What ExPerO is
ExPerO consists in a theoretical model and a set of tools able to evaluate the quality of learning
outcome in the VET field, taking in account the stakeholders' expectations and perceptions.
To fully understand this definition, some key points need to be clarified:

Global competition, high numbers of low skilled workers in the workforce and an ageing
population are some of the most important challenges facing Europe. Structured and
scientific actions in the field of education and training can help to prepare individuals for
today's society and are vital for Europe's future competitiveness and innovation.
Vocational Education and Training (VET) plays a key role in this scenario, providing the
skills, knowledge and competences needed in the labour market. It is therefore an
essential part of the EU's 'Education and Training 2010' work programme and of the
Copenhagen Process.

The learning outcome is an integrated system of competencies, acquired during the VET
training, formed by knowledge, capability and professional behaviours of the trainee,
which answers concretely to work needs.

The stakeholders are entities or people that have a kind of interest on the organisation and
that are able with their decisions and behaviours to influence its activities and results. In
the “stakeholder approach” arises the need to take accountability of them; it is not
necessary to satisfy all their expectations, but mainly to create networks and
communication flows between them and the school. “Quality” cannot be considered as an
abstract concept, but it should be contextualize in the local context. Quality is an effective
concept only when it can be applied in the real context; stakeholders arise in this way to be
the privileged judges.
To develop this big and general aim, ExPerO provides: a theoretical model (result of a deep
analysis of literature in Work Psychology, Marketing and Adult Education as well as an analytic
consultation of EC documentation), a set of tools to collect data (assessment phase, composed by
both qualitative and qualitative measures), instruments to evaluate this data (evaluation phase,
that provide synthetic and weighted indicators), and a database management (where the data are
stored).
The project, focused on the learning outcome, takes in consideration also the processes (in
particular the Organizational ones), viewing them as fundamental antecedents of the final results,
and considering their importance as improvement source in case of weakness in learning outcome
quality.
ExPerO Theoretical Model
1. STAKEHOLDERS
Stakeholders’ view is the base of the model. Their relevance needs to be considered and
weighted by each school. ExPerO provides a full list of the school stakeholders where each
school define their priority. The list is divided on the basis of their direct or indirect
involvement in the educational process:
- Trainees (STK-T): they are both “users” and directly involved in educational service.
-
Internal
stakeholders
(STK-I)
participate in the creation of the
training and in all the school
processes; their activities strongly
influence the school results.
- External stakeholders (STK-E)
usually don’t actively participate in
the organizational processes, but
they can influence them, even with
no direct actions.
- Leadership (STK-L) is represented by the headmaster and/or the Quality Group (GQ), who
are requested to express and formalize the course Mission (the stakeholder weight) and the
Vision (the values of the image that the course should has).
2. EXPECTATIONS AND PERCEPTIONS
The model is composed by two
macro
areas:
SHOULD
and
IS.
SHOULD area includes the analyses of
ideal
expectations,
tailored
for
different stakeholders, and it takes
into account their interests and their
knowledge about the VET course.
The second area, named IS area,
collect the perceptions about the
learning outcome. The SHOULD area
is investigated at the beginning of the course, whereas IS area is explored at the end.
MACRO INDICTORS OF LEARNING OUTCOME
Mission (derived from the accountability and
governance
literature)
stakeholders’
consists
importance
in
the
calibration.
Headmaster and/or Quality Group (STK-L) define
in an apposite electronic sheet the stakeholders’
weight, in order to ponder the Quality of Results
to the shape of the course stakeholders network.
Vision
(derived
from
Communication
management Literature) contains the Headmaster
and/or Quality Group (STK-L) views about the
values that the course should transmit to the
external and internal stakeholders (also called
“brand” image values). This is tested through a
questionnaire at the course beginning that will be
compared, at the end of the course, with the ones given to the STK-I, STK-T, and STK-E. The
comparison among the “ideal image values” (Vision) and the stakeholders real perception
about the course image values (QI indicator) give a result about the whole image coherence,
and, of consequence, about the communication management.
OP - Organizational Processes indicator (derived
from Work Psychology Literature) contains data
about how the organizational processes should be
in the view of internal stakeholders (via focus
group) and by trainees (via semi-structured
interviews).
QC - Quality of Competences indicator (derived
from Adult Education Literature) represents the
evaluation of competences (knowledge, skills and
professional behaviours) acquired by the trainees
during the VET
course. It is planned by the
teachers (via a competences matrix) that students
should have gained at the end of the course. Then
it is compared with the teachers and trainees perceptions when the course is finished.
QR (EX-PER) - Quality of Results indicator (derived from Quality Service Literature) is composed of
two parts: expectations and perceptions: QR-EX
includes expectations asked at the beginning of the
course to the external stakeholders (via semistructured interviews) ; QR-PER consists of all the
perceptions of the same stakeholders (external)
about the learning outcome collected when the
course is ended. QR matrix derives from an
evaluation of the gap between QR-EX and QR –PER pondered on the stakeholders weight
(Mission). QR is composed by five sub-indicators, asked to the proper stakeholders: Competences,
Employability, Drop out, Meeting the future needs, Credits.
SR- Satisfaction of the Result indicator (derived
from Customer Satisfaction Literature) represents
the satisfaction of the training performance as
general judgement expressed by the trainees (via
semi-structured interviews). Adults’ motivation is a
necessary condition to learn and this factor
regulates the psychological processes connected to
satisfaction.
QI – Quality of Image indicator (derived from Marketing and Economical Psychology Literature) is
based on the idea that organizational image can
strongly influence the choice of a service.
Moreover, it gives an indicator to monitor and to
compare the school image with other similar
services ad to compare its changes along years.
In order to manage the image, one of the aims of
the organization is to maintain coherence
between internal and external communication (integrated communication system). This indicator
results by a comparison of the ideal image (Vision), Identity and External Image surveyed by
questionnaires.