Project Implementation Plan
WP 2008
Project Number: ILP-08-23
Project title: Knowledge management in policy strategy development.
Budget 2008: 60 000
Project leader: Efka Heder
All documents concerning this project are saved: k:\ 03.02 OPS WORK PROGRAMME 2008
1. Background
The ETF is at the crossroads towards becoming a Centre of Expertise and towards a change
of emphasis on more policy and system-related support to its partner countries in the field of
HRD, covering different levels in policy making process and (from national down to
organisational levels) which including different elements. The ETF’s field of competence
touches upon and interlinks with the spheres of business, the education system and the
labour market. The ETF covers some of these themes at country/ system or policy level within
transition or developing country contexts and within the EU assistance framework.
Staff working in the ETF is faced with the challenge to cope with complex, quickly changing
environments and tasks and to almost constantly pioneer or adapt to new developments.
From a knowledge point of view, that does not only mean that staff need to update their
knowledge and learn almost constantly, but also that they need to be able to create new
knowledge. Nowadays this is increasingly done through situated and shared (team) practices
rather than in isolation. Team working and knowledge sharing become, hence, prerequisites
for the creation of new knowledge and ultimately an organisation’s dynamism and ability to
cope with change.
In this context ‘knowledge management’ (KM) has an important function, and a specific
project was designed in the ETF in 2007 to conceptualise and support KM processes.
Activities that were undertaken in the frame of the ETF KM project in 2007 comprised and
were clustered, as illustrated in the Annex.
A number of review meetings held with various colleagues during the period September to
November 2007 revealed that, despite progress made in individual fields, the institutional or
departmental culture in terms of knowledge sharing (KS) has not changed a lot. The following
problems and recommendations were highlighted:




The knowledge management (KM) project started action on many fronts, perhaps too
many fronts. In the future the team may concentrate on a few activities, mainly around the
core function of KS/KM.
KS and learning events may be better organised and structured in a way that they are
interactive and form a real platform for exchange, that they link theoretical (or other
countries’) considerations with practical (or own countries’) considerations and that
colleagues indeed share and enhance their knowledge. In addition, better incentives may
be provided to attract colleagues to facilitate or attend such events. (See also section 4
for a summary of the KM team’s considerations on “Expertise development – Staff
learning & development”.)
As knowledge sharing and learning are embedded in our daily work, ways may be sought
to put KS on a more structured basis, perhaps linked to our care about quality. It was
recommended that the KM team played a key role in arranging peer review/ quality
enhancement processes in OPS.
During 2007 a range of new online tools for KS/ KM was created. Usage levels are
generally low for various reasons. It was felt that instruments as such will not ‘do the trick’
or solve the problem of an improved KS culture. It was recommended that 1) personal
meetings and exchanges between colleagues be given preference over electronic tools,
and 2) the team reviewed critically both the tools designed and their (potential) usage
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

before further investments are made into the promotion and development of them. (See
also section 5 on “Online tools for knowledge sharing”.)
There is no integrated knowledge/ document management system in the ETF, which
would allow for the central storage and search for (final) documents or papers. The
maintenance of existing databases depends too much on the availability of additionally
hired, frequently changing support staff. It was recommended that further work be
undertaken to specify exactly our needs and design & create central databases for (i)
administrative/ project-related docs and (ii) country and theme-related papers searchable
by key words (= library database). (See also annex by MRO on the “Identification of OPS
needs in terms of library services”.)
The use of the library as a modern learning resource centre continues to be suboptimal,
which may be remedied by some special promotion initiatives.
In general, it was felt that KM is a permanent function rather than a project.
Professor Dr Arya K Sengupta in his book “Knowledge management – Is it a fad or necessity
in the new economy” states that:
“Knowledge Management (KM) is essentially about creating an environment in which
employees share what they know and innovation is encouraged. It is more of a
corporate organizational and cultural challenge. It is concerned with providing a
mechanism for creating, capturing, sharing and integrating the tacit (residing in the
minds of people) and explicit (documents and records) knowledge within and outside
the organization, and applying them as a strategic resource to gain competitive
advantage in the “marketplace”. The primary organizational requirement for KM is to
institutionalize open communication, limited top-down control and a flat and flexible
structure that promotes readiness to continually change and adapt. Its main focus is to
help the right people apply the right knowledge at the right time. It is as certain as the
reality of the knowledge economy.”
The KM team would like to double-underline this statement and continue to contribute, also in
2008, to the establishment of an environment, as outlined above.
2. Objectives and results
The overall objective of the project is to improve the effectiveness of ETF services as an
agency of the EC and the partner countries in line with our mission statement and on its way
to become a recognised Centre of Expertise in human resource development in a lifelong
learning perspective in transition country contexts.
Specific objectives are:
I. To increase the efficiency of the usage of existing supportive informatics tools and
knowledge bases;
II. To develop further a “knowledge sharing culture” and positive attitude towards constructive
feedback; to create opportunities for knowledge sharing & creation in a pleasant atmosphere as a prerequisite for ensuring that both existing knowledge gets captured (creating an
institutional memory) and new knowledge is created.
III. To develop ETF data library.
Expected results for 2008 include:
I.1 Databases (OPS part of contact data base) have been improved to run more efficiently,
e.g. by linking useful information, diminishing the number of incorrect contacts details,
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avoiding loss of information or duplications, ensuring provision of target information, etc.; As a
consequence quality of this part of OPS part of contact data base will be increased. OPS
colleagues have been made aware of the benefits and practicalities of using existing
databases, and actually use relevant databases more frequently.
I. 2. OPS staff expertise provision will be followed and supported in systematic way. A
dedicated area will be created in the Intranet to advertise opportunities for expertise
contributions and to record ETF replies.
I. 3. One – page “Golden rules of KM” developed
II. Knowledge sharing culture promoted at corporate level to increase efficiency of our work;
II. 1. People to people KM events coordinated, calendar developed and agenda created
(cappuccino pillars, “day out, content training courses)
II. 2. KM intranet tools further developed and fully implemented.
II. 3. Efficiency of ETF VC’ will be increased through:
- ETF guidelines developed,
- Support to projects teams for running VC’s provided and internal VC of moderators
facilitated,
- ETF methodology for evaluation of ETF VC’s developed
II. 4. The instrument of quality enhancement reviews introduced and recognised as one
component of the OPS quality assurance system.
II. 5. Cooperation with UNDP in Bratislava continued in exchanging experience in KM
development.
III. ETF Data library will be operational and OPS colleagues trained.
3. Scope
 Project approach
ETF KM project 2008 will be focused on consolidation and continuation of actions started in
ETF KM project 2007 and in line with the mid-term perspective for the period 2007-2010.
(See logframe of the ILP 07-06 Knowledge Management project).
The project will seek collaboration and endorsement from different ETF services: it will
function as a bridge among different services with the overall aim of the ETF developing
further as a Centre of Expertise.
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
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For Communications specialists KM will be an instrument to support information
flows, improving communications and improving the way people work together;
For HRM specialists, KM will be instrumental to reduce the risk of critical knowledge
loss, improving knowledge through organisational learning
For IT specialists KM will be a form of information management and technology
supported communication
For operational specialists the emphasis will be placed on the development and
management of new knowledge, ensuring institutional memory and efficient sharing
of tacit knowledge.
The project will be focused on three main areas:
I. Increasing efficiency of usage and communication of existing system supportive
informatics tools and knowledge bases (contact data base and expertise provision
following).
II. Further development of “knowledge sharing culture” and positive attitude towards
constructive feedback as a prerequisite for insuring of existing knowledge (institutional
memory) and for the creation of new knowledge as ability to cope with constant change
III. Development of data library.
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I. Increasing
benefit from
existing electronic
tools
KM
II. Sharing
culture
Data Library
and research
studies

Activities and expected outcomes (activities should have a title and detailed
description)
All the activities listed below will be implemented through very close collaboration with
ECU, PME and ITM:
I. Increasing efficiency of usage of existing system supportive informatics tools
and knowledge bases
I. 1. Contacts data base:
- in cooperation with IT and ECU working on development a technical solution for
increasing efficiency of regular updating of contacts owned by OPS in corporate data
base
- Mapping of ETF key contacts/actors
- Audit of current ETF contacts management and review of structure and use of contacts
database
- Technical work on the contacts database in order to allow “customer’s management”:
regular update of key country contacts and intelligence, developing publications
dissemination lists, supporting the delivery of targeted expertise products, recording
events participants (in cooperation also with the Editorial Board)
- OPS contacts “baby sitting” established and functional
- External person contracted (interimaire) for helping in transition phase for contact
corrections (according to OPS staff inputs) and insertion of new contacts (as well to
support KM team support on maintaining and further improvement of KM tools on
intranet).
I. 2. ETF Experts corner
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- Development of Section for Delivery of Expertise Contribution as a part of KM intranet
tools. The section will include criteria of what is considered to be expertise contributions,
records of contributions, opportunities for expertise contributions- conferences and
scientific journals-, possibilities of support from ETF services in order to deliver expertise
contributions- support from ECU in drafting articles and preparing presentations.
I.3. Development of one – page “Golden rules of KM” paper for all staff;
(till June)
II. Further development of “knowledge sharing culture” and positive attitude
towards constructive feedback as a prerequisite for insuring of existing knowledge
(institutional memory) and for the creation of new knowledge as ability to cope with
constant change
II.1. Coordination of In house KM events:
II.1.1.Cappuccino’s, study visits,…”Knowledge Wednesday”
- methodology for Cappuccino developed;
- Cappuccino clusters/pillars calendar developed and events coordinated,
- Cappuccino clusters/pillars:
i. Lessons learned in 2007
ii. Policy learning and policy advice/Copenhagen cluster
iii. ETF window of opportunities under new regulations
iv. ETF functions
v. WP 2009
vi. New knowledge
II.1.2. OPS day out and 3 regional team day outs organised
- “OPS in Alps” – 25. June
- “Instruments in a field” - 1. October
II.1.3 Coordination with HRD unit about content related training courses – OPS
experts as a co-trainers and advisers for training courses
II.2. Development of corporate habit to use KM tools (in line with Stan Garfild 1 postulate
about knowledge sharing)
II.2. 1 Training to all OPS staff on Intranet KM tools
II.2.2. Monitoring Intranet tools usage and evaluation in 4/4 of 2008
II.2.3. Promotion among OPS staff of the ETF Wiki and Discussion Forum and
the Discussion Forum questionnaire as an instrument to share their expertise in
fields where they feel comfortable and as a supportive tool of Cappuccino pillars
for continuing of discussion initiated during cappuccino.
II.2.4. Updating country pages and developing new country page for Libya (in
cooperation with ECU and country manager)
II.2.5. EU E+T and employment policy cluster club news
Space on intranet – ETF knowledge community – News from DG EAC clusters
and DG EMPL Mutual learning initiatives (sections under Wiki)
II. 3. ETF Virtual Communities
II.3.1. Guidelines for ETF Virtual Communities and Communities of Practice
developed
II.3.2. Regular facilitation of internal discussion forum for ETF VC moderators
provided
II.3.3. Methodology for evaluating ETF Virtual Communities developed
II.3.4. Provision of assistance to ETF project teams in establishing, maintaining
and evaluating Virtual Communities
1
Stan Garfield leads the Worldwide Consulting & Integration Knowledge Management Program for HP in his book
“10 reasons why people don’t share their knowledge”.
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II.4. Arranging Quality Enhancement Reviews2 as a Knowledge Management service offered
to different kinds of projects. This service includes:
- preparing TOR for the QER, dossier for reviewers and contacting agreed reviewers;
- arranging QER panel meetings;
- administering the documentation, dissemination and closing of QER processes; and
- sharing the knowledge and experiences from QERs regularly with the staff.
Establishment of an ETF Quality feedback help desk. The helpdesk will arrange peer
reviews of draft plans, concept papers, reports, ToR, PIPs, CIPs etc. (excluding
manuscripts for which the EB is responsible), following requests by colleagues and
involving internal or external experts.
II.5. Constant information about KM developments provided and training sessions as well as
coaching provided
II.6. Cooperation with UNDP Bratislava
II.9.1. mission to UNDP Bratislava
II.9.2. dissemination of lesson learned and application which are valuable for ETF.
III.
Development of data library and research studies
III.1. Data library
III.2.1.Collection of Key indicators (KI) 2008 for IPA countries in cooperation
with national statistical offices (JAL) and update of Data Library with ETF KI
available,
III.2.2.Modification and update of existing KI tool for IPA countries, available on
line in country pages section (JAL)
III.2.3. Delivery of a number of training for OPS (JJO):
 increased usage of Data Library,
 Introduction of new kinds of data hitherto not used widely in the
ETF
 Specialised needs met (on demand).
III. 2. Research studies
III. 2. 1 . The Role of Learning Industries in Education and Training Reforms in
the Near East and Northern Africa. (in annex)
III. 2. 2. Career Guidance

Resources allocation
Also refer to annex 3 : Budget and procurement plan.
ETF staff: State staff names and FTE.
EHE 0.35 : Team leader responsible for coordinating overall project and communicate
approach and activities under component II as well for “ETF KM Golden rules”
DCL 0.20: Team member responsible for activities under component I.
Procurement and contract administration, communication issues, information
and database
2
The Quality Assurance mechanism in the ETF has three elements:
1) Peer Reviews that are part of operations and will be administered as part of each
project. 2) Publications Peer Reviews that are a normal function of the Editorial Board,
and
3) Quality Enhancement Reviews, as suggested above and administered by the KM
team.
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Management, planning and support to organising “day out”
EPO 0.10 : Team member responsible for virtual community’s component of PiP (II. 3 and
evaluation of KM intranet tools).
EVI 0.10: Team member responsible for methodological support, quality enhancement,
ideas, facilitation etc (II.4.)
JJO 0.25 + Jesus 0.25: Team members responsible for data library component (II. 1)
HZE: 0.3 : Team member responsible for the Career Guidance study
UDA: 0.3: Team member responsible for the study on the Role of Learning Industries in
Education and Training Reforms in the Near East and Northern Africa for the e-learning
Total FTE: 1,85
Following ETF management decision, all OPS staff members are expected to take active
contribution to KM in OPS even if it is not accounted in their FTE table.

Risks and assumptions
Risks
-
Proposed IT developments not possible for technical reasons
ETF services are not able to allocate resources on KM initiatives
FTE for delivering PiP components is very limited - excluding CG and E-learning
study which is 0,6 and data library 0,5 the rest is 0,75 for all PiP components
Additional external resources for the project not procured (for intranet/internet
support and database update and maintenance)
Assumptions
- The project assumes endorsement from ETF management on KM initiatives
- The project assumes that ETF staff will be willing to be involved in KM initiatives
4. Management plan
 Human resources management
A dedicated OPS team already experienced on KM issues will be supported by other
specialist colleagues in ETF in the area of communications, IT, strategic planning.
The OPS team will be made by:
- EHE, team leader having overall responsibility for the project implementation
including good management of financial and human resources. EHE will provide
input on conceptual discussions and will ensure coordination with relevant ETF
services: She will develop her own expertise on KM through the project work and
relevant training opportunities
- DCL will complement her role of external communications correspondent for
OPS with her KM function. She will work on KM issues very closely with other
ETF specialists in communications, IT, strategic planning. She will develop her
own expertise on KM through the project work and relevant training opportunities
- EPO will focus her contribution on Virtual Communities and Communities of
practice. She will evaluate existing ETF practices in this area, she will work
closely with communications, IT and strategic planning specialists, she will
develop guidelines on VCs and CoP and provide training and assistance to OPS
colleagues
- JJO will be responsible for the development of the ETF library in
Information/knowledge source centre. In cooperation with Mirella Rossi and JAL
he will develop a questionnaire, carry out a survey on staff needs from Library/
Information source centre and analyse the results. He will provide training on the
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-
-
-
usage of Data Library also covering specific needs. He will develop her own
expertise on KM through the project work and relevant training opportunities
JAL will be responsible for the collection of Key indicators (KI) 2008 for IPA
countries in cooperation with national statistical offices (JAL). JAL will update the
Data Library with ETF KI. Also, he will be responsible for the modification and
update of existing KI tool for IPA countries, available on line in country pages
section. He will develop her own expertise on KM through the project work and
relevant training opportunities
EVI will provide input on conceptual discussions and methodological support.
Complementing her membership to the Editorial Board, she will focus on quality
enhancement
UDA will be responsible for the e-learning study
HZE will be responsible for the Career Guidance study.
 Communication management plan
Communication will be vital for the project and will be implemented as follows:
- Development of one – page “Golden rules of KM” paper for all staff;
- Regular publishing of “KM success stories” in the ETF Newsletter
- High visibility of KM tools in the Intranet
- KM events (cappuccinos, days out, training sessions, etc)
- Development of poster template for closed projects
 Procurement management plan
For 2008 procurement concerns:
- Procurement of administrative support for intranet/internet and databases update
and maintenance (interimaire support)
- Events organisation
- Publication costs for study on “The Role of Learning Industries in Education and
Training Reforms in the Near East and Northern Africa”.
 Knowledge management plan
The team members will have the opportunity to further develop their expertise on
knowledge management issues, including communications and support from IT, Virtual
Communities and Communities of Practice, e-library. Some of these themes are rather
new and important for the development of ETF as a centre of expertise.
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Annex
III. 2. The Role of Learning Industries in Education and Training Reforms in the Near
East and Northern Africa.
The project focus is on the role of learning industries in education and training reforms in the
Near East and Northern Africa. It intends to foster co-operation between the EU and its
Neighbouring countries to meet the demand for new qualifications in a knowledge society. To
this end in 2007 interviews with 18 companies active in e-learning have been carried out. This
will be complemented in the first months of 2008 with interviews of country Authorities in
Jordan and Morocco. It will lead to an analytical report with recommendations and policy
advice for future initiatives between public and private institutions in education and training.
With the objective to achieve maximum impact of the research undertaken, the results of the
report will be disseminated and discussed in workshops in Egypt and Tunisia in the second
half of 2008.
Results: Final report (December 2008)
Articles published in ETF newsletter, and Live and Learn, Dissemination events
carried out at conferences (i.e. ONLINE EDUCA), in the Commission, in the countries.
Activities:
1. Analysis of in-company interviews carried out in 2007, interviews with country
authorities in Jordan and Morocco and analysis, analysis of overall environment EU and
in the region, presentation of cases of good practices, recommendations and policy
advice for future interventions.
2. Dissemination
2.1. National stakeholders dissemination event in Egypt (JUL) and Tunisia (Oct),
2.2. Dissemination event for ETF staff,
2.3. Presentation of the research report in BXL (September),
2.4. Presentation of the research report - On Line Educa conference Berlin,
Missions for Ulrike Damyanovic:
Jan - Jordan
Feb - Morocco
July - Egypt
Oct - Tunisia
+ 1 additional mission to MEDA countries
+ 2 additional missions to EU countries
+ mission to Berlin (training budget?)
Budget: 25000 euro for 2 one day even - Egypt and Tunisia for cca 20 local stakeholders
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5000 euro for translation and publishing report in to French and Arabic
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Annex
3
KM 2007
Expertise
development
 Conceptual
development
about how adults
learn, workintegrated
learning,
knowledge
sharing/
knowledge
creation, and
learning
organisation
 Inputs to ETF HR
policy
 Inputs to ETF
Staff Dev policy
 Coordination
within OPS of
cappuccinos,
publications,
academic articles
 Participation in
the selection of
applications for
various staff dev.
schemes
arranged by HR
Unit
Online tools for
knowledgesharing
Knowledge/
document
management
“Incubator” for
ETF topics of a
generic nature
Intranet Knowledge
Community, incl.
 ETF Wiki
 (Theme-related)
Discussion factory
 (Project-related)
Virtual
communities
 Link to HR Portal
– Staff
development
opportunities
 Link to ETF library
 ETF country web
pages
 ETF thematic web
pages
 ETF project web
pages
On Intranet:
 OPS Knowledge
base (for
administrative
docs)
 Country info
pages (for
country-related
papers)
 ETF library




Career guidance
Gender
eLearning
Statistics/ ETF
data library
3
We acknowledge that there is not a clear-cut division between the individual categories, and some of
the categories may overlap. For example, an online knowledge sharing tool may at the same time have
expertise development and/or document management functions.
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