: a knowledge province for senior
at work4; Project La Costa della Conoscenza (The Cost of Knowledge5); Comparative re-
search – YOUTH – Young in Occupations and Unemployment: Thinking of their better
integration in the labour market6), is the outcome of an ongoing refinement proce-
dure, even though the requirements of information comparison and capitalisation
tend to pressure it towards standardisation. The use of the descriptions of the pol-
icy measures between the regional government institutional frames of reference
and research centres involved in policy learning activities facilitates mutual learn-

3 Comparative research, promoted in 2005 by Isfol, “Supporting participation in permanent learning” was
funded by the Ministry of Labour in the framework of the European Social Fund. The aim was to identify and
analyse the measures and actions undertaken, or in progress, in France, Germany, the UK and Sweden, in-
tended to support the inclusion in a range of permanent learning frameworks of disadvantaged social
groups and individuals, with their employability taken into account, with a view to avoiding new forms of
exclusion affecting the adult population most at risk of marginalisation.
4 The research project entitled “Project Livorno: a knowledge province for seniors at work” (2006) was funded in
the framework of Actions of an Innovative Nature funded under article 6 of the European Social Fund and
promoted by Livorno (Leghorn) province. The aim is to comparatively analyse measures in existence in
Denmark, Italy and Ireland in policies aimed at promoting active ageing.
5 The project entitled “La Costa della Conoscenza (The Cost of Knowledge)” (2006-2007), funded in the
framework of Community Initiative EQUAL Stage II, was intended to upgrade the occupational
qualifications of workers at risk of marginalisation in the labour market via continuous and permanent
training actions in the five provinces of coastal Tuscany, to invest in the growth of human resources by con-
tributing to the relaunch of competitiveness in the entrepreneurial fabric.
6 The research project YOUTH (2007) was funded by the European Commission and promoted by Isfol. The
aim was to carry out a qualitative and quantitative survey on policies and measures in existence in
Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Czech Republic, the UK, Romania, and Hungary in support of the greater and
better employability of the young between 15 and 30 years of age, taking flexicurity as the main guiding
principle in the study of the measures and devices in question.


ing procedures, including where survey indicators are involved, which demon-
strate the effectiveness encountered in the field of the activation of the measures
and the evaluation of the effect which the policies have on the reference targets.
The most important thing in compiling the analysis grids is to supply information
that is summarised, but structured as regards descriptors, sources, data (including
qualitative data, particularly as regards expenses and costs involved in the spread of
a measure), which help in the understanding of each individual measure in a given
context, and as an expression of a given policy (or several policies, in the case in
which a range of different types of action are combined to give rise to aggregate
measures) which guide the management of economic development in a local and
regional context and promote the introduction of elements of change at the re-
gional levels of government.

The most complex information to identify is that related to the evaluation of the
effect of a measure. In rare cases governments undertake predictive analyses of the
effects before adopting a measure, and still more rarely, impact evaluation studies
can be found relating to specific measures. Even where they exist it is unusual to find
them provided with historical data series. This means that foreshadowing the effect
of a measure when a government has decided to proceed with its transfer is all the
more complex. Evens so, collecting the rare references to studies and evaluations –
even if they relate solely to costs and results – is always of at least some use.

The model of the grid used by the Prevalet research group is shown below in all the
sections, showing for each section the nature of the information to be included.

2.4.2 Grid to be used for the description of the Measures selected

A. General information about the measure

Measure
Local name (in English and in the native language)

1. Main policy
Involved policies
(Being the measure the instrument a policy is being implemented and put into practice through, this section
provides a few lines describing the policy/policies the measure is related to. For instance, if a measure which
aimed to develop linguistic skills for immigrants is selected and analysed, social policies, labour policies, etc.
can be mentioned)

2. Beneficiaries
(A few words for each type of beneficiary. This includes direct and indirect beneficiaries)


3. Abstract
3.1. Definition
(Definition of measure should have the format of a glossary definition including the explanation of the key
words included in the definition of the measure. This will help in understanding the main instruments and
components needed for implementation)

3.2. Goals
(Describe the kind of goals that can be reached by implementing the measure. Goals could be general but
not too much as they have to show for what kind of purposes the measure can be useful)

3.3. Contents
(Describe each one of the instruments and components of the measure. For instance the Individual
Learning Account can (or can not) include guidance services as compulsory – or not compulsory –, a
certain amount of money, freedom of choice of learning supply, etc.)

4. Expected specific effects and outcomes
(This section should contain a list of expected outcomes – different kinds of – and detailed qualitative and
quantitative information. For instance, it is useful to mention the number of people that can be reached by
one individual or combined measure(s), the kind of behaviour that can be produced – commitment in
learning, involvement in associative life, etc.)

5. Institutional Levels involved and respective functions (national, regional, local)
(Each of the institutional levels involved in adopting, implementing, developing, evaluating the measure
should be identified and briefly described in its roles and tasks)

6. Access (description of the procedure)
(This section should contain information on how beneficiaries can have access to the measure, the planned
procedure beneficiaries are to follow in order to be involved in the policy)

7. Suppliers
(Information on each one of the organisations involved in the delivery of the measure are to be included in
this section. Original name and a synthetic description of their function should be included as well)

8. Cost analysis
(This section should provide information on the cost per ‘unit’ of the measure, for example:
For direct costs
• Cost per participant
• Cost per learning hour
• Cost per day
• Start up investment
• …….
For non-direct or opportunity costs
• Cost for participants
• Cost for employers
• …….)


B. Instruments

9. Instruments of the measure
(This section contains the description of the concrete components of a measure that can be found in the ac-
tion produced by the policy: i.e. facilities, contents, trainers, financial resources, methods, etc.)

C. Information about the context of the measure

10. Costs of the measure
(This section is about the total amount per year and the total number of beneficiaries per year)

11. Complementary measures (if applicable):
(This section provides information about the measures that must be implemented at any moment –
diachronic or synchronic – to reach the goal of the measure. If the case, for each measure the information on
definition, goals, contents has to be given)

D. Information about the evaluation of the measure

12. Results and effects evaluations
(Conclusions of the most relevant evaluations are given in this section)

13. Documentation (concerning previous points)
– Printed material (Please, follow the “American format”: Family name, Name, (year), Title, Town, Pub-
lisher, pages)

– Online sources

14. Research (references):
– Printed material (Please, follow the “American format”: Family name, Name, (year), Title, Town, Pub-
lisher, pages)

– Online sources


2.4.3 A compiled model grid

As an example, the descriptive grid for the ‘Project TRIO’ measure, adopted in the
Tuscany region7, is shown below.

A. General information about the measure

Measure
Local name: Progetto TRIO
English name: TRIO Project

Author – Elio Satti

1. Main policy
Involved policies
The main policy is Lifelong Learning Policy and consists of strategies to foster a learning-for-all culture
through direct measures to motivate (potential) learners and raise overall participation levels by mak-
ing learning more desirable in terms of active citizenship, personal fulfilment and/or employability.

2. Beneficiaries
TRIO is a web-learning system made available by the Tuscany Region for all its citizens, an e-learning
portal for everyone.

3. Abstract
3.1. Definition

TRIO is a web-learning system covering different fields of interest including Professional and Busi-
ness Training, School and University Education, Advanced Technology and General Culture, each
supported by quality contents and highly interactive services.

TRIO is based on a course catalogue system and an e-learning platform, offering a number of services
such as online tutoring, virtual classrooms, mailing lists, chat, FAQ, help desk, newsletter and many
more.

Today TRIO offers a course catalogue of about 875 listings and plans to reach a full 1,000 learning
products in the year 2008. TRIO's courses are characterised by considerable multimedia and hyper-
textual contents. The user proceeds through learning pathways supported by audio and video tech-
nologies, frequent use of images, easy internal navigation according to the most advanced user
friendly and intuitive interface accessibility.

3.2. Goals
• Improve quality of working skills.
• Meet the increasing demand for learning support.
• Offer constant update of professional skills.
• Favour the alignment of school reality and business requirements.
• Supply technological and learning tools to the Public Administration in order to sustain the de-
velopment of an e-government.

7 Data updated in December 2006.


3.3. Contents
• Courses and services absolutely free of charge
• Easy access and user friendly
• Course catalogue and multimedia products including hundreds of listings
• Community, online tutoring and help desk
• 40 Hours of free Internet connection
• Customised services and e-learning projects for public and private enterprises.

4. Expected specific effects and outcomes
The TRIO project outcomes are related to the following areas:
• Computer Technologies
• Business and Economy
• Languages
• School and Education
• Orientation and Employment
• Public Administration
• Environmental and Ecological Matters
• Professional Training
• Healthcare and Social Services
• Science and Technologies
• Service Providers and Associations
• Research-Study

5. Institutional Levels involved and respective functions (national, regional, local)
Tuscany Region – Education and Training Department
Provinces, Municipalities, Universities, Private Associations

6. Access (description of the procedure)
Access to the TRIO website and to any service is absolutely free of charge for any citizen, private or
public organisation, company and, in general, for anyone who wishes to benefit from TRIO's e-learn-
ing offer.

TRIO may be accessed via any computer connected to the Internet (Modem 56K, Isdn, A-DSL), by typ-
ing in your browser the address: www.progettotrio.it


B. Instruments

9. Instruments of the measure

Tutoring online
The TRIO user is assisted along the entire learning route by an Online Tutor. Each user can interact
and communicate with the Online Tutor via e-mail and will receive an answer to his/her query
within 24/48 hours. The Online Tutor is also the moderator and manager for the TRIO Community
tools.

Virtual Classrooms
Virtual Classrooms are spaces made to ‘virtually’ bring together learners, instructors and tutors, to
share events and experiences as well as learning material. From a computer equipped with audio tech-
nology it is possible to follow events online interactively. The learner can take part in actual lessons by
experts in the specific field and ask questions in real time with a microphone or on a chat line.

E-learning Centres
E-learning Centres are free places open to all citizens conceived to help make access to TRIO even eas-
ier. There are 19 Multimedia Learning Classrooms, throughout Tuscany, connected with Video-
conferencing technology and each with a minimum of 20 stations. At every E-learning Centre you will
find a tutor to assist you on learning and logistics matters. E-learning Centres also offer a special
Multivideoconference service for organisations and businesses allowing two or more E-learning Cen-
tres to be connected in a single E-learning session.

Web Learning Points/Web Learning Groups
For Public and Private Organisations and Businesses that can guarantee significantly big groups of
users, TRIO offers a special agreement, undersigned by the parts, and absolutely free of cost, with a
variety of customised services designed to highly improve efficiency.

2.5 Study visits and peer monitoring

The study visits and peer monitoring to be found taking place between the refer-
ence institutions in various countries are definitely a valid instrument underpin-
ning the exchange of practices, knowledge and experience, to be seen as a ‘learning
opportunity’. In the field of training and lifelong learning policy this is all the more
interesting in view of the objectives to be sought via this practice: learning the
policies and measures adopted in a regional context, for the purpose of under-
standing and weighing up all the elements that define them in order to activate the
processes of innovations development and transfer. For this reason study visits and
peer monitoring may be seen as an integral part of the process of policy making at
the regional level, underpinning the development of the information acquired with
respect to a given policy and measure. This development may appear in a range of
forms, all based on the practice of benchmarking the specific indicators of success
(or failure) for one or more particular measures:


1. the sharing, between two (or more) regional governments, of knowledge about
measures, devices and best practices adopted in given local contexts, also pro-
viding, where possible, elements for the evaluation of the effect and effective-
ness of the device in a given period of time;
2. expressions of interest on the part of the reference institutions involved in the
process, in respect to one or more measures being surveyed (which may be
accompanied by additional cognitive sources and materials between the players
involved);
3. organising and carrying out the study visits for the purpose of sharing key
papers that supply both official and critical independent assessments of the
measure(s);
4. analysis of the terms and conditions, time periods and resources required to ac-
tivate the transfer procedure;
5. summary of the key findings and papers/reports provided at the end.

At the conclusion of the study visit, three possible situations may be verified:
1. the regional policy makers involved in the visit see and measure the policy in
the regional context which inspired it as entirely lacking in effectiveness, in
either the short or medium term. In this case the motives should be carefully
examined in order to direct possible transfer processes elsewhere;
2. the political system into which the measure is to be imported will only undergo
partial innovation by the transfer process, since it does not involve all levels of
policy making (political, regulatory, methodological). In this case cooperation
between the players involved in regional policy making is fundamental in
understanding which ideas and actions deserve to be considered in terms of
activation;
3. the policy transfer process is activated on the basis of objectives, instruments,
and areas of action common to the regional governments involved. It is essen-
tial in this respect to be able to rely on the results produced by the policies and
the individual measures adopted by the regional governments at the various
levels. In this case the results arising from the transfer process and the effect
on the policies in question will be described and analysed.

Study visits and peer monitoring activities can be undertaken by means of the use
of some instruments that facilitate the learning and innovation processes. We be-
gin by including a document containing a few guidelines for making a study visit.
It includes suggestions, including methodological suggestions, for enriching the
knowledge to be used during a visit for the purpose of the (possible) activation of
the policy transfer process.


Box 8 - Guidelines for visits

✓ The visit should be prepared by choosing the most relevant policy measures implemented in other
Regions according to the problems and interests of the home policy makers. One or more local
meetings are needed for the agreement.

✓ The delegation should be composed of one or two policy makers, and not less than one of the re-
searchers.

✓ If visitors do not consider the selected measures interesting and relevant, the hosting partner is
requested to prepare a new measure(s) analysis.

✓ The programme of the study visit is agreed with the representative of the hosting Region.

✓ Before the visit takes place, the researcher presents the measure analysis connected with the visit
to the other members of the delegation (translation in the language of the delegation is ensured).
The background documentation can be used in English or in the original language.

✓ The duration of the visit should be three days (trip included). The number of measures to be in-
vestigated during the visit should be decided by the delegation. If possible, it should be appropriate
to have a consecutive translation into the native language of the visitors.

✓ During the visit the measure grid analysis is used as a guideline for better understanding. In the
column “Comments”, each one of the participants can report his/her own opinion or additional
descriptive elements.

✓ At the end of the visit, the delegation should evaluate the transferability of one or more of the
measures analysed. When transferability is considered possible, regional governments that
attended a study visit can ask partners for more information concerning the future development
of the implementation of the measure.

✓ In any case, it should be relevant to identify the policy field or specific measure that can be in-
fluenced (even in a soft way) by the knowledge acquired during the visit.

2.5.1 Guidelines for drafting the study visit report

The grid below is offered as an aid for anyone required to minute the study visit ex-
perience relating to common actions shared by the regional governments and con-
cluding with the innovation and change. In particular the grid makes reference to
information and suggestions gleaned from the institutional players in the Andalu-
sian government during the course of a study visit aimed at gaining an in-depth
understanding of the knowledge acquired regarding the measure adopted by the
Tuscany Region as part of the TRIO project.


Box 9 – Example of the grid compiled by the reference institutions within the An-
dalusian government

Author - Carmen Fernández-Salguero Suárez

Questions of policy learning and transfer Answers and remarks

1. Name of your Region: Andalusia

2. Who went on the study trip? José Vázquez Morillo -
Names and functions Director General of Vocational Training and Lifelong
Learning

Francisco Castillo García
Head of the Lifelong Learning Department

3. From whom have you imported a From the Tuscany Region
measure?

4. Goal of the visit and what demand in The reason why TRIO was chosen is because Anda-
your Region did you want to solve? lusia is interested in offering non-formal education
online for adults. At the moment, only the more
traditional face-to-face courses are being offered
from the Education Department and this excludes a
number of potential learners. Through an online
offer we hope to facilitate access and also increase
the number of learners.

5. What measure did you study? TRIO Project

6. In which way do you want to import We are interested in importing the language courses
the measure in the Region? (English, French, Italian), for which some adap-
Please describe the process of: tations may be needed, but this will be seen when
a. Adaptation: the technical experts from Tuscany and Andalusia
b. Communication: meet.
c. Implementation:
The Education Department will implement the nec-
d. In what sector:
essary means to offer the e-learning course to all
e. For what purpose:
adult learners. We expect an increase in the number
f. Foreseen results:
of adults following some kind of course, as there is
g. Finances:
great demand in foreign language learning (espe-
cially English).

Access to the course will be free of charge, and there-
fore fully financed by the Junta de Andalusia.

7. Expected impact in your Region We expect that a greater number of adults will
acquire basic competences in one of these foreign
languages.


8. How did you follow up your policy –
learning?

9. Is the measure transferable? Yes

10. Fields where the measure could be This measure is useful in a very broad field, as
useful knowing a second language has become a ‘must’ for
more and more people every time, as the possibili-
ties of mobility and dealing with European partners
in all productive and services sectors increase.

11. Have you developed a new measure Yes
based on policy transfer?

12. If yes – Please describe the new E-learning courses offering non-formal education is
measure now being established within our Education Depart-
ment.

13. What is the biggest obstacle and/or We have to wait and see if there are any obstacles to
problem to import these measures – import this measure until the technical experts meet,
or to import measures in general? but we are optimistic that there will not be any major
ones.

14. Anything else – Please describe –

15. Which actors have you involved in the Policy makers, officials and e-learning experts from
process of policy learning? the Education Department.

16. Which actors have you involved in the So far, policy makers, officials and e-learning experts
process of policy transfer? from the Education Department. Later on teachers
will also take part.

2.5.2 Guidelines for policy transfer analysis

The study visit, as we have pointed out, may be seen as a way of activating the
process of learning and transferring a policy and one or more measures which con-
stitute the objective. Of course, this cannot be carried out immediately, swiftly or
easily, since the transfer processes involve lengthy time periods and procedures
(which vary according to the complexity of the innovation to be introduced and the
level of development of the context in which the measure will operate). Never-
theless, the visit may represent one of the key moments in the achievement of the
cooperative and voluntary transfer process, as long as it takes place in the right
location and under conditions likely to promote the grasping of the devices and the
individual elements required for success that comprise it.


The following pages show a document containing an index that summarises some
stages in the process of transferring a measure from one regional context to an-
other. This is followed by the document summarising the stages whereby the
Andalusian government participated in the transfer of the Registered Quality
Management System, already adopted by the Basque government.

Box 10 – Index for policy transfer analysis

Index

1. Policy that has been transferred
1.a Title
1.b Abstract
1.c Beneficiaries

2. Inspiring policy
2.a Title
2.b Abstract
2.c Institutional level(s) involved (national/regional/local)

3. What kind of official document from your regional government gave legitimacy to the measure?
Please send the quota from the document

4. Description of the institutional process that followed (how information and data about the in-
spiring policy have been treated and used, for which purposes, etc.)
If the process is documented, please send a copy

5. Involvement of other national/local institutional actors (social parties, various institutional levels,
etc.) in the policy transfer process – if any – and promotion of synergies among different actors.
If documented, please send the paper

6. Which kind of changes the inspiring policy had after the policy transfer process
If possible, send a short description of the measure, stressing the aspects that have been adapted

7. With/To whom and how the measure has been implemented?
If documented, please send some relevant documents

8. Results obtained after the policy transfer policy and impact analysis on the policies involved.
Have you done some evaluation?
If documented, please send some relevant papers

9. Sources (internet websites, bibliography)


Box 11 – Document summarising the transfer process that involved the regional An-
dalusian government in the adoption of the Registered Quality Management System

Author - Carmen Fernández-Salguero Suárez

1. Policy that has been transferred
1.a Title
Project for establishing a Registered Quality Management System
1.b Abstract
The project duration is of about two years, depending on the number of teachers and the teaching
levels existing in the school. The project consists of the following phases:
– Training activity in quality directed to all school members;
– Creating improvement teams;
– Training-action activity directed by the Head of School, the co-ordinator of the project in the
school and the members of the improvement team, in order to establish the map of processes
in the school according to the rules of ISO 9001:2000;
– Establishing the Quality Management System and Registration.
1.c Beneficiaries
Secondary schools where vocational training is being offered. Ten schools participated in the first
group to start the project, and a new group of 9 schools joined the project the following year. Then
there is a year for evaluation and after that a Regulation establishes how to go about it every year.
A total of 37 schools have participated since 2002, 19 of which have already been awarded with the
Registered Quality Certificate and 18 of them are in the process of acquiring it.

2. Inspiring policy
2.a Title
Andalusian Occupational Training Plan; Objective 4: “Providing quality in the vocational education
system”
2.b Abstract
The Plan Andaluz de Formación Profesional was presented and passed by the Andalusian Go-
vernment in 1999. It contained seven major objectives to be achieved by 2006.
2.c Institutional level(s) involved (national/regional/local)
Regional government (Education and Labour Departments), social partners and enterprises.

3. What kind of official document from your regional government gave legitimacy to the measure?
After the second group of schools starts the project, a Regulation is published every year to organise
the participation of schools in the project (Text in the Regulation for 2006-2007 enclosed).

4. Description of the institutional process that followed (how information and data about the inspiring policy
have been treated and used, for which purposes, etc.)
The first contacts were made directly from the Dirección General de Formación Profesional y
Educación Permanente to the Vieconsejería de Formación Profesional in the Basque Country, since
they had experienced adapting Registered Quality Awards to the education environment. They
were ready to assess our technical staff in order to start the process in Andalusia.


5. Involvement of other national/local institutional actors (social parties, various institutional levels, etc.) in
the policy transfer process – if any – and promotion of synergies among different actors
The main actors involved in the process were teachers from both Regions; experienced teachers
from the Basque Country came to Andalusia to direct the teachers involved in our Region, all sup-
ported by the Consejería de Educación.

6. Which kind of changes the inspiring policy had after the policy transfer process?
It was implemented, contributing this way to get a better quality education system.

7. With/To whom and how the measure has been implemented?
It has all been developed in Secondary Schools offering Vocational Training studies.

8. Results obtained after the policy transfer policy and impact analysis on the policies involved. Have you
done some evaluation?
–

9. Sources (internet websites, bibliography)
www3.ced.junta-andalucia.es/scripts/iacp/indice.asp

Project on the Quality Certification of Public Centres involved in Teaching and Specific Occupational
Training in the Andalusian Autonomous Community published by the Consejería de Educación

2.6 Policy learning outcomes

Defining and activating a model of cooperation between regional governments,
simplified in comparison with the Open Method of Coordination, highlights the
capacity of the model to support the (different but connected) processes of policy
learning and policy transfer. They both represent different moments in the
processes, which can be defined in this way: one (policy learning) is defined as “the
redefinition of one’s interest and behaviour on the basis of newly acquired knowl-
edge, after watching the actions of others and the outcomes of these actions” (Levi-
Faur and Vigoda-Gadot, 2004:8). The other (policy transfer) is seen as “a process
consisting of a series of uneven, complex flows of ideas, of people, and of projects”
(Stubbs, P., 2005:9) – ‘projects’ which we understand as ‘measures’ because they
activate ideas. In some cases (and we shall shortly see which), transfer8 and lesson-
drawing (Rose, R., 1993) are determining elements in learning outcome (Stone,
D., 2000:9).

8 On the subject of policy transfer, it is a good idea to additionally remember the more complete definition
provided by, Dolowitz and Marsh: “The process by which knowledge about policies, administrative
arrangements, institutions and ideas in one political system (past or present) is used in the development of
policies, arrangements, institutions and ideas in another political system” (Dolowitz, 2000:5).


In our research, action corresponds to the activation of policies in given regional
and local contexts, within which the policies themselves produce and have pro-
duced effects and results from which the ‘institutional learners’ may benefit in
the process of introducing innovation into the political system in question. For
this to happen the policy-making players, and hence those involved in institu-
tional innovation, must be involved in the process of developing knowledge asso-
ciated with political action, which may become converted into transferral. It is
only in this way that what has been learned can become converted into political
decisions that become action, on the condition that the beneficiaries of policy
learning can be identified as the institutions involved in the process of political
innovation. Depending, then, on the ways in which political learning is verified,
it is possible to increase the possibility of success (or failure) of the action in a ter-
ritory. This is how a new model of governance in regional policy making comes to
be defined, one that is capable of generating “participation and political support”
(Héritier, A., 2002:13). The ‘soft’ model of the Open Method of Coordination thus
turns out to be the key tool in achieving the objective of policy transfer of a vol-
untary nature and achieved in a cooperative way by the regional governments in
question. Other policy transfer models, while they do exist, reduce (or eliminate)
the voluntary and autonomous aspects, delegating the decision regarding the
adoption of one or more devices to other centres of power. These are models de-
fined as ‘copying’, ‘inspiration’, ‘adaptation’, ‘creating a hybrid’ and ‘creating a
synthesis’, in which the move is made from a simple model of reproduction of the
device (‘copying’) to models of transfer, where the degree of interrelation with the
pre-existing practice is different, sometimes downright hard to control (‘inspira-
tion’).

In sum, in activating the processes of institutional learning and policy transfer,
“policy makers need to identify very carefully how the resources currently available
to the region (existing industries, educational provision, research facilities, positive
social capital and so forth) may usefully contribute in developing innovative strate-
gies for the future” (OECD, 2001:117).

The instruments illustrated refer in particular to cooperative forms of policy trans-
fer, adopted by regional governments in connection with shared objectives to be
pursued via the introduction into the respective local systems, of a new policy or
measure. These instruments, sources of reciprocal obligations and commitments
as regards cooperation, relate in particular to policies on mobility, e-learning, en-
trepreneurship, research and innovation and are inter-regional in the framework
of the European Social Fund. The instruments shown in the following pages are:
policy paper, bilateral agreements, implementation agreements.


2.6.1 Policy transfer instrument (Policy Paper, Bilateral Agreement,
Implementation Agreement)

Policy Paper

The policy paper is a document signed between regional governments that sets
down areas of action and shared objectives in respect of a sector-based policy. A pol-
icy paper may be bilateral or multilateral, depending on whether it is drafted by two
or more regional governments. Its purpose is to define the general objectives
arising from a cooperative relationship between local institutions. In this respect,
research has promoted in particular the perfection of policy papers in five areas of
action: mobility, research and development, entrepreneurship, e-learning, inter-re-
gional cooperation in the framework of the ESF.

As an example we show below the text of the policy paper relating to inter-regional
cooperation in the framework of the ESF.

Box 12 – Policy Paper on transnational cooperation through European Social Fund
support 2007-2013

EARLALL LIVORNO CONFERENCE ( JUNE 2007)

TRANSNATIONAL COOPERATION THROUGH EUROPEAN SOCIAL FUND (ESF) SUPPORT
2007-2013.

Introduction

(…..)

3. The focus of this paper is on the transnational element of ESF. It describes how one Earlall
member – one of the EU regional governments joining the network – anticipates using inter-
regional cooperation to add value to its own domestic ESF Convergence and Competitiveness
programmes; and it identifies some prospective fields of common concern where joint action with
partner Regions with similar priorities is most likely to be beneficial. It also points to aspects of the
process of developing cooperation on which some further collective thought is required and on
which Earlall members and other Regions can assist the European Commission in moving forward.

The Future European Social Fund 2007-2013

4. The new regulatory framework for the future Structural Funds, 2007 – 2013, provides for the main-
streaming of trans-national and inter-regional co-operation. Under this new framework ESF shall

“also support transnational and interregional actions in particular through the sharing of information, ex-
periences, results and good practices, and through developing complementary approaches and coordinated
or joint action”.
(…)


9. The range of activities can cover the exchange of information, expertise, results and good practice;
the exchange of people; joint development; review, assessment and transfer of experience; and
joint action between institutions and organisations.
10. Programming opportunities for transnational co-operation within future programmes can take
one of two options. Either through the development of a single priority dedicated specifically to
transnational cooperation or through the horizontal integration of such activity through all, or
some, of the thematic priorities identified within individual Operational Programmes.

The Future ESF Programmes in …. (regional government involved should be mentioned)

Implementation of Transnational Activity in the ESF Programmes
(refers to the implementation in the regional government involved. Data on that can be added)

Potential Partnerships under the future ESF Programmes
11. While projects involving partners from across the European Union, will be considered, particular
emphasis will be given to activities with Member States and Regions that have already put into
practice formal co-operation agreements. It will also be possible to build upon successful trans-
national co-operation arrangements already established under EQUAL and with Regions which
are members of relevant networks, including Earlall and ERRIN (European Regions Research and
Innovation Network).
(…)
13. The potential exists to put in place a series of bilateral ‘mobility agreements’ promoting the free
flow of learners, researchers and workers between Earlall member Regions and with other Re-
gions. It is anticipated that such agreements are likely to involve further joint development work
in areas such as e-learning, skillsets for entrepreneurship, the definition of other vocational
competences, the recognition of credit towards vocational qualifications, and the encouragement
of reciprocal work experience placements for students and practitioners between Regions.
14. Transnational cooperation will complement the policy initiative ‘Regions for Economic Change’.
This initiative builds on the establishment of trans-European networks and of Regions and cities
each working on a specific theme. Experience gathered from transnational cooperation could feed
into the networks established under the Regions for Economic Change initiative and vice versa.
15. Beyond this, arrangements will need to be put in place by the European Commission to ensure that
transnational activities supported through the ESF Operational Programmes do not overlap with those
supported through other Community programmes, notably the vocational education and training (VET)
and adult education strands within the EU Lifelong Learning Programme (LLP) (i.e. the Leonardo da
Vinci and Grundtvig sub-programmes), VET projects within the Erasmus sub-programme, and the
policy development and information and dissemination strands of the transversal sub-programme.
However, boundaries need to be drawn with care as there is scope for these sub-programmes of the LLP
to serve as sources of support for pilot projects which, if successful, might then be disseminated and
‘mainstreamed’ using the transnational element of ESF to support replication in other Regions.
(…)

Issues Impacting on Implementation
30. This workshop affords Earlall members the opportunity to exchange views on the detailed issues
impacting on successful delivery and promotion of transnational activity. The aim is to agree on a
mechanism for effective delivery and implementation.


31. Key issues to be explored therefore include:
• how best to support network development;
• how to support more thematic working;
• what frameworks are needed to facilitate partner engagement;
• what action is needed for validating good practice;
• overcoming linguistic and cultural barriers;
• what assistance is needed in the presentation and dissemination of good practices;
• what agreements are needed in relation to specific issues relating to the organisation of projects,
participation in visits, events, placements, communication and translation requirements.

32. It is suggested that Earlall could play an important role in forging together initial inter-regional part-
nerships by identifying, at an early stage, project proposals that are likely to have resonance in ad-
dressing ESF priorities in several Regions. Such inter-regional partnerships involving Earlall
members might serve as a means of testing, on a limited scale, the scope for and the value added
by transnational cooperation with a view to extension to other Regions and Member States sub-
sequently, if the results in these pilot Regions proved beneficial.

33. The European Commission could play an active facilitating support role in mapping Member States
and Regions with closely matched problems and priorities, drawing on the information provided in
the Operational Programmes of the relevant ESF Managing Authorities and disseminating the ex-
periences of the pioneer project partners to wider networks.

34. Early consideration of these issues will enable Earlall members to move forward more confidently
in the implementation of transnational activity through their ESF programmes.

(…)

Bilateral Agreement

Bilateral Agreements define reciprocal commitments on the part of signatory re-
gional governments regarding specific policies and measures to be implemented,
the objectives to be sought, and the procedures to be activated to implement the
agreement, validity periods and deadlines governing the agreement itself. Bilateral
agreements may cover a range of areas of action: some have been signed, for ex-
ample, on the subject of investment in the field of e-learning. But in view of the
specific nature of the policy involved and the multilateral character they display, the
most widespread bilateral agreements relate to policies supporting mobility. In this
case cooperation is an integral part of the policy itself.

Below we include a model of a bilateral agreement.


Box 13 – Bilateral Agreement sample

Agreement of collaboration between the Regional Government of (…) and the Regional Government of
(…) with regard to mobility in lifelong learning.

PRESENT

On one part, as councillor ...................................., and on the other,

Minister of...................................., representing ....................................

In their respective roles both representatives state that they bear the legal power to undersign this
agreement and

DECLARE:

1. That the Region............................. and the Region ............................. have already
had a successful collaboration in the area of interregional cooperation and in the framework of the
European Association of Regional and Local Authorities for Lifelong Learning (Earlall).
2. Both parties believe that it is of particular value to undertake specific collaboration with regard to
training in the area of education, vocational training and youth policies.
3. To this end both parties wish to formalise these intentions with the present agreement, which will
be governed by the following:

TERMS and CONDITIONS
FIRST. SCOPE

The objectives of this agreement of collaboration between the Region ............................. and the

Region ............................. are the following:
a) To promote the exchange of students and apprentices involved in vocational training between
training institutes.
b) To promote the participation of students and apprentices involved in on-the-job training relevant
to their study programme in other training institutes.
c) To promote the participation of students and apprentices involved in vocational training in
training activities in other institutes and ensure that this training is recognised academically.
d) To promote on-the-job training and exchanges for teachers of vocational training courses, with the
objective of setting up teaching activities as well as teacher training programmes.
e) To promote collaboration between training institutes.
f) To facilitate the learning of European languages.
g) To develop awareness of European citizenship.
h) To promote an exchange of information and experiences with regard to the content of training and
professional qualifications.
i) To develop other actions of common interest in the area of vocational training.

SECOND. DISSEMINATION AND PROMOTION

The Region ............................. and the Region ............................. undertake to dis-
seminate this agreement between training institutes of their areas and to promote the participation of
actions arising from it.


THIRD. MIXED COMMISSION
The signatories undertake to set up a mixed commission with the objective of promoting the ob-
jectives of this agreement. The mixed commission will comprise a maximum of two representatives
from each party. The commission will check on the proper development of the agreement and will
meet to determine the roadmap necessary for its implementation. The members of the commission
will be nominated by the signatories of this agreement, respectively.

FOURTH. VALIDITY
This agreement will come into effect at the moment it is signed and have unlimited duration.

FIFTH. RESCISSION
In spite of the previous clause, this agreement may be suspended at any time for one of the following
reasons:
a) In agreement between the two parties.
b) Unilaterally, with at least two months written notice, by one party to the other.
c) Due to unforeseen circumstances that make it impossible to adhere to the above terms and
conditions.

SIXTH. FUNDING
In order to guarantee the implementation of the activities for the attainment of the objectives laid out
in the first clause, each of the parties will designate a sum of money annually.
This document is delivered as minutes to the agreement in two copies, signed by both parties
involved, as proof of conformity and commitment.

Place and Date

................ /............. ................

Region (......) Region (......)

Implementation Agreement

In their Implementation Plans regional governments who have signed Bilateral
Agreements define specific reciprocal commitments to be carried out for the pur-
pose of the implementation of the Agreements themselves in concrete terms. Put
simply, they are the instruments whereby the signatory regional institutions share
the concrete plan of the activity and the commitments to be carried out (e.g. mon-
itoring, evaluation) in a given time frame.


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www.cor.europa.eu/

www.costadellaconoscenza.it

http://europa.eu.int/comm/regional_policy/sources/docoffic/vm20002006/chap3_it.htm

www.innovating-regions.org/mlp/index.cfm

www.mutual-learning-employment.net/

www.oecd.org

www.policybrief.org/

www.senioratwork.it/progetto.asp


3. Virtual support service for mutual
learning
Francesca Torlone

3.1 Virtual service supporting the Soft Open Method of
Coordination
The website www.mutual-learning.eu is an example of an instrument for promot-
ing cooperation between regional governments for the purpose of policy learning
in the field of lifelong learning policy. The web-based devices, created in support of
the Open Method of Coordination between Regions, relate to the field of lifelong
learning policy and are intended to improve the quality and underpin the transfer
of innovation between the regional systems in the various countries of the Euro-
pean Union. These devices cover, for example, the policies directed at young school
dropouts and the increase in the participation of adults in non-formal educational
activities.

3.2 Contents of the virtual support service

The instruments underpinning mutual learning between regional governments
available on the internet are:
Networking support for expressing common interests in benchmarking as re-
gards lifelong learning and identifying institutional partners who are interested
and available. In this way it is possible to measure progress, identify strengths
and weaknesses, assess the effect of a policy and/or a measure in the regional
contexts in which they are applied for the purpose of monitoring and possibly
re-addressing the policies.
The database containing detailed information on the various policy measures
adopted by the various regional governments. Information is collected by
means of the use of common indicators, according to shared methods of
identification, with the interpretation of the sources being passed to the

Virtual support service for mutual learning 51

reference institutions and research centres involved at the stage of the
collection, analysis and description of the data relating to the measures. The
database can be freely consulted from the home page of the service, but data
may only be added by the research centres which screen the quality of the
information prior to publication. This instrument, which is used for con-
sultation and as a source by various research centres involved in other com-
parative surveys of policy measures, also contains background documentation
which describes the policies in question. The database fully satisfies the need
for the immediate exchange of information between individuals and in-
stitutions that are geographically separated and from different backgrounds.
However, for the purposes of ensuring that the service instrument is as
functional as possible as regards exchange and trans-regional cooperation
activities, data update actions must be planned. But since reports, information,
publications and material dealing with the effect of a measure within a territory
are shared, the online database can in the final analysis be regarded as one of
the most valid and effective tools in the field of mutual learning between re-
gional governments.
The dedicated research engine, supporting searches of the websites and web
pages of the Regions themselves. The operating modalities and identifiability
of online sources means that the research tool is more functional and focused
on the planning and decision-making activities of the regional policy makers.
In this case, too, there are inevitable restrictions of a technical nature,
associated on the one hand with the need for a common glossary to screen the
terminology used by the different countries in the area of lifelong learning, and
the concern, on the other hand, once again, about the risk of the perishing and
ageing of the sources available on the internet.
The service supporting contact building with the political and institutional
authorities concerned with the lifelong learning policies of other Regions for
the purpose of setting up study visits which contribute to the undertaking of
joint actions likely to produce innovation.
The consultancy service for drafting bilateral or multilateral agreements in sup-
port of policy transfer actions at the regional government level.

The following sections describe and add detail to the functions, limits and
prospects for the development of the instruments set up to underpin regional
policy learning in the field of lifelong learning policy. Each section describes the
research and location tools used to make use of the service: background and de-
scriptive documents concerning the context; descriptive frames showing measures
and indicators; database structures; guidelines for conducting study visits and writ-
ing descriptive reports on the visits. Also described are the results of the process


of mutual learning between institutions by means of the reproduction of the
prepared instruments (policy paper; bilateral agreement; implementation agree-
ment). For ease and greater clarity, each section shows the model of the instrument
used to define the web-based service and a copy of the instrument compiled by the
players involved in the course of the process of mutual learning.

3.3 Planning a website for supporting policy learning processes

Creating an information service using the internet to support learning processes
involving European regional governments means setting up a multilingual dis-
tance service, accessible by any reference institution to provide useful elements of
knowledge sufficient to produce innovation or to stimulate the dynamics of politi-
cal action. Other rules are added to the common rules governing people making
use of the site to plan an on-line service or instrument, rules which are connected
to the specificities and individual requirements either of the users of the service or
of the purposes that the user intends to pursue. In respect of the former, the web
support service offered to regional institutions requires that the service instru-
ments and information that feed it be structured and organised in a clear, legible
and transparent way in order to encourage effective political action in terms of
innovation learning and transfer. Active participation in policy learning and in the
networks that produce political knowledge can consequently be identified as the
main objective of the service being described, offered to whomever is involved in
the implementation of institutional innovation processes in the fields in which
they operate, insofar as they are directly involved in the decision-making processes
of policy making.

The service devices developed and which can be consulted at www.mutual-learn-
ing.eu consist of the following learning, consultation and research tools:
the database, which stores information on the measures involved with lifelong
learning and work policies. This is not a systematic selection, but is built up via
a range of cooperation and research projects. To identify the measures, the
keyword is launched via the search engine to obtain the links with both the
individual measures or the web pages of the selection of websites concerned
with the regional governments which are taking part in the soft open method
of coordination;
the search engine, which operates only on words inserted in the texts and per-
forms the search in the database of measures and in the pages selected from
the websites of local public bodies involved in the soft open method of
coordination. To access the measures, the words inserted must be in the


language in which the measures are compiled (English, but national lan-
guages in some cases). To access the websites of the Regions the words must be
written in the national languages of the Regions and of the other institutions
involved;
the background documents which allow the measure which is being consulted
to be set in a context in a specific territory and at an institutional facility;
additional sources and publications is the section of the website where it is
possible to find, consult and download the results of researches undertaken at
the trans-national level into the measures related to lifelong learning policies
and labour policies.

3.4 Online service tool for mutual learning – the database

The database, published on www.mutual-learning.eu and free of charge uses the
management language MySQL and the information distributed is organised by
area, in such a way as to reproduce the sections of the Descriptive Frame of the
measures in the online consultation instrument.

Box 14

The database is organised in such a way as to allow for two research criteria - one
for the country/regional context, the other for the benchmark (Council of the Eu-
ropean Union, 2003) – and to interact with the other internet service, such as the
internal search engine.


Box 15

The database represents the main and most immediate tool via which institutional
players have access to information on measures and devices in operation in other
regional contexts. As long as the database is taken care of and updated regularly, it
becomes a valuable instrument for the capitalisation and accumulation of experi-
ence gained at the different regional government levels. The degree of detail of the
individual fields in the database (including the fields dealing with impact evalua-
tion) is of crucial importance in offering the institutional players directly involved
in policy making a service capable of supporting the dynamic of learning and
knowledge exchange. The standardisation model offered with the online instru-
ment which is the database therefore represents an added value, shared with other
international working groups involved in comparative research activities concen-
trating on measures intended to implement youth policies, active ageing policies
and policies designed to find work, or find work again, for disadvantaged user
sections. It is this level of detail and completeness, including the uniformity of the
indicators which describe the object of the investigation and political action (i.e.,
the "measure") which makes it possible to spotlight how unusual the database in
question is in comparison with other sources available on the internet (differently
structured websites and web pages, and research which can be downloaded in elec-
tronic format or can be found in hard copy).

It remains to consider the question of the updating of the data consulted by the in-
stitutional users of the service, data used for the processes of learning and to acti-
vate dynamic policies associated with requirements and necessities which are spe-
cific to each territory. Updating guarantees a quality service which, given the virtual


channel by which it is distributed, must, of necessity, be seen as a regular activity
which is constant and continuously developing. Furthermore, there is a need to up-
date the information on the measures to keep it abreast of institutional changes
and tied to political developments, sometimes in advance, which affect in various
ways and to different extents the individual descriptors (e.g. the allocation of pub-
lic funds, the types of funding organisations, the sharing of roles and powers be-
tween the various institutional levels, etc.), and their actual existence and repeata-
bility. To remedy the updating problem, one hypothesis could be that of including
updating in the cooperative activities of various regional institutions, so as to guar-
antee value, spread, share-out and in the final analysis the fact that the job is actu-
ally done. Another possibility would be the creation of synergies (this has actually
already been tried) between various research fields concentrating on measures and
devices relating to different regional and local policies. In both cases efforts would
be made to support and promote the measures database as the instrument with
which the regional governments work to promote evidence-based policies, or to ac-
tivate policies that become of greater significance on the basis of results achieved
in the area of activation. Data input is reserved for bodies registered with the web
administrator and provided by him with access codes (plus instructions to follow
for inserting data into the individual fields). Attention to and care of the assess-
ment of access to the reserved area of data input helps to guarantee and control the
quality of the information. Data input activities are undertaken by reference insti-
tutions, research bodies and individual researchers involved in comparative re-
search on subject areas related to the devices activated there by policy measures.

And finally a field has been introduced headed ‘Comments’, designed to promote
among the database users information exchange procedures on the individual de-
scriptors of the measure, which is the subject of the consultation. In this way it is
possible to insert comment texts associated with the objectives related to a given
measure, its contents, and its definition; comment may be made about the access
procedures and the process of implementing the measure, possibly in concert with
other local players.

3.5 The search engine

The database works on information developed and inserted into the appropriate
frame. However, this has the restriction that it is not updated. To supplement this
restriction use may be made of a specialised research engine, for which www.
mutual-learning.eu accesses the home page. The specificity of this search engine is
that it operates exclusively on websites of the Regions which have indicated the


web pages to which searches should be directed. In this way searches are highly
selective. The search engine is a complex website in which it is possible to carry out
searches of websites and web pages by keying in a ‘keyword’, i.e. the phrase or
name of what is being sought (e.g. study circles). Once the search has been initi-
ated, the search engine responds with a list containing a series of websites includ-
ing the terms and the phrase sought. Each site which appears on the list is a link.
It is enough to click on one of these links to visit the corresponding website. In
conclusion, it is a simple and effective mechanism. However, tricks, procedures
and mechanisms do exist that can be used to ensure that the system works. The
search engine actually has to update the database, which contains the selection of
the website addresses to ensure that the search initiated is effective, focused and
detailed. In the case of the search engine in question, this operation is guaranteed
mainly by the constant work of the group of researchers and reference institutes
that inform the search engine of relevant websites and web pages where informa-
tion and updated documents on measures and policies adopted in the various local
and regional contexts of the European Union can be located and downloaded, in
English and the local language. This result is operational either thanks to the in-
teroperability in existence between the database and the search engine, or by the
constant flagging of the websites and web pages which take account of some
shared guidelines. What is most important is not to key in internet/URL addresses
of local institutions (e.g. www.regione.toscana.it, www.vgregion.se), but web pages
(based on the information level framework), which offer detailed information on
specific themes and subjects underpinning local political action (e.g. www.rete.
toscana.it/sett/poledu/dirittodovere, www.folkbildning.se/page/60/english.htm).
In this way the process of indexation allows for the location only of web pages
which are directly and immediately connected with the subject or keyword chosen,
avoiding an excessive volume of information which is not relevant to the search
initiated. References associated with web page numbers are therefore a valuable in-
strument for policy makers, when they wish to find out about and broaden the po-
litical development of subjects concerned with lifelong learning in local European
contexts. Operated in this way, the search engine allows the user to download only
those online sources relevant to the subject of his consultation, saving time and in-
ternet time. The results, then, extrapolate the sources indicated in the websites and
web pages selected in terms of the relevance, completeness and freshness of the in-
formation, which also applies to the measures not subjected to the descriptive
processes of the database.

There remain, however, some matters which deserve highlighting in respect of the
definition and production of such a tool. They concern the updating of the web
pages indicated and the sharing of a common language to codify the basic knowl-


edge and basic terminology in the political areas under investigation. The memo-
risation of sources recorded in the search engine is inevitably subject to the
phenomena of the perishability and ageing of the websites and web pages, as well
as the requirement that they be constantly and regularly updated for the purpose of
assessing whether they should be eliminated or replaced with operational, working
URL addresses. On the other hand, the need for a shared language is an essential
condition to render the dedicated search engine as functional, useful, and produc-
tive as possible for the institutional user to which the instrument is offered. This
leads to a two-way conclusion, due to the need on the one hand for comparative
terminology and on the other for multilingual dictionaries and glossaries, where it
will be possible to find, in the national languages, terms in current use and of
major significance in the policies of lifelong learning (although there is no lack of
awareness of the difficulties involved in covering all national and local linguistic
specificities). The system from this point of view is in a position to provide homo-
geneous responses which relate to the subject of the search, brought to a conclu-
sion in an effective grasp of the local political actions in operation, and possibly of
the processes of policy transfer from one regional context to another.

3.6 Background documentation

The structure of the database is enriched by a section headed “Backgrounds”,
which contains documentation in .pdf format, containing a collection of general
and contextual information about the institutional facility in which the measures
were adopted and implemented, together with the reference policies concerned.

Box 16


The sheer volume of the sources, research and system studies to be found, includ-
ing on the internet, led to the suggestion that the sole use to be made of these ma-
terials should be to provide a context for one or more measures, since the measure
remains the sole subject of research and database analysis.

3.7 Further sources and published works

This section makes use of sources, materials and publications (mostly in English)
for the purpose of, and drawn up in the process of, research on the subject of sur-
veys of the development of inter-regional cooperative activities involving decen-
tralised governments of the Member States. This additional online instrument will
help to enrich the store of knowledge gained by the institutional players on which
the definition of the devices to be adopted in the territorial government context will
be made. Sources have been chosen on the basis of the subjects covered, the use-
fulness of the website to the institutional users, and the degree of interest shown
by the sources in the question of policy measures (what they are, how they are
adopted, who is responsible for their implementation, who takes care of funding,
who evaluates the outcomes, etc.).

References
European Commission (2006), Communication of 23 October 2006 on Adult learning: it is never
too late to learn. COM (2006) 614 final.

Federighi, P., Abrèu, C., Nuissl, E. (2007), Learning among Regional Governments. Quality of Pol-
Verlag

Websites

www.agenda-21.ch/en/voneinander_lernen/1_0_0_voneinander_lernen.php

www.cor.europa.eu/

http://europa.eu.int/comm/regional_policy/sources/docoffic/vm20002006/chap3_it.htm

www.innovating-regions.org/mlp/index.cfm


www.mutual-learning-employment.net/

www.oecd.org

www.policybrief.org/

www.trendchart.org/tc_policy_measures_overview.cfm


4. The Initiation of Policy Transfer
Marianne Horsdal, Helle Knudsen

4.1 The project

Prevalet intends to create a device or a method that supports the Open Method of
Coordination applied to the field of regional policies on professional education and
training. It aims at increasing the quality of training and of supporting the transfer
of innovation among the systems.

The project focuses on two aspects:
1. to create a model of monitoring and evaluation shared at European level that
concerns the processes of processing, carrying out and evaluating the policies;
2. to promote the transfer of innovation among the different regional govern-
ments in Europe reducing the transfer time.

Prevalet is thus a valorisation project aiming at dissemination and exploitation of
good practice and innovative educational policy among European Regions in the
context of Earlall – the European Association of Regional and Local Authorities for
Lifelong Learning. It is also an ambitious project in so far as the objective is to find
methods and ways of exchanging information and experience and transferring in-
novation in educational policies across the different European local and regional
contexts.

Many Regions are facing similar challenges regarding the number of people in
the labour market with little education and training and regarding the great num-
ber of young people who leave school without any further education or training.
Therefore the project is applied to policies concerning re-insertion of drop-outs in
the job or vocational training and concerning increase of participation in activity
of non-formal adult education. The Regions handle these challenges in diverse
ways due to their different competencies, respective strategies and working meth-
ods.

The Initiation of Policy Transfer 61

What follows below is a description and an analysis of the initiation of policy trans-
fer by exploitation and dissemination of measures in the field of education and
training.

4.2 Selection of measures

The first meeting took place in Göteborg in February 2006. At this meeting we
settled the basis for the future work in terms of common definition of policies,
measures and instruments as well as the definition of the target groups, initiatives
for drop outs and for non-formal adult education.

We then had to produce a transparent, informative and well-defined grid that is
easy to use. The analysis grid has been the tool to define and describe what we want
to compare, exchange and use in a productive way. Besides the grids containing the
measures each partner had to present a background document to describe the
political context for measures.

A real challenge is in fact the selection of regional measures in our own Regions.
The question is to define which initiatives, policies, projects in our Region ad-
dressing drop outs or low skilled people could be of interest in different European
contexts. What is innovative, creative, and effective? Which measure should we se-
lect to show to others?

Each partner then completed the grid during the following months and worked out
a background document on education and training policies in their country and
Region.

At the next meeting we then evaluated and analysed the background documents
and grid analyses for the policy measures from Andalusia, the Basque Country,
Toscana, Västra Götaland, Vejle, Vidin and Wales. These analyses opened the sec-
ond phase of selection and thus provided a background for planning bilateral vis-
its for both policy makers and Prevalet researchers.

The background documents and grids present several interesting programmes,
bridging programmes, intercultural programmes, and ideas of learning mediators
and role models. Each Region therefore elaborates a survey of the various European
regional policy measures presented in the grids and in the background material in
order to find out how they match and vary compared to their own educational sys-
tems.

62 Marianne Horsdal, Helle Knudsen

The challenge is then to select measures that are in fact realisable in a regional con-
text, which again depends on regional competencies and possible barriers. Some
of the measures will be covered by national bodies in some countries and not by re-
gional authorities, others by local authorities or NGOs.

The options are subsequently discussed with the elected members and the man-
agement of the relevant ministry or department in each Region. They finally select
the relevant policy measures from another Region that distinguish in several ways
from their own policies and seem interesting to analyse in depth.

4.3 The visits

The aim of a visit is to increase knowledge of the other Region’s strategies and poli-
cies, get inspiration for new initiatives and evaluate the possibility for transfer. The
transfer could be of organisational elements, contents of policies, instruments or
other elements.

Having selected the measure grid analysis from another Region, we sent some
questions to the hosting Region ahead of the visit in order for it to provide us with
some more details on the issues with which we would like to work. The questions
deal with issues as for example an introduction to the overall organisation, collab-
oration with regional and local partners, daily activities to reach out to citizens,
motivation, learning as well as empowerment, effects and evaluation. Most dele-
gations also asked to get a possibility to visit local initiatives to get an impression
of the work in daily life. The hosting Region then set up a programme for two days
visit.

The delegations consisted mainly of three categories of representatives: elected
members with responsibilities for education and learning, representatives – man-
agers or staff – from the educational departments or professionals in the field of
education, learning and training as well as researchers.

4.4 The important steps of policy transfer

Of utmost importance at all stages of the procedure is the involvement of players
with the power to take political decisions which lead to the final stage of the trans-
fer and the subsequent implementation of a chosen measure. For this to be
achieved the staff must undertake their analysis before they present it to the gov-


ernment who will need to be provided with solid information on the basis of which
they will be able to take well grounded decisions.

The staff has to provide an overall picture of the situation. It is important that a
study be made of the options of transferring the measure to a different environ-
ment and locking it into a different system, while measuring impact and foresee-
able outcomes. From this will derive the keys to the possibility to undertake the
transfer of some aspects or to the totality of the measure described. The institu-
tions, too, play a decisive part, because they are the permanent factors in the pro-
cedure and they have to be involved at an early stage.

Although all the steps suggested for this inter-regional co-operative working
method are relevant, two are of particular importance. The success or failure of
efforts to transfer a given policy measure depends on whether those steps are
undertaken in a satisfactory way or not. It is essential to prepare the visits well –
and well in advance – so we are fully aware of which aspects we need to understand
more thoroughly and can see how it works in practice in the hosting Region.

At the same time we have to be open to unforeseen aspects which might turn out
to be of greater interest to us than we have previously anticipated. It often happens
during the visits that a Region becomes interested in a measure that has not been
considered before and which may possibly lead on to a transfer which has not ini-
tially been foreseen.

The second step which we see as decisive once all the details we need to know have
been assessed is to carry out an accurate ‘transferability’ analysis. We need to es-
tablish the real possibilities of transfer which can be defined as follows:
1 Transfer is impossible. The differences are too big, existing measures are in-
compatible or there are no pre-existing conditions in place, etc.
2 Transfer of the measure in total is impossible, but some aspects are certainly
possible to transfer.
3 Transfer of measure can be achieved.

Even in the worst case scenario where we have decided that no type of transfer is
possible, we still have learned something. Also the possibility remains that the in-
formation we have received may at some time be of use to us in developing new
initiatives in our own Region.

As we have stated previously flexibility is a key word. While never losing sight of
the wider field of lifelong learning, it is important that we never close off those ar-


eas on which we are focused, since other equally interesting areas, different from
those originally put forward may emerge. This flexibility of method means that in
a very simple way we are able to incorporate a description of a new measure re-
quested by another Region.

In order to drive transregional co-operation forward and strengthen it, we there-
fore have to upgrade the tools that facilitate the interchange of information on poli-
cies and measures, based on common parameters. We also have to encourage cir-
culation among elected members as well as mobility between experts and officers
appointed by regional governments to increase knowledge of other Regions’ poli-
cies, promote exchange and thereby facilitate innovation. One of the tools might be
bilateral agreements between Regions, but still it is important to be connected to a
wider network and get access to an inexhaustible source of policy initiatives.

4.5 The wider perspectives of policy transfer

As OECD pointed out (OECD, 2001) “path-dependency” of Regions – traditional
ways of thinking and doing things – may be an obstacle to innovative thinking.
Therefore, if the Regions can learn from one another, exchanging and exploiting the
different approaches and creative ideas and strategies, there is much to be gained.

Transfer of best practice seems so easy and evident seen at face value: you look at
strong practice elsewhere, identify best practice, transfer and implement in a dif-
ferent context. And by the process of measuring, assessing and evaluating your
performance and by comparing your results, achievements or performance to oth-
ers, you get a strong incentive to improve in order to be on a par with others or,
preferably, better.

However, it is not that easy and simple. We have to be aware of the significance of
context, of analysing problems in depth, of experimentation and of the risk of
copying yesterday’s practice instead of innovating. Innovation implies collabora-
tion between partners from different organisational cultures, who do not just ex-
change what is already known. There are often several and potentially conflicting
policy goals.

The homely conviction in institutions, organisations, systems and Regions, that
“we are the best, and we’ll follow traditional pathways of doing things” is one of the
greatest obstacles for learning and development. Openness towards other ways of
thinking is the main challenge today.


Another issue concerning transfer is that, sometimes, the most successful policy
learning will be not to copy what they did elsewhere, in order to avoid repeating
severe mistakes. According to the learning theory of Benner (Benner, D., 2005), we
mainly learn from negative outcomes, we learn what we should not do.

If we are to look at the problems and considerations above in the light of the
Prevalet experience we may catch some rather important insights. You can
compare numbers and rates, numbers of participants in lifelong learning, rates of
unemployment, but you cannot compare the learning experience.

If we just compare the numbers, figures and rates (of employment, participation in
adult education, etc.), from, for example, Wales to those in the Region of Southern
Denmark*, we cannot immediately acknowledge what we may learn from going
there and how we may approve our own achievements by transferring some of the
Welsh ideas to the Danish context. The much higher participation rate of adult ed-
ucation in Denmark has a long history and tradition, and it does not necessarily re-
flect a contemporary best practice of educational policies.

But as mentioned previously, path-dependency is an obstacle to learning and inno-
vation. So we and other Regions ought to challenge our traditional ways of doing
things by seriously trying to capture other ways of thinking and different ap-
proaches to similar issues.

The contexts of the Regions are in many respects very different, but the transition
from traditional agriculture and industry to new ways of economical enterprise is
a challenge faced by every part of Europe. What they are doing successfully in some
Regions should at least be analysed by others to see if policy transfer is possible
and new initiatives can be created. Local and regional collaboration and co-ordina-
tion lead to an inexhaustible source of knowledge that can be shared, transferred
and implemented for the benefit of everybody.

This leads to the question of level of transfer. Maybe the measure, as such, is not
possible to transfer due to the wide contextual differences concerning geography,
infrastructure, educational specific need, present problems, etc. But perhaps in-
struments or smaller elements may be transferred. However, we were also inspired
by something which is bigger than ‘instrument’ or ‘measure’, something which is

* During the Prevalet project Danish representatives of the local governments visited the Welsh government
in order to better understand and learn from the Welsh promotional/marketing strategy for lifelong
learning.


difficult to capture in a category and in a way much more fundamental. This has to
do with some underlying understandings within the policies, cultures, values per-
haps: How do we look at learning? What is the purpose of engaging in learning?
How do we look at the learner? How do we look at people deprived of learning?
What is legitimate? What is celebrated? Maybe this level – which is extremely diffi-
cult to categorise – is one of the most significant elements of policy learning from
other Regions.

References

ASEM (2002), Lifelong Learning. The Way Forward

Benner, D. (2005), Tekster til Dannelsesfilosofi. Århus: Klim

Consulting on the Convergence Programmes 2007-2013: Supporting Document

OECD, (2001). Cities and Regions in the New Learning Economy


5. Indicators for quality management of
policy learning and policy transfer
Ekkehard Nuissl von Rein

In the European context in particular, in which twenty seven countries with the
most varied history, structure, size, language and economy co-exist, such shared,
but also ‘weak’ political design strategies (compared with ‘hard’ laws and power
structures) are gaining in importance.

A regional view not only means a stronger orientation towards action, but also
greater comparability (size, political structures). On the other hand, regional com-
petencies are often regulated very differently, and Regions act in varied national
contexts with different degrees of leeway. This – as described in chapter 4 – not
only points out the challenge of finding a common line, but also recovers the
chance to ‘take advantage of the positive and negative results achieved in the dif-
ferent European regional context before the experiences are finalised‘ (cfr. Euro-
pean Commission, 2000 – A Memorandum on Lifelong Learning, key Message 6).

Regional governments are responsible for defining and implementing part of the
policies that drive the operation of lifelong education and training systems. This
involves creating a circular flow of information between the individual regional
governments and the operators of the system they manage. Thus, the described
important points of launching interregional policy transfer as figured out in the
Prevalet project can be broken down to a quality pattern of helpful indicators for an
interregional policy transfer in networks.

5.1 Network and governance

Interaction in the network

Interacting within networks it is helpful to be aware of their particular character
concerning their own form (between market and hierarchy), their own type of so-

Indicators for quality management of policy learning and policy transfer 69

cial structure or organisation, their new type of solidarity community and their
special type of communication and action level (between acting player and repro-
ductive institution; between action and consequences of actions).

Therefore a mutual acceptance has to be developed by the partners to create a bal-
ance of interests and make participation possible – the ‘soul’ of networking is
grounded on the given or developed synergies from which all partners benefit. In
a network of Regions, learning comes from experience; there is a shared exchange
and communication about problems, problem-solving strategies and experience of
finding solutions. In this sense it is a cooperation in form of a network of ‘learning
regions’, which learn from and with each other.

Cooperation as a process

The following steps are important within the Regions in this cooperation pro-
cess:
– Decision on the cooperation/network assignment and its goal: the motivation
and the players’ interests should be determined and defined and result in the
fixing of the regional decision-making process.
– Selection of the partner: this means selecting the partner or partners for re-
gional cooperation, with whom cooperation is most meaningful as regards the
pursued goal. This is based on the potential partners’ knowledge and the meas-
ures found among them.
– Communication with the partner: on the basis of the determination of a shared
cooperation goal and the relevant players, agreements on the shared process
and the binding rules have to be found. Also the targeted documentation of
communication should be clarified.
– Ensuring the result: this involves defining the coordinates of the pursued re-
sult, determining how to approach the pursued results, as well as planning and
implementing a monitoring process between the partners, as well as within the
Regions involved.

Quality by defining indicators and benchmarks

The definition of quality is always situated in a particular context, in which the var-
ious factors have to be taken into account. It depends on the social and historical

70 Ekkehard Nuissl von Rein

background, the interest and perspective from where it is regarded, the level to
which it is related, the valuation context of the measurement and different refer-
ence systems to which the criteria of quality are oriented (Do we focus the effec-
tiveness, the validity, the professionalism, etc.?) and so on.

However quality criteria and thus also indicators to measure quality have to be de-
termined in a process of negotiation by the partners involved.

Within these process-related defined quality indicators, benchmarks must be de-
fined, which imply goals and make a comparison possible:

‘Benchmarking is, first and foremost, a learning process structured so as to enable
those engaging in the process to compare their services/activities/products in
order to identify their comparative strengths and weaknesses as a basis for self
improvement and/or self regulation’ (The University of Sydney, 2005).

5.2 Implementation of quality management

Quality assurance is a system for checking enforced and verifiable standards.
Moreover, quality assurance entails technical, formal and administrative compo-
nents. When the quality assurance system is now extended to include the players
involved and their determination of criteria and indicators, this is referred to as
quality management.

Therefore definitions have to be clear and common. A central point here is the
nomination of the central player, the ‘leading person’ or ‘leading institution’ in the
learning and transfer process within the quality development process. According
to this, responsibility must be taken not only ‘for something’ but also ‘to someone’
– it needs the definition of responsibility to legitimise the quality management pro-
cess. Furthermore the agreements made on this basis have a binding nature for all
partners and all steps in the process.

Such binding agreements always affect two areas: the standards and process
(Nuissl, E., 2007):


Quality management

Standards Process

Selection/ Responsibilities
Definition

Measurement Scheduling

Weighting Rules

The relation between process and product

Quality management includes both the product (see “Quality management in
product transfer”, chapter 5.3), whose quality it tracks, and the process of its creation
– this also applies to learning and transfer in cooperation among Regions. In the
training system this is not just described in the three dimensions input, through-
put and output, but also in the individual process and product-relevant description
on all three levels (see the graphic below).

Interregional transfer quality management

Input quality Throughput quality Output quality
(before the transfer process) (during the transfer process) (after the completed transfer)

Motivation for transfer: Contextualisation: Impact:
¼ Resilience ¼ Framework conditions ¼ Effects (impact)
¼ Consistency ¼ Influencing factors ¼ Successes
¼ Durability ¼ Players
Problems:
Interests of transfer: Measures:
¼ Coherence
¼ Institutional interests ¼ Elements ¼ Context
¼ Regional policy interests ¼ Instruments ¼ Resources
¼ Experiences ¼ Acceptance
Transfer planning: ¼ Goals/benchmarks
Sustainability
¼ Participation
Transfer process:
¼ Questions
Evaluation
¼ Information ¼ Duration
¼ Milestones
Transfer players: ¼ Monitoring
¼ Structure of players
¼ Acceptance


The link between process and product related factors becomes clear in the follow-
ing matrix:

Product Aim/Function Actors Applicability Costs/ Nuts
Resources
Process

Decision

Selection

Communi-
cation

Outcome/
Impact

Getting to a definition of measures

The measures, the political instruments used, are the actual core of political learn-
ing and political transfer and thus also the core of quality management. Intended
measures therefore should be described as precisely as possible; the crucial aspects
are:
– Goals of the measure (what should be achieved?)
– Addressees of the measure (who was the measure thought out for?)
– Content of the measure (what is regulated in terms of content with the meas-
ure?)
– Players in the measure (which persons and institutions are involved in implementa-
tion?)
– Costs of the measure (which direct and indirect costs are linked to the mea-
sure?)
– Documentation of the measure (how are the measure itself and its implementation
documented?)
– Analysis of the measure (are evaluations and monitoring reports for the measure
available?)
– Results of the measure (what did the measure produce in terms of effects and out-
puts?)


5.3 Quality management in transfer

With the transfer of political measures from one Region to another, not only the
components of the measure, but also all relevant context conditions are always af-
fected. An important insight from analysis so far is that the success of a transfer is
always process-oriented. It takes place in a current exchange process between the
recipients and producers about possibilities and needs for modification relating to
other factors. As a rule the product (leading to the final profit) changes during the
transfer – it is adapted, modified and aligned.

In the training area, a distinction is made between five product types, for which a
transfer is possible and meaningful:
– transfer of services, to addressees outside the network/Region, i.e. information
and advisory systems, databases and information platforms;
– market transfer, the development and dissemination of saleable products in an-
other regional market;
– transfer of innovation, the transfer of innovative products (e.g. a new categorisa-
tion of training concepts), which are ‘unsellable’ in the intrinsic sense;
– transfer of experience, which essentially entails an exchange of experiences on
problem solving in learning between the Regions, as well;
– instrument transfer, whereby measures and tools especially of a political type are
transferred from one (regional) system to another.

Quality management in the transfer process

In the quality management of the transfer process, clear exact interests and
concepts underpin which measure will be transferred and for what goal as a rule.
In the individual steps this means a clearing of how the individual elements of
the measure are exactly understood and analysed and in which conditions they can
be transferred. Therefore it is necessary to clarify and point out the following as-
pects:

In the process of decision-making:
– the problem/issue the measure is being sought for,
– the goal of solving the problem,
– the players/structures being involved in implementing the measure,
– the measures which should not be altered/affected,
– the potential leeway concerning scope and costs of the measure being implemented,
– the determination of responsible management of the transfer measure.


In the selection process:
– similar problems in cooperating Regions,
– measures that are (already) used there,
– realized implications of the measures,
– available readiness/competency for a transfer process,
– stage definition of the use of the measure – eventual experience on effects.

In the communication process:
– the arrangement of the communication on the measure being transferred,
– the players involved in the cooperating Regions,
– the exchange of experience relating to the creation, use and the impact of the measure,
– the gaining and documentation of the components of the measure,
– the documentation of the communication processes and the transmitted experience,
– the communication of the context of use of the measure,
– the handling of adaptation and modulation issues.

Concerning the outcome:
– the documentation of the transfer process,
– the formulation of criteria for a successful transfer,
– the expenditure of time and resources in the process,
– the process used to evaluate the transfer,
– the processing of the evaluation results.

Within the process of the bilateral visits (see chapter 4) the following concrete steps
have become apparent:
a) Information and analysis of measures in the network of Regions (meeting of
the partners, exchange of grids)
b) Consultation on interesting measures in the relevant Regions and a decision
on the Region to be consulted and the relevant measure
c) Composition of a small delegation with the relevant players, determination of
the questions to be clarified, and transfer of these to the Regions being visited
d) Planning of a programme of visits in which the central questions would be an-
swerable and moreover context details could be transmitted
e) Undertaking of the visit, documentation of the findings obtained
f) Evaluation of the visit in the Region visited and (with a view to possible trans-
fer) in the visiting Region
g) Consultation and decision making about the transfer of all or a part of the
measure.

These seven steps represent the typically ideal progress of the bilateral visits.


Quality management in product transfer

The product in our context means for example a complete measure with its imple-
mentation tools (e.g. the concrete realisation of platform, a campaign, etc.). Out of
these various components – brought together in there – each can be transferred.
The essential aspects quality management refers to in here have to be checked in-
dividually:

Concerning the goals:
– Check the target of the measures problem/settlement area!
– Check if the goal targets the entire settlement area, only a part or more than the set-
tlement area!
– Check the level the goals are formulated at: general, pragmatic, practical!
– Check the mutual agreement on the goals by all of the parties concerned!
– Define the modifications of the goals to be planned compared with the original meas-
ure!

Concerning the players:
– Check and name the players involved in the implementation!
– Be sure all of the important players are involved!
– Check eventually given (formal or informal) hierarchies among the players!
– Check the ability of the players to play their role (resources, responsibilities, etc.) dur-
ing the implementation!
– Check if the players are familiar with all of the aspects of the measure!
– Check the measures’ eventually transfer (so far known) to players in a different Re-
gion!

Concerning the measures’ (or its components’) usability:
– Clarify the responsibilities for implementing the measure!
– Check the settlement of the processes for implementing the measure!
– Check the awareness level of the measure to the addressees in their administrative
performance!
– Check possible impediments to implementing the measure!
– Agree on a process for problem solving!
– Be sure the operational elements of the measure (e.g. target group definition, cost
items) are suitable for the regional structure!

Concerning costs and resources:
– Be aware of the arising costs during the implementation of the measure!
– Specify the cost items these occur for (institutions, people)!


– Specify the type of costs being recorded during implementation of the measure (staff
costs, material costs, administrative costs, etc.)!
– Be aware of all available (or not available) resources for the implementation of the
measure (staff, means, structures)!
– Ensure the regulation of access to resources and the flow of resources!
– Imply a ‘management control’ for costs and resources!
– Define the relationship between the management control system and the implemen-
tation agency!

Concerning the transfers’ utility:
– Devise the expected result of the measure!
– Formulate further predictable results!
– Check who derives direct utility from the measure at what point!
– Check the determination of the utility (evaluation process, management con-
trol)!
– Define a process the utility evaluation occurs in, the criteria it is based on and its in-
tervals!
– Plan the time frame for decisions regarding the utility evaluation!

Quality prospect

The transfer of political measures to settle problems or to achieve goals implies a
change in the training policy reality in the Region. A concrete tool to assess this
change and to make it definable is a ‘prospective study’ during transfer. It targets a
forward-looking estimate of consequences concerning the possible direct and indi-
rect effects of implementing a measure.

Estimating the consequences of a new measure occurs in four phases:

Prospective quality management transfer

Design phase
Trigger/problem
Analysis of the settlement area
Definition of the settlement goal
Clarification of alternatives
Development of scenarios


Transfer phase I
Selection of partners
Analysis of measures
Selection of measure

Prospective study phase
Estimate of consequences process
Adaptation variants
Implementation planning

Transfer phase II
Transfer analysis
Evaluation
Feedback

(Nuissl, E., 2007)

Initially it is important to define precisely what the fundamental problem is (e.g.
low participation levels by young people in training measures or too few offers in a
certain professional training sector, etc.).

The next step involves analysing and defining the area in which the transferred
measure is to take effect. Finally it is up to the players to define the goal that should
be reached with the transferred measure (considering eventual alternatives, figur-
ing out various scenarios on different entry and process steps).


Qualitative processes/instruments
Expert discussions/workshops
Utility analysis
Science court process
Effectiveness/cost estimate

Quantitative processes/instruments
Delphi questionnaire
Standardised questionnaire
Exploration

Systematising processes/instruments
Consequence-oriented system analysis
Computer simulations

(according to Böhret and Konzendorf, 2001)

Prospective quality management is a process that is increasingly being used in the
political area to identify undesired ancillary effects in advance and to allow optimi-
sation of the adaptation process of a measure in a different context.

5.4 Quality management in the political process

An essential factor in personal reflection is the defined subject of the quality
management. There is no quality management without the central player, who
plans, implements, evaluates and communicates it. Returning to the starting
point, quality management requires a binding authority in both cooperation and
the network, which is responsible for these and implements and monitors qual-
ity management in practice. What is important is that the link between the re-
flection and the learning and transfer process is made in a practical and trans-
parent way.


A quality management cycle can be imagined in this context that uses eight sta-
tions to implement interregional cooperation:

Quality management cycle in Prevalet

Definition Selection of
of players partners

Clarification Specification
of interests of measure

Diagnosis Analysis
of situation of measure
Evaluation
Learning/
of learning/
transfer
transfer

(Nuissl, E., 2007)

The cycle begins with the clarification of the cooperation interest, moves from
there to a definition of the players in the cooperation process (players within the
relevant Region), leads to the selection of partner Regions, with which cooperation
will take place, and finally involves specifying the measure for which learning or
transfer is to occur.

Finally, in a practical stage, the measure is analysed, defined in its components and
considered with regard to the underlying and available effects. These are linked to
the decision on whether learning or transfer should occur, which is taken at a later
stage in the sequence. The process of learning and/or transfer must then be evalu-
ated and fed back, and the ultimate situation diagnosed. Interest can unfold again
from this – from a developed new complex structure.


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82

Institutions are also able to learn. The ambition to learn goes hand in hand with
the need for policy development and changes. Changes based on abilities, facts
and systematic work on performances are done not just by ourselves but also by
others in a context unlike the one at home. We compare our results in the field of
lifelong learning. When the work seems to be done it starts again but from
another unexpected point of departure – that means to have a curious and
demanding mind. The SMOC moves forward in a faster and more conscious and
consistent way.
Kent Johansson, President of Earlall, Regionråd, Västra Götalandsregionen

The cooperation among regional governments represents the condition for eco-
nomic growth and social cohesion. Helping all the regional and sub-regional
territories to satisfy the European benchmarks is the objective. This justifies the
task of modernising the systems and their participation in the definition of a Na-
tional Strategic Action Plan to implement the Lisbon Objectives. This research
offers to us an effective and simplified model of institutional mutual learning
especially needed in the next planning period of European Policies.
Gianfranco Simoncini, Regional Minister of Education, Regione Toscana

The work carried out by Prevalet shows that it is possible for knowledge to be
shared between the various Regions of Europe, the Regions being the best sources
of information as to the training requirements of their own citizens. The sharing
process multiplies the resources available to achieve the objectives laid down by
the European Union in the area of education and training.
María José Vázquez Morillo, Consejera de Educación, Junta de Andalusía

Collaborating with other Regions challenges our traditional ways of doing things.
When we try to capture other ways of thinking, we get to know another Regions’
underlying understanding of policies, cultures and perhaps values. To understand
the possibilities – or lack of possibilities – for transferring policy measures is, in
fact, one of the most significant elements of policy learning.
Karsten Uno Petersen, Region of Southern Denmark, Chairman of the Committee for
Regional Development

83

The development of the Regions of Europe depends basically on the use to be made
of the scientific, research and innovation potential. To guarantee this potential it
is essential that sound foundations be constructed in the field of education from
the youngest age and that adults be motivated to continue the learning process
throughout their lives.
In this context, cooperation between the Regions can make a significant con-
tribution to the success of the defined objectives because they are seeking the
same goals and similar difficulties with similar methods and preoccupations.
Igone Azpiroz, Directora de Aprendizaje Permanente, Gobierno Vasco

I esteem highly the work done by the team on the Prevalet project. Education is
defined as a priority in the national and regional policy of the Bulgarian govern-
ment. The first results of dialogue and cooperation among the institutions can
already be seen.
Krastyo Spasov – District Governor of Vidin District

84

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