Minutes
Meeting Title
Project
Second Partner Meeting, Malaga
Date
6-7th April 2009
Present
Celia Greenwood (WAC)
Maggie Mendy (WAC)
Leonardo STEP Project
Richard Parkes (Prevista)
Finella Devitt (Prevista)
Manoj Ambasna (Collage Arts)
Philip Sherman (Collage Arts)
Vincenzo Pellegrini (Associazione Culturale Mulab)
Raniero Terribili (Associazione Culturale Mulab)
George Petrou (Dimitra Institute of Training and Development)
Vaso Anastasopoulou (Dimitra Institute of Training and Development)
Fabricio Chavarro (Artquimia)
David Garcia (Artquimia)
Harm Jan van Dijk (University of HAN)
Katja Heller (University of HAN)
Maribel Coco Perez
(New Arts College)
Paul Gollasch
(University of HAN)
Jenny Harris
Apologies
None
Minutes of Second Partner Meeting for the Leonardo STEP Project 6-7 April 2009
page 1
SUMMARY OF AGREED ACTIONS
WHO
Comparative Study

It was agreed that each partner should submit to HAN:
o A summary of their education system
o Details of industry partners they are working with
o Where their students end up working – be it within the creative
industries or elsewhere
o What level of students and tutors do partners work with?
o What competencies are needed in relation to tutors?
All
partners

HAN will email partners with a full list of information requirements for the
Comparative Study.
HJvD

Partners should supply information to HAN via the website.

Each partner to appoint a lead person to act as day-to-day data-gathering
contact for HAN.
All
partners
All
partners

FD to send a copy of the STEP report to HAN.
FD
Promotion
Collage Arts will be coordinate production of the project brochure.
MA
Payments
 CG confirmed that all partners need to send their workplan to her to trigger the All
partners
next project payment.
Date of Next Meeting
 To be confirmed - one of the following Oct 2009 dates in Rome: 5/6, or 8/9, or
12/13 or 15/16.
FD
Minutes
To be circulated within 2 weeks.
FD
Minutes of Second Partner Meeting for the Leonardo STEP Project 6-7 April 2009
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MINUTES
Action
Introduction
Celia Greenwood (CG) welcomed everyone to the meeting and provided
a brief update on contractual and financial issues.
RP briefly outlined the purpose of the 2nd meeting, therefore to: review the
current status of the project and explore ideas which will be converted into
actions by the end of the meeting on Tuesday. He noted that the project is
sufficiently flexible to work in different ways to suit each partner.
FD provided an overview of the arrangements for the meeting and FC
welcomed everyone to Malaga.
Minutes of Last Meeting
FD summarised the actions from the previous meeting and it was agreed
that all actions had been followed up.
General Discussion
This section of the meeting included introductions by the University of
HAN and New Arts College followed by general partner discussion on the
project.
Introductions
HJvD introduced the University of HAN team and his associate – MCP
from New Arts College.
PG then provided an introduction to HAN:
 HAN is a vocational-style university, attended by many Germans
given its border location.
 The University aims to make its students aware of their learning path
and ‘act competently’, following the route which is best for the
individual. They help students to understand how e.g. skills,
knowledge, background and readiness etc all influence learning.
Students are given a series of competencies to work on, including ‘do
things creatively’ and ‘add something new’ – both of which fit very well
with the ethos of the STEP project.
 Their students come from diverse backgrounds and the University
aims to give them ‘perspective’.
MCP introduced New Arts College (NAC):
 NAC provide art education for young people and undertake social
projects.
 They allow students to turn their creative hobbies into professions.
 The college gets involved in talent-scouting, encouraging potential
students to attend masterclasses before embarking on a 3-year
course.
 Students generally have no previous training.
 NAC is a 3-year pilot project – its is very difficult to secure funding due
to lack of accreditation which in turn makes it difficult to establish a
Minutes of Second Partner Meeting for the Leonardo STEP Project 6-7 April 2009
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MINUTES
sustainable structure.
 NAC started to work with HAN through the CrossWorker project and
the STEP project will provide a good opportunity to look at ways of
helping students who have the potential to go to University.
 Accreditation in Holland for the type of courses run by NAC is very
difficult to achieve.
Action
Open Partner Discussion
 MA: accreditation can be easy to obtain is some areas; however
securing the money required for it is the problem.
 VP:
o Students must have a diploma from a secondary school to
enter university in Italy. However, given there are many
young people not in school, Mulab aim to give creative
students accredited training.
o Accreditation has been achieved by collaborating with
Collage Arts.
o Mulab are therefore very much in favour of collaborating
with transnational partners to develop a common
framework.
o It seems ironic that the Italian government is cutting
funding to smaller training organisations like Mulab who
are now being asked by larger funded organisations to do
work which these larger organisations are unable to
deliver.
o Much of Mulab’s funding has traditionally been raised
through Structural Funds.
o Mulab tries to connect its students with employment at the
end of the course.
 MA:
o Industry values their work more than the government does.
o Collage, Artquimia and Mulab work within the framework of
the ‘Open College Network’ – this provides different levels
of courses, some of which are accredited.
 RP: HAN will look at the European Qualifications Framework and the
‘Euro Pass’ as part of the Comparative Study.
 FC: Artquimia have found that training young people to become tutors
has been extremely useful and is flexible – e.g. young students can be
selected to teach younger groups and older students can work with
older groups.
 CG: the CrossWorker clearly learns from the tutor – the issue is how
does the young person receive accreditation to access higher
education?
 RP: there is plenty of money in the system which could be used for
accreditation – the problem is securing it.
 FC:
o Spain has a national education system and framework,
however implementation varies regionally.
All partners
o The system is very rigid – there is a lot of opposition to the
proposed modern University system.
o Andalucia has one of the worst European records for
young people dropping out of secondary school.
Minutes of Second Partner Meeting for the Leonardo STEP Project 6-7 April 2009
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MINUTES
Action
o
There is a 3-year leadtime to accredit new courses which
is no good as their music production courses need to be
updated every 6 months given changes in technology.
FD
Actions
 It was agreed that each partner should submit to HAN:
o A summary of their education system.
o Details of industry partners they are working with.
o Where their students end up working – be it within the
creative industries or elsewhere.
o What level of students and tutors do partners work with?
o What competencies are needed in relation to tutors?

FD to send a copy of the STEP report to HAN.
Comparative Study
RP gave partners a reminder overview of the STEP project and the
specific role of the Comparative Study within this:
 CrossWorker information to be shared (complete).
All partners
 Each partner to appoint a lead person to act as day-to-day datagathering contact for HAN.
 HAN to devise an information-gathering framework.
 Information will include national and EU frameworks such as EQF /
Europass as well as partner data (tutor notes, characteristics of users,
testimonials, approach to qualifications and accreditation), etc.
 Resulting in production of comparative study and competency
framework.
A general discussion then followed:
 Funding has been cut – small organisations are receiving demands
from larger organisations who have been funded but can’t deliver.
 Students are not completing courses or complete courses, go on to
higher education institutions but drop out as these institutions do not
support them.
 CG: the UK government has been focusing on reducing the numbers
of ‘NEETs’ (Not in Education, Employment or Training) over the last
12 years; however NEET numbers have increased over this period!
 HJvD – Holland now has a Minister for Youth.
 RP: the UK has a Minister responsible for youth issues – David
Lammy – CG and MA met with him recently to highlight the issues
around appropriate funding for this work.
 JH: a lot of UK funding was channelled into Sixth Form colleges and
the Further Education sector.
 RP: the UK’s training agency, the LSC went bust recently. In the UK
this sector has been too difficult for the UK government to measure
and value, so they have ignored it.
 JH: we may not have rigorous evaluation, but we do have lots of case
studies. We need to present short, sharp, well documented cases
Minutes of Second Partner Meeting for the Leonardo STEP Project 6-7 April 2009
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MINUTES
which can stand up to questioning. It would be very useful if partners
could submit other examples of great projects in their countries to
support the overall case.
 CG: we could each provide two 5-year ‘journeys’ for students
 JH: we should include ‘star’ students and explain how they are
w.orking professionally and giving back to the industry.
 CG: the last 6 months of STEP will involve political lobbying
culminating in a major event in Brussels.
 RP: at the next meeting, we will look at innovative ways of applying
the results of STEP.
Action
HJvD
All partners
Actions
 HAN will email partners with a full list of information requirements for
the Comparative Study.
 Partners should supply information to HAN via the website.
Valorisation
 RP reminded partners of the definition of valorisation – it is not a form
of inspection or auditing, but instead the validation of learning and
promoting results. This links to the ‘big picture’ as opposed to the
‘project picture’.
 JH then talked to partners about her role in the project as an external
valoriser and opportunities to validate and promote the project:
o Effective practice is more important than good practice.
o There is a lot of good work in our sector but it is not well
branded
o We need to create a strong body of exterior work.
o A recent study showed that creative work in schools
increased students’ abilities in maths.
o Our promotional material needs to include strong case
studies with web links.
o We need good models of effective practice from partners
and other organisations partners know of in their
respective countries.
o We need to identify what works and what doesn’t work –
for example something worked in one place but not
another – was this due to political will, inertia or what?
o We need to locate supporters / advocates, movers and
shakers in each partner country, as well as in Brussels.
o We don’t want subsidy for the arts, we want investment.
o We have something real which our sector can contribute to
the economy – persistence is key, particularly vis-à-vis
building relationships.
 RP: We must remember than 2009 is the European Year of Creativity
and Innovation.
 RP: the problem is that we, as organisations, are very grassroots – we
need to build high level relationships and direct dialogue with policy
makers. We need to be strategic.
 JH:
o A lot of our ‘street work’ has a major impact – e.g. the
Minutes of Second Partner Meeting for the Leonardo STEP Project 6-7 April 2009
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MINUTES




Action
influence of black RAP on fashion and music technology.
The new circus movement produced ‘Cirque de Soleil’ –
now a multi-million pound global business.
o 90% of brilliant young creatives will not achieve their
success through conventional art schools and
conservatoires – they will be from ‘the street’.
o Branding is a real issue – the term ‘non formal learning in
the creative sector’ is the best we have at this point. A new
brand name needs to be created which evokes arts,
culture, creativity, the new (and the old!) and, importantly,
youth.
o Our dissemination budget is very low – we will need to
continue this work post-STEP.
o In the UK we have been nervous about talking about the
social dimension of the creative industries – instead it has
been about excellence and the corporate impact. However,
given the effects of globalisation and ethnicity, we can now
stress the validity of our work (which is led by practising
professional artists). The arts help to integrate people and
offer an excellent tool to engage with the next generation
of young people. Traditional youth work is out of date!
RP: in the UK, we are talking to David Lammy which will result in a
key event next Spring – STEP can piggyback on this event.
MA: we need to ‘come out’ and promote what we do or we will remain
in a vicious circle. Our end of project conference in Brussels should be
led by young people. Also, our message needs to be clear and
consistent (no different to strong corporate brands such as Coke).
CG: we need to show young people in training and then where they
are in their lives 10 years on – i.e. lasting impact.
GP queried the type of national dissemination expected of partners
and RP confirmed that partners can decide this themselves, based on
how and where STEP can achieve most impact locally.
Promotion
MM confirmed the new project website address: www.cross-step.org and
provided partner passwords.
Collage Arts will be coordinate production of the project brochure.
MA
Dates of Next Meeting



One of the following Oct 2009 dates in Rome: 5/6, or 8/9, or 12/13 or
15/16.
Final date to be confirmed with partners.
The meeting will be 1½ days long.
FD
Any Other Business
CG confirmed that all partners need to send their workplan to her to
trigger the next project payment.
Minutes of Second Partner Meeting for the Leonardo STEP Project 6-7 April 2009
All partners
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MINUTES
Close
CG and RP thanked everyone for attending and advised that minutes
would be circulated within 2 weeks. The meeting was then closed.
Minutes of Second Partner Meeting for the Leonardo STEP Project 6-7 April 2009
Action
FD
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