Validation future skills, how to become and stay relevant for work!

The main goal of this project is to find a different approach to meet the current and future challenges of the labor market. This involves a different perspective on the employability of employees...

The main goal of this project is to find a different approach to meet the current and future challenges of the labor market. This involves a different perspective on the employability of employees and what is required from the organization together with the employees. The intended result focuses on insights into the existing and relevant skills of current employees. More concreted, based on the idea of working on a new approach to HR development, we set ourselves the goal of establishing a validation process that supports employees in becoming aware of their own potential and encourages them to actively participate in the further development of their own employability and the organisation. Thus, it also enables them to understand the current challenges and a new approaches to solutions. By linking these insights to the organization's goals (urgency), we foster employee commitment and participation in a positive learning culture and try to encourage companies to improve their existing staff rather than hire new employees. In addition to the development of a good validation process, the aim was to carry out a concrete pilot project with an Austrian municipality.

1. Transferring the validation know-how of Libereaux B.V. to BFI Salzburg through live meetings and online discussions about the Dutch approach and the Austrian field of eduction. 2. Combining the Dutch validation approach with the expertise in vocational training of BFI and thus designing a new validation process which is adapted to the needs of the regional labour market: Integrating quality assurance as well as building a digital portfolio platform (Folioo.at) in order to use for the concrete pilot project were significant. Additionally, qualified trainers were searched and trained. 3. Carrying out a project with the municipality of Oberndorf: Both managers and admin. staff were involved (27 people). First, we identifed challenges and success factors for the municipality and which competencies will be needed to meet the challenges of the labour market. Next, the people involved participated in one-on-one interviews to think about their strength and use the target profiles developed for the validation of competences. Also, all participants worked on a personalized digital portfolio. Finally, Oberndorf was supported to developed own organizational goals for a long-term success (Concrete training programme + appraisal interviews).

A concrete result is the implementation of the first validation project with the municipality of Oberndorf, in which three large workshops were held with the mayor, city administration and municipal employees, as well as very successful individual interviews with the employees. With the chosen approach, there is an explicit focus on a higher awareness of the present skills at employee level. By collecting the desired skills in advance from the organization, these are translated into a target profile which is discussed at the employee level. Each participant has a personal action plan for targeted development, based on a jointly established (organizational) urgency. The employee has been advised to use this approach in future discussions with the team leader. In addition, the successful knowledge transfer between NL and AT as well as the creation of the platform Folioo.at (language: German) can be mentioned as project results: The Folioo.at website was created by Libereaux and personalised for BFI Salzburg. The participants of Oberndorf were each given their own access and were able to create a CV, upload proof of competences , request 360-degree feedback etc. (https://bfi.folioo.at/). The process description is attached at E-PRP.