The reason for the development of this project week was the reform of secondary education in Flanders, requiring first-year pupils to make a broad choice regarding a particular subject cluster. By way of workshops, the project week enabled the pupils to sample the subject clusters of Economics & Organisation, Society & Welfare, Language & Culture, and STEM, thus discovering their talents in relation to those fields of study. For example, the schedule featured several creative labs to explore the concept of sustainability. Workshops focused on Greek, French or English enabled the pupils to sample different languages. Other workshops revolved around robotics and STEM. In other sessions, pupils explored their own body language and identity.

The workshops were developed and presented at four schools by a mixed team of students and teachers from the various schools. Third-stage pupils were also involved in teaching the robotics workshops. Each workshop was attended by the class teacher of the participating pupils.

The success of the project week can be attributed to the fact that it was prompted by an actual need in the professional field, boasted a strong bond of trust, and was developed in co-creation:

• The management teams of the four schools had already contacted one another prior to involving Odisee UAS and found one another in the joint ambition to provide pupils with a better perspective of their options. They chose to join forces with Odisee because of their bond of trust of many years’ standing with the programme involved, and because of their positive experience with work placements. The teacher has indicated Odisee’s openness and keen eye to the needs of (Brussels) schools as the entrance gate to this project. She has testified that the co-creation process has grown organically yet steadily, based on the bond of trust.
• From the very start of the project, all the parties pursued a win-win situation. All the partners contributed on an equal footing.
  • The students participated in the capacity f co-worker rather than trainee; the teachers did not assume the role of expert responsible for setting the course. The project involved a cllective searching process based n the ambition of having the pupils make apprpriate choices regarding the subject clusters.
  • The schols went to a great deal of trouble to receive the students as co-workers, for example, by giving them a tour to get to know the various schools and by setting up collective informal meetings. Rather than being delegated separate minor tasks, the students participated in the development team as fully-fledged members.
  • The need t explore an innovative concept and the cross-school collaboration required both the students and the teachers to step out of their comfort zone.
  • Virtually all the participants perated on a basis of intrinsic mtivation, cnvinced that the project would produce added value for the pupils and learning opportunities for all the participants. This has generated a positive energy in the collaboration.
    
    

After thorough preparations spanning a year and a half, the project week took place in February 2020. The students were involved from the start of the academic year 2019-2020.

Students

• Jointly developing instructional materials and workshops, and jointly teaching, familiarised the teachers and the students with each other’s educational approaches, while concurrently becoming acquainted with different school cultures. This has broadened the horizon of all the participants.
• Furthermore, the students and the teachers learned to differentiate and deal with diverse circumstances and school cultures, as the workshops were taught at different schools and involved different participants (e.g., general secondary education versus technical secondary education, differences in school accommodations, differences in school culture).
• Teachers and students spent a great deal of time together (the project featured, e.g., an introductory tour of the four schools and a collective meal), which provided many opportunities for exchange and informal learning. The work placement coordinator has identified this as the pre-eminent strength of the project.
• The teachers passed on their experience to the students (e.g., what activity is feasible in what context), whilst the students gained more co-developing and co-teaching skills.
• The students collaborated closely in the schools’ day to day operations, which immersed them more fully in the routines. This created learning opportunities that work placements generally do not involve (e.g., participating in difficult meetings with parents, involving parents in the project week).
• The project week has motivated the students to assume ownership: the authentic situation and the challenge to make the project week a success ensured that they continually adapted in order for the project week to achieve its goal.
• Some of the students lived at a considerable distance from the schools. In order to enable such students to participate in the project week without mobility issues, the schools offered them a stay in a nearby youth hostel. The ability to “live together” enhanced the intensity of the collaboration among the students and provided an added incentive to participate.
  
• Several students were subsequently offered jobs by the schools involved.

Teaching staff

Being able to offer students learning opportunities that do not arise during a standard work placement (cf. under “Added value for students”).

The programme

Reinforcing the network with the schools involved. The project has boosted their willingness to provide work placement positions.

The professional field

• Cf. the first three bullets under “Added value for students”.
• More manpower at the schools for the realisation of the workshops.
• The students came to know the Brussels schools as an attractive work environment. This boosts the probability of their wanting to work there.
• The teachers were provided with fresh, creative ideas from the students and their supervisors participating in the project week.
• The presence of class teachers during the workshops created a ripple effect. Several of them also became interested in participating in #fab4+1.

Participating pupils

• The pupils become aware of their talents;
• It increases the probability of the pupils making more confident study choices later on;
• The pupils become acquainted with the curricula offered by the four schools; this perspective enables them to make more targeted study choices.

•  Fitting the projectinto the Bachelor of Secondary Education curriculum required some effort. In 2019-2020, the project replaced part of the regular work placement; in 2021-2022, it will be accommodated in the alternative work placement track.
• The slight misalignment between the academic year calendar and the school year calendar posed something of a challenge in terms of scheduling time for collaboration.
• In a subsequent edition, Odisee would like to involve some subject teachers. These teachers will need to be aware of the fact that they are not participating as steering experts but rather as co-creators.

The first edition of the Sustainable Management International Summer School ensued from the HECOS FOR ETHICS (Higher Education and CompanieS Fostering ETHICal Skills) Erasmus+ project. The ninth edition is scheduled for 2021. Two editions have been set up abroad (Ecuador and Colombia). The founding core team of three teachers from Flanders (Odisee), Sweden, and Portugal is responsible for the organisation of the Summer School.

In this Summer School (3 ECTS credits), multi-disciplinary teams of (international) business managers, NGO managers, and (international) students formulate sustainable solutions and recommendations regarding current business cases for which the companies and organisations concerned are unable to find a solution (wicked problems).

The goal is for the participants, and in particular the students, to learn to understand the impact of sustainable management and to raise their awareness of its added value. They will discover opportunities and challenges within sustainable management, as well as new instruments and approaches. They will acquire five sustainability competencies, viz. systems thinking, strategic thinking, anticipating, normative competencies, and inter-personal competencies (selected on the basis of Wiek et al., 2011), in order to be able to formulate solutions and recommendations that bear application in actual companies and NGOs. The inter-personal competencies also include gaining co-creation skills. After all, solutions to wicked problems call for harnessing collective intelligence, combining a range of perspectives and forms of expertise.

Every year, the Summer School targets a different theme. Initially, these themes involved aspects of sustainable management (e.g., sustainable use of raw materials, encouraging customers to purchase sustainable products). With effect from 2019, the focus is on a specific product (such as coffee, chocolate, bananas et cetera).

The group of participants is highly diverse. In addition to Odisee, the bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral students come from various other universities and colleges across the world. Some of the students have already embarked on a professional career. The managers come from both commercial companies and NGOs (e.g., commercial coffee growers, coffee distributing NGOs, chocolate manufacturers…) from various countries and various stages in the chain.

The curriculum comprises a well-balanced mix of non-formal, formal, and informal learning, in a blended format. The students have two days to prepare via assignments forwarded by the teachers (literature study, MOOC on sustainable management, self-evaluation of their sustainability competencies). Subsequently, they physically meet for five days (see schedule below). The students familiarise themselves with the cases through a visit to the companies concerned. They attend several guest lectures in which they become acquainted with methodologies and tools that enable them to systematically map their case and to formulate and test realistic future scenarios. They apply these instruments to their case and review their progress with the companies and organisations at several moments in time, via email and by telephone. They also learn by participating in social activities relating to sustainability. At the end of the five days, they present their solution to the companies and organisations concerned and engage in a pertinent dialogue. The final days are spent on the written elaboration of their recommendations to the companies and on a self-reflection based on self-assessment and peer assessment tools. The students are assessed on the basis of permanent evaluation, their recommendations, and their self-reflection. The companies are also involved in the evaluation of the students.

The students work on the cases in teams that are composed by the core team. In addition to complementary forms of expertise among the students, the core team takes account of students’ values. Prior to admission, the students take a value test (moral DNA). They are paired with participants whose values are complementary. As a result, the co-creation process in the teams is challenging, yet also highly informative.

The team of teachers is international (Colombia, Finland, Spain, …). In each edition of the Summer School, ten teachers are involved to provide guest lectures and workshops. To this end, they are coached by the core team.

The teachers provide the students with group coaching whilst mapping out their sustainability case and elaborating a solution. Some of the teachers are present for the entire duration of the Summer School, for the purpose of providing such coaching. The teachers providing a guest lecture, e.g., on a methodology or tool, will also remain present to coach the students in its application. It is important in this respect that rather than assuming the role of expert, the teachers will join the students and the companies concerned in a co-participant capacity to collectively explore solutions. The companies are also encouraged to refrain from adopting an excessively steering attitude.

Students

The students broaden their perspective and learn to deal with (cultural) differences by working in multi-disciplinary, international, multi-cultural teams comprising participants from various educational levels and various companies and organisations. They learn from each other’s expertise.

The actual cases that provide opportunities to foster sustainability have a highly motivating effect.

Teaching staff

The teachers also step out of their comfort zone, in particular because they are challenged to assume the roles of coaches and co-participants (letting go of hierarchy, operating on the basis of equality, joining students and companies in an exploratory process whose outcome is uncertain).

Researchers

Bart Henssen, representing Odisee in the organising core team, also heads the research department of the Center for Sustainable Entrepreneurship (CenSe).

He and the CenSe staff have compiled a master class on the basis of the Summer School, which they are also offering to companies. The master classes have profited from the Summer School’s strong emphasis on optimisation of the methodologies.

Furthermore, the Summer School has prompted CenSe to join forces with a postdoc researcher, who will elaborate a test aimed at gauging sustainability competencies and attitudes in a scientifically substantiated manner.

The programme

The Summer School has given impetus to the further integration of sustainability into the curricula of the Odisee Business Administration programmes (e.g., the project week focused on sustainable marketing in business management, the week of sustainability in office management).

The professional field

The companies gain a broader perspective of the issue they are facing and thus expand their knowledge of sustainable management. In many cases, the answers that the students come up with are more diverse and less obvious than the companies expect.

Furthermore, the companies appreciate the opportunity to exchange views with peers, also because since 2019, the cases have pertained to the same product. Commercial companies and NGOs acknowledge that they are facing similar issues and can challenge each other in this respect.

•  The Summer School teaches students to systematically map out cases and review the issues from various perspectives, before formulating recommendations. First distancing oneself requires adjustment, not only on the part of the participating students, but also on the part of the companies and teachers participating for the first time. Occasionally, students who have already embarked on a professional career are slightly reluctant in this respect, as their professional environment has already moulded them to quickly look for solutions. At times, more coaching is required to encourage them to take a different view of the cases.
• Participation by students from various educational levels renders the Summer School interesting, yet also calls for differentiation, in order to ensure sufficient learning opportunities for all.
• Considerable adjustment is required from teachers, who are not used to assuming the role of coach and co-participant. Skills and attitudes that the teachers need to command include: ability to coach, promoting informal learning, permanent evaluation, adopting a humble attitude. This calls for a particular mindset. Some support was needed in this respect, inter alia with respect to the Latin American teachers who usually entertain a different, more hierarchical relation with their students.
• In a Summer School focused on sustainability, every detail must tally. One cannot preach sustainability without practising the same (e.g., meals, transfers to other locations during the Summer School).
• It is important to provide companies with an indication of what they can expect.
• At the start of the Summer School, the proper tools to support the students in strategic thinking, future thinking, systems thinking, et cetera were not yet available. The organising team has worked hard on collecting and optimising such tools. Every edition, this work is continued.
  
  

Working as a “creative” entails power. The power to conceive of solutions that have a real impact. However, such an influence also comes with responsibility: for what purposes will this talent be harnessed?

With this programme, we intend to have creative minds experience first-hand how they are harnessing their talents as a lever, as a crowbar with social value. The goal: encouraging a new generation of architects, designers, copy writers, film makers, and other makers-slash-re-thinkers to bring about changes.

The “Design for Impact” Professional Master Class is intended for the searchers. Those who ask questions. Those who harbour ambition and an entrepreneurial spirit in the broadest sense of the word. Those hungry for other disciplines, with an unstoppable faith in collaboration. Those who want to get to know themselves better and who understand that the best thinking is produced by doing.

We aim to hone your creative confidence. By encouraging you to think about the role of creative minds and how such minds could work on different and better approaches. By handing you projects that surpass the conceptual and by giving you responsibility from concept to execution. By having you collaborate, across barriers, with businesses, government authorities, and other creative talents. Because if we want to tackle the Major Issues, we need to be so bold as to come up with radically new solutions.

That is why you will be working directly with the professional field for five months in a row. You will be attending inspiring sessions, working on actual cases, and continuously reflecting on your own role in the co-creative network that you are expanding. You will be refining your soft skills. You will be taking a critical look at yourself. But you will also become acquainted with methodologies, from design thinking on artistic activism to social and society-centred design, which you will scrupulously examine with the particular aim of finding your own method. Never dogmatic, always pragmatic.

Our ultimate goal is, on the one hand, to help you as a creative mind to gain a better perspective of your own qualities, in order to give you a head start on the labour market. On the other hand, we will be turning you into the spark on the tinder: the catalyst kindling the creativity in others, the reason why multi-disciplinary teams generate synergy, the individual acknowledging the power of creativity. A force for good, so to speak.

This track has been substantiated through a co-creation process based on the Skill Tree method. In collaboration with the professional field, this has produced a substantively relevant curriculum. A skill tree resembles a mind map: ideas are represented in the form of a branched tree. This tool has helped to gain a clear picture of key substantive themes and goals.

The track comprises an intensive week in which the participants complete a classic five-day “Design Sprint” in an inter-disciplinary setting, enhanced with exercises to increase group dynamics, and with a focus on the development of inter-human soft skills.

The goal is to utilise soft skills training and exercises to foster group dynamics in order to boost creativity in co-creative Design Sprints.

Students

• Cross-disciplinary collaboration with partners in the professional field;
• Learning to engage in self-assessment;
• 360° evaluation;
• Acquiring soft skills;
• Insight into the working elements of efficient creative teams;
• Working with Skill Tree method for curriculum design;

Teaching staff

• Teachers learn to act as facilitators and coaches;
• Ability to use alternatives to classic evaluation methods;
• 360° evaluation;
• Working with Skill Tree method for curriculum design

Researchers

• Access to professional network;

The programme

• Use of innovative educational methodologies;
• Expanding the range of programmes on offer;
• Recruiting additional students / new target group;
• Expanding a closely-knit network;
• Great measure of commitment and ownership among professional field partners when rolling out the curriculum;
• Co-creation of the programme results in joint responsibility for the curriculum;

The professional field

• Developing partnerships;
• Collaborating with enthusiastic students and staff teams;
• Collaborating in a co-creation process to develop new study tracks;
• Being part of a closely-knit network;
• Assume co-ownership of the programme (going public of their own accord regarding their contribution);

Other

• Collaboration with stakeholders other than the professional field relevant to the programme, e.g., local authorities or companies.

• How do you set up and manage an efficient network, how do you maintain a kind of eco system of partners with a co-creative culture? This takes a great deal of time, whilst not producing any immediate returns. University colleges have difficulty accommodating such goals in the standard principles that govern the substantiation of teachers’ briefs. Many decisions are now being taken on an ad hoc basis. How do you fit this into the system already in place at an educational establishment? How do other organisations go about this? What policy is best pursued?
• What competencies are relevant among teachers when it comes to the professional expansion and maintenance of such networks?
• How can community management competencies be expanded among teachers? Recruitment policy?
• Calling in external consultants commanding the required competencies to “maintain” a network, or would enhancing the competencies among one’s own staff be preferable?
  
• How do you win over an institution as a whole to acknowledging the need for tackling and developing innovative issues in new ways? How do you get a larger institution - even though LUCA constitutes a comparatively small university college – sufficiently agile to play along with challenges in the field and requests from students to set up essentially different forms of education? How can the professional field contribute to such efforts via a co-creative process?

In both the first and the second semester, we are interrupting the regular lessons after six weeks in the purview of a Challenge Week. During this week, all attention will be focused on a real case commissioned by an external principal. The students study the target group and work in a result-oriented manner on the goals defined by the principal. Here, the process is more important than the product.

We are looking for assignments that are socially relevant and render students aware of the role played by the media in societal issues. In this respect it is important for the issues to be topical, concrete, authentic, and meaningful.

In addition to the assignment, the students are provided with supporting information and methods delivered on a just-in-time basis. The students also apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes acquired previously, in an integrated manner. All this must take place within a timeframe of 1 work week, which inevitably has the students working against the clock.

The selection of a relevant context and issue gives students an incentive and inspires them. This is enhanced by additional presentations and an efficient use of space and place.

The win-win outcome is that the principal is genuinely interested in the opinions of the 18-24-year-olds and harbours a genuine expectation of what can be delivered within such a limited timeframe. The week is rounded off with a jury session in which both the principal and the students select the top 3 entries, which are awarded a nice prize.

The ideas are collected and submitted to the principal. Not uncommonly, the principals will build on the ideas within their own companies.

Students

• Quickly delving into new issues and learning to work under pressure of time;
• Stepping out of their comfort zone;
• Collaboration between teachers and a team of students;
• Networking with businesses;

Teaching staff

• Being and remaining alert;
• Connection with Partners in Education;
• Networking;

Researchers

• Submitting relevant research to students and teachers, enabling them to take account of the latest insights;

The programme

• Firm connection with partners;
• Learning from one another;
• Focus on what is going on;

The professional field

• Being and remaining alert;
• Getting to know the programme and the dynamics of collective learning;
• We set great store by substantiating our programmes in co-creation with the professional field. That is why we have structural collaboration agreements in place with several media and entertainment companies such as DPG Media, Roularta, and Telenet as “Partner in Education”.

• Expanding good partner network;
• It takes power of persuasion to have companies work with first-year students;
• Emphasising to the principal that students operate as a shadow cabinet; importance of proper expectation management;
• Selection of a case that can be handled within a single week;
• Very strict timing;
• Teacher competencies: project management, coordinating project set-up / good briefing, providing students with proper inspiration;
• Coaching;
• Guiding rather than judging; the public and the principal decide.

What is PAUW?

PAUW stands for Partnerships in AUthentic Workplace Learning.

The “authentic” refers to the learning tasks, which are based on an actual, realistic, and topical need of the school. The learning tasks are thus embedded in the school’s requirements regarding the provision of care, on which the school is already working. All the teaching competencies are involved in the performance of the tasks. It is a full-task-approach, representative of an actual teaching position.

“Workplace learning” refers to actual work situations. In addition to subject-related work placements conferring teaching and pedagogical competencies, students will also participate in the school’s process of care, confer on the work floor, attend meetings, elaborate plans, and initiate activities, thus acquiring the teaching competencies that cannot be conferred directly at the application level during a teacher training programme or work placements.

The PAUW project has been rolled out under the overarching aim of the teacher training programmes provided by EhB University, VUB University, and the COOVI and Oranjerie adult education centres, united in EduXL, to develop partnerships with the professional field: schools and teacher training programmes joining forces in order to enhance one another and to bridge the gap between education and the labour market.

The EhB is keen to remain tuned in to what is happening on the work floor. PAUW is the pre-eminent opportunity for programmes to meet and reinforce one another. In this project, the professional field is part of the programme and the programme is part of the professional field. Our aim in every case is to ensure good collaboration between three parties: student, work placement school, EhB teacher training programme.

Examples of PAUW work placements are:

• Developing educational materials for multiple lessons: a series of lessons, a theme, et cetera;
• Elaborating and supervising a theme-based day, e.g., global citizenship, feeling good about yourself, diversity, et cetera;
• Giving workshops during a theme-based day;
• Developing evaluation instruments, e.g., adaptive evaluation, observation lists, et cetera;
• Organising and providing additional support during field trips;
• Integrating useful IT tools in a theme;
• Developing independent learning kits for several lessons;
• Participating in school care process;
• …

PAUW aims and objectives

A PAUW work placement is offered to all the students enrolled in the Secondary Education Teaching associate degree programme or (abridged) Bachelor of Secondary Education programme provided by EhB University. The work placement is aimed at enabling the graduates, upon completing their teacher training programme, to demonstrate their capability of adopting an inquisitive attitude.

The abridged programme lacks the time and space for thorough academic research. Within the small-scale context of the work placement, we are nonetheless confident that students can develop some of the skills and attitudes required of a researching teacher.

It is essential for a PAUW task to be substantiated in a highly concrete manner within an authentic educational context. That is why we set great store by good collaboration and open communication between the (work placement) school and the teacher training programme. A PAUW work placement can be regarded as a success if it fosters the learning process of the three partners: the student, the PAUW school, and the teacher training programme.

How is the PAUW work placement structured?

Students have several weeks (depending on the period in which they will be doing the PAUW work placement) to work on their PAUW task and the associated work placement. The full PAUW project comprises four stages.

1. Preparation

The students look for a school at which to do their work placement. This can be either a school at which they have already gained previous work placement experience or a school that is new to them. Schools that are already acquainted with the PAUW and Researching School concept may also submit proposals regarding projects in which they perceive a researching and participatory role for our students. Furthermore, via the forum/Intranet, EhB University regularly presents proposals for PAUW projects in which students can participate.

After defining the research question, the students draw up an action plan (associate degree programme) or a research design (bachelor programme), comprising a concrete schedule. This calls for good and transparent agreements between supervisors (mentors) and students. A good schedule is a guideline for the students and enables the (work placement) school to properly monitor the process and adjust course wherever necessary.

2. Execution

The students work out the action plan in concrete details: students and work placement school jointly elaborate the product, under the supervision of the EhB teacher training programme. Furthermore, students also formulate conclusions based on their interpretation of the research results.

The students record the PAUW task in a file that, preferably, can be disseminated in a digital format (e.g., via the Klascement network). In principle, the students and other co-workers from the professional field can immediately set to work with the PAUW task and the products developed in a teaching setting. For that reason, we request students to field-test at least one element of their PAUW task in an authentic (teaching) context (within the framework of another programme component).

3. Reflection

The students reflect on their role as a researching teacher on the basis of the research process that they have completed. Furthermore, the students reflect on the final product that they have designed, the process, the development of the eventual PAUW task, and the collaboration within the group.

Throughout the PAUW project, the students keep a portfolio on their own research process. In this portfolio, they delve more deeply into the preparation, execution, and their self-reflection. The work placement school and the teacher training programme have the right to peruse the portfolio at any time.

4. Reporting

The final stage in the research process revolves around reporting. In short: the students provide feedback on their research to the workplace (the work placement school). This reporting stage is embedded in the final result: we expect the experience gained during the field tests to be incorporated into the final result.

5. Presentation

During the PAUW event, the students present their PAUW tasks to one another and to the professional field. This event is open to any interested party from the “participating” school. It thus opens up opportunities to expand networks and become acquainted with the graduates who will shortly be joining the teaching force. For the students, it is a good exercise in communication, in which they learn to present themselves to the professional field and to external parties.

Students

Students have the opportunity effectively to be a member of a staff team at a school, to a much greater degree than they would during a subject-related work placement. This enables them to acquire competencies that are not specifically focused on teaching as such, but rather on such other professional skills as collaborating and elaborating projects in an effective team, with all the associated organisational and administrative duties. The work placement also enables students to expand their professional contacts.

Teaching staff

Consultation with work placement schools is embedded in the process. Teachers can thus keep a finger on the pulse. By supervising students on work placement, teachers also keep in touch with the professional field.

The programme

Supervision of students by the teacher training programme fosters the exchange of expertise between the university college and the professional field. Research and innovation flow back to the schools and vice versa.

The PAUW project fosters a (cultural) change in which the professional field is increasingly regarded as a fully-fledged extension of the learning environment, whose involvement in work placements extends beyond merely offering work placement positions.

The professional field

The product can be used for years on end, not only by the work placement school but also by other teachers and schools once the student has shared the material in the Klascement network.

Via the PAUW work placement, the EhB teacher training programme can tie in with the needs of the professional field.

Supervision of students by the teacher training programme fosters the exchange of expertise between the university college and the professional field. Research and innovation flow back to the schools and vice versa.

Challenges

The VOEG programme comprises two different programmes that are being organised in conjunction:

• Associate degree in Secondary Education Teaching (level 5 of the European Qualifications Framework);
• Abridged Bachelor of Secondary Education programme (level 6 of the European Qualifications Framework).

This calls for differentiation by respective level in all the programme components, including the PAUW work placement. The aims and objectives defined for the PAUW work placement differ according to the student’s level. In the research stage of the work placement, first degree students (e.g., someone who has worked as a hairdresser for 20 years and now wishes to become a teacher) will take the first steps in a research track: drawing up the research question, collecting data, et cetera. Bachelor’s students will need to exert full research competencies in their work placement. The differentiation by level is both a challenge and something to work on.

Furthermore, the group of VOEG students is diverse as well. The group usually consists of:

• Fulltime students;
• Students combining the programme with a family and/or a (fulltime) job;
• Students already employed as a Trainee Teacher who wish to earn teaching qualifications.

For the second category, that of working students, planning the PAUW work placement poses a challenge. Because their time is limited, this category tends to treat the work placement in a slightly stepmotherly way. Furthermore, in many cases they fail to see any added value. Convincing these students is a challenge.

The third category, that of Trainee Teachers, has the option of doing their PAUW work placement within their own work environment.

Differentiation between the students poses a challenge to the programme. For that reason, VOEG is exploring other ways to tackle the PAUW work placements.

The supervision of VOEG students is currently realised by dividing the students among the teachers. The teachers are thus assumed to be all-rounders who are familiar with the content and set-up of all the other programme components. In some cases, the school fails to sufficiently encourage the teachers to accommodate the PAUW work placement.

Opportunities

With effect from next year, designated PAUW coaches will be appointed to supervise the students in a more specific and efficient manner, thus garnering more support for the work placement. The appointment of designated PAUW coaches will also enable translation of the (abstract) aims, objectives, and expectations of the PAUW work placement to the student context.

As indicated under “Added value”, the programme intends the PAUW work placement to foster a change in which the involvement of the professional field in work placements extends beyond merely opening up to trainees. By the following academic year, VOEG intends to join forces with the regular Bachelor of Secondary Education programme (which also organises PAUW work placements) and expand its partnerships to a limited number of schools that are explicitly committed to the PAUW work placements. Its ultimate goal is the joint training of students through the PAUW work placement. The programme is still exploring ways to convey this message to potential partner schools.

Because of its research element, the PAUW work placement fosters lifelong learning among (first degree) students. Insight into research leads to an inquisitive and critical attitude, thus supporting lifelong learning.

Position of Multi-cam in the TV-Film-Video programme

In addition to the option of going on an exchange under the Erasmus programme in the first semester of the third year, the film programme at the Narafi Campus is offering four tracks within the PRACTICAL WORK 3 - Workshops & Assignments. Students may enrol in one track of their choice.

1. Fiction – elective track

2. Multi-cam – elective track

3. Non-fiction – elective track

4. Erasmus exchange

Several developments taking place over a time span of a few years have resulted in the momentum to roll out the 3Film Multi-cam elective track:

Since the INRACI film programme’s relocation to the RTBF premises in 2017, the TV studio on Jupiterlaan has been taken over by the Narafi Campus film programme. As the full costs for the studio would henceforth been borne by LUCA, the management has urged for optimising the use of the TV studio.

Feedback meetings with the professional field made it quite clear that the knowledge and skills of the new graduates who ended up in the sector were no longer in keeping with the requirements of the sector. According to the professional field, the relevant companies still needed to invest substantial sums in the training of their new employees. This has prompted the conclusion that our graduates were no longer ready for work immediately upon graduation. As a result, we have decided to adapt the curriculum.

Subsequently, during the summer of 2018, the outdated image and audio direction rooms were fully renovated.

Concurrently, during informal meetings, students enquired about elective tracks in order to be able to specialise.

Consultations during the academic year 2018-2019 revealed the need for expanding the audio training programme to include 1BA Film, whilst the teaching staff requested that the Multi-cam programme be expanded to include 1BA Film and 3BA Film, thus spreading the learning pathways over the three years.

The final KOPERA report (KOPERA is the method we use to monitor the quality of our programmes) lists a large number of suggestions to improve the programme and to introduce elective tracks. New trends must be sustainably and systematically embedded in the curriculum.

In addition, the curriculum reform launched by the Education Council encouraged the elaboration of elective tracks, research, cross-over and inter-disciplinary work.

Within the programme components of the domain-specific unit, room is provided for elective tracks in which students pursue a specialisation from their own practical perspective.

The organisation of the teaching-learning environment is aimed at student-centred study tracks. This enables students to take more responsibility and allows them more liberty in the choices they make in their study track (for the master’s programme, this was initiated in January 2018).

In the second semester of that same academic year, 2018-2019, all this resulted in a framework for the multi-cam track, in collaboration with and at the explicit request of the professional field.

Until then, the co-creation partnerships involved a number of technical service companies from the multi camera sector (Videohouse, NEP, Fly Away, dB Video, and Play), VRT broadcasting company, and Riedel intercom manufacturer. New partner companies are continually being prospected.

The collaboration involves a form of co-creation in which the track is substantiated by the professional field and the programme as partners and in close consultation. In multiple respects, this is a win-win situation for both the partners and the programme.

The multi-cam track is focusing intensively on the latest high-tech developments within the multi-cam professional field. In addition, it devotes ample attention to the acquisition of the 21st century competencies that are expected by the professional field.

On the one hand, the programme is providing several workshops and training courses of its own accord. These take place in its own TV studio and address such topics as network systems and streaming.

On the other hand, the partners are responsible for several programmes that are characteristic of the respective partner’s identity, focused on such topics as shading, set-up, and installation of multi-camera set-ups on site.

Furthermore, the programme includes broadcasting, in which the students – supervised by teachers and staff (head of technology department) – prepare and record an event.

This track, finally, offers room for accommodating several work placement hours.

Training courses

• Materials and workflow, technical service companies
• Putting up and dismantling broadcasting set-ups on site
• Fibre technology, applications and use
• Practical network applications within a multi-cam environment
• LSM operator, image mixer, camera operator, video assistant

Events (these are proposed to the students on condition of availability, planning, financial implications, copyrights, and feasibility; the students select one):

• MUSIC BROADCASTING: concerts by the Music programme at the LUCA Lemmens Campus and livestream concerts in collaboration with V.Z.W. Artists Unlimited;
• SPORTS BROADCASTING: live broadcasting of the Flemish Topsport Finals in Leuven and streaming on social media;
• TV SHOW: depending on the collaboration, we will record an existing TV format in a professional TV studio, for example, De Slimste Mens Ter Wereld [The Brightest Mind in the World], in collaboration with Videohouse and Woestijnvis;
• FICTION: several scenes from an existing fiction series will be recorded in a multi-cam environment, supervised by an experienced fiction director (collaboration with VRT)
  
• IBC Convention: the students visit the IBC Convention and come in contact with the latest high-tech developments.

Evaluation activities

In a permanent evaluation process, the supervising teachers assess the students with respect to attitude, technique, and creativity during the workshops, training sessions, and events/assignments. The first exam period comprises a personal evaluation session. The partners from the professional field are involved in the assessment of the final project. They score the students’ final projects.

Students

• The students experience the track as an added value;
• The programme is taught in a high-tech professional environment;
• In the broad-based programme, the track accommodates the specialisation option requested by students;
• It helps students find trainee posts with the partners;
• It enhances the opportunity for students to find a job with one of the partners;
• During their studies, students actively build up a professional network;
• Incoming Erasmus students are more easily accommodated in the elective tracks;
• Outgoing students have a well-defined framework from which to depart;

Teaching staff

• Teaching staff can exchange expertise and insights in the collaboration with colleagues from the professional field;
• Staff development and expansion of professional knowledge beyond teachers’ own experience;
• Keeping abreast of the latest technological developments;

The programme

• The programme is taught in a high-tech professional environment;
• The programme’s own infrastructure is cost-effective;
• The programme is able to introduce its students to the latest developments;
• Optimum use of the TV studio;
• Costs are shared;
• The track ties in with the university college’s policy direction;
• The tracks follow the attainment targets and the 21st century competencies to be acquired;
• The track results in the development of a reporting procedure;
• The programme can accommodate a higher number of transferring students;

The professional field

• The Multi-cam programme meets the requirements of the professional field and is open to rapid adaptation;
• The ties with the professional field are strengthened;
• Participating companies can scout out the proper profiles faster;
• Newcomers can set to work in the professional field more quickly; less need for investing in specific in-company training.

Other

• The unique nature of this track enhances the charisma of the university college.

Interdependence

Mutually acknowledging that the partner commands certain competencies that you lack. You need one another, you complement one another in order to achieve your common goal.

The programme lacks certain very recent technological expertise because developments in the professional field and in the technological domain advance at a rapid pace. The price tag is too steep, yet the programme is anxious to harness said expertise, not only by having students collaborate but also by having experts from the professional field transfer expertise to the students in an educationally effective manner.

• How can we create an adequate educational framework to allow experts from the professional field without any teaching experience to share their expertise nonetheless? What are viable models with which the professional field would be comfortable?

Commitment

• What is a good partnership format for the professional field to kick off the collaboration? Would it be better to start off without any form of agreement, on the basis of trust, and then to evolve to an effective agreement?
• How can we motivate partners to observe the agreements made? What constructions will work for them?
• How can we commit partners to a co-creation project, even if more recent commercial assignments could overrule the agreements made? How does a programme secure airtight commitment from the partner companies?
• Whilst programmes require an annual schedule (or they need to work with modules and short-term workshops), such scheduling is difficult to set down with partners in the field, in light of their own – oftentimes unpredictable and changing – planning.
  
• What is a graceful way to end a collaboration that is not living up to your expectations (i.e., leading to frustrations), but which you hope to take up again one day?

Common goal

Each party has its own interests that converge in the project (common goal): companies want well-trained students whom they can put to work virtually immediately; the programme can utilise the companies’ high-tech infrastructure which is far beyond its budget and can train students in an authentic, high-tech environment with support from experts in the field.

Interorganisational trust

It is not a matter of course to create trust between competing partners in the professional field, whom you are gathering together to achieve a common goal in collaboration with the programme: well-trained students and thus staff who can rapidly start work.

• What does the professional field need to be able to collaborate with competitors and a programme on the basis of trust?

Open communication and transparency

Clear agreements on each party’s input in terms of content, technology, facilities.

With a view to creating trust: setting down with what each party can go public, or how each party can use the “products” of the collaboration.

General current challenge:

• How can we have partners visit our campus or students work in the partner companies under Covid-safe conditions?