KEY 4 Key Competencies and Solutions for the Effectiveness of Internships

‘KEY 4 Key Competencies and Solutions for the Effectiveness of Internships’  aimed at developing methodological solutions, promoting cultural approaches to learning in professional contexts and at developing key competencies (KC).

KEY 4 intended to contribute to raising the quality of internships (learning experiences) that are increasingly manifesting themselves in Italy but still suffer from an exclusive focus on formal aspects – which are nevertheless fundamental to argue against misuse of the internship.

The KEY 4 aims:

a) Defining and testing didactic devices and solutions to enhance transparency in the development, learning, assessment and recognition of professional and key competencies that can be acquired during internships;
b) Promoting the integration among the education, training and employment systems by defining and sharing common professional values necessary for a “work as a learning place” vision;
c) Identifying the variables that determine the quality of learning experiences during internships, such as monitoring indicators to be used to evaluate the service.

Main project outputs:

1. Key Competencies Framework (KCF) containing the skills which are most requested by the production contexts, described in a progressive manner and divided into mastery indicators. The framework is a reference to the co-design of training, learning assessment and a conscious development of people’s skills.
2. An APP connected to the KCF that traces the progressive development of learning by collecting endorsements and feedback from the learner’s community.
3. Guidelines for co-design of experiential training paths that provide operational guidance for the best use of productive experiences and introduce specific activities to enhance the sought after competencies.
4. Values Charter as a means of cultural promotion for a “work as a learning place” vision.
5. The configuration of an indicators’ system linked to the KCF and guidelines to help tracking information regarding internship quality monitoring and evaluation.

3s acted as a core partner of the project, which was coordinated by Innovazione Terziario – Iter (IT). It included eleven partner organisations from three European countries: Austria, Italy and Finland.

Link project website