The validation workshop was held and organized by CIFP MEKA LHII the 17th and 18th of October of 2023. Tknika, in Renteria (Basque country, Spain), kindly lent us their facilities for a better experience both for our partners and our stakeholders.
This workshop was an important moment in the development of our project as the main objective was to validate the Benchmarking Online Tool to determine the level of internationalization of VET providers and present a report on the internationalization strategies and achievements of partners’ organizations based on the results acquired from the survey addressed to the organisations by each of the partners; and at the same time, consulting the functionality of the online benchmarking tool with local stakeholders of each partner.
The workshop started with a short introduction of all participants, both partners and stakeholders, in which representatives were able to explain their role in their institutions in the area of internationalisation and its possible impact on the development of our project. An introduction of the concept and questions for the Benchmarking tool was provided for the stakeholders with the aim of their validation of the questionnaire. For this purpose, we organised small group discussions with partners and stakeholders, in which we were able to obtain important feedback on the structure and questions of the questionnaire.
Once the questions and structure of the questionnaire had been analysed, we were able to present the project website and more specifically, the way in which the questionnaire will be represented on it. Once again we were able to get valuable feedback from our stakeholders that will help us improve the online version of our questionnaire.
In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of our questionnaire and the level of internationalization of the organizations involved in the project, each of the partners had the opportunity to share the results of their report on internationalization strategies in short presentations to our stakeholders.
While our stakeholders had the opportunity to enjoy an interesting visit to the city of San Sebastian, the Consortium stayed shaping the guidelines of the Benchmarking Tool. By the means of a group activity, we were able to analyse the structure and contents, the link to the competence map and make reference to the Regional level strategies.
The second day was dedicated to the presentation of the Competence Map. Once again, as we previously did in the Design Workshop in Bucharest, we were divided into specific target groups (teachers, organizational leaders and regional agency developers), but this time accompanied by our stakeholders. We analysed the structure and the areas presented in the map and we were able to receive interesting and important feedback from them; as we also managed to consolidate the hypothesis on learning paths.
During the next hour, a Brainstorming Session on Regional Internationalisation Policies was organised together with and insightful presentation on the specific policies in Basque VET by the Head of International Office in Tknika. Both activities were aimed at expanding our knowledge on International Policies in different countries and regions and sharing important strategies with both our stakeholders and partners.
The final touch of our Validation workshop for both our stakeholders and partners, was an enriching and innovative visit around Tknika Basque VET applied Research Center facilities.
