SkillPass meets the needs of young European professionals in the sectors of educational vocational training, social and occupational integration, participation and international mobility. These needs relate to capitalising on their youth experiences, and evaluating them in terms of skills which can be transferred to contexts and/or objectives other than those in which these skills were acquired/developed. 

Five years of investigation have shown us that certain players find themselves at a loss when it comes to helping young people set up a strategy to evaluate their assets with a view to promoting them (whether it is for themselves or to present them to others). They lack both the tools suited to their support systems and the skills required to introduce and support a reflexive approach to skill identification and evaluation. 

SkillPass aims to underwrite the steps which support young adults in the development of their employability, and to increase their penetration of systems which recognise and accept skills which were acquired in casual or informal activities. Tests are currently being carried out on people who are changing careers, monitored by centres which assess specialised skills. 

A unique educational process

SkillPass offers a unique educational process to identify and evaluate skills, based on a serious game and a tutored application. The scenario varies between game sessions and time for reflection, carried out both individually and collectively while the strategy relies on an inductive approach to pinpoint skills, using the adventure story of a video game. It alternates game sessions in front of the screen with discussion time; and individual contributions with joint productions. In the game, the trainee player builds up his hero's portfolio and gradually masters basic concepts relating to the context of the skill.

The screen animations, central to the process, use this learning curve to better understand the reality of the beneficiaries' experiences.

If the game teaches the notion of a skill 'located in activity', and offers a way of identifying their own transverse skills, the application undeniably offers a complementary approach, as a result of the use of video gaming.  It allows the beneficiaries to record their own experiences by contextualising them, using a tag system. The application 'supports' the beneficiaries through the experiences / situations to generate an awareness of their own abilities, and then their transverse skills: Problem-solving, communicating, handling information, working as a team - all depending on the chosen situation. 

The young adults end the process by devising a plan to evaluate their new professional identities. The result of the course can be exported (in visual / narrative form) to the professional social networks, to enhance their CVs. This makes it easier, for example, to fill out a Europass on-line CV. Certain players prepare the young people for oral presentations: 'My pitch in five' to sell themselves during employment forums, and to prepare for job interviews. The application can be integrated into various other organisations (CléA (cf previous article), EU Youthpass) to broaden their development plans.

Multi-purpose use  

Designed to be used to aid social and occupational integration, SkillPass also finds a place with those struggling against having left school early, or even with integration specialists, academic as well as professional. This versatility can be explained by the composite nature of the partnership which contributed to the tool's concept: multimedia educational engineers, trainers, guidance counsellors, occupational integration advisers, etc. All these professions participated to construct a multi-use, multi-field resource which would allow each one to evaluate the skills of its own target public.

 

It was from this perspective, too, that the digital application was designed to allow the professional to choose to use the terms of reference which he uses in everyday life: a common knowledge base; the skills and culture of the National Education Department; the transverse skills terms of reference used by AEFA (European Agenda for Adult Learning); the EU's Eight Key Skills; or the Key Skills terms of reference used by OFPC (Office for Counselling, Vocational and Continued Training).

 

Always with a view to being adaptable to the needs and expectations of a variety of professionals, SkillPass offers a generic scenario of educational animation, with as much detail as possible, and with different ways of being used, so as to integrate this tool into the fields of integration, young people's voluntary service / participation and vocational guidance.

The SkillPass scheme has benefited from financing by Erasmus+, the Hauts de France Regional Council, the Free Foundation, the Orange Foundation, the KPMG Foundation and the EDF Foundation.

European partners: Mission Locale Anderlecht Belgium, Cafoc de Nantes France, Fondation Intras Valladolid Spain, 4Motion Luxembourg, OFPC de Geneva, Switzerland, Filoxenia Kryoneri Greece,  Tempo Libero Brescia Italy,  Kaléido’Scop Saint-Etienne France, CEI London UK, CNAJ Bern Switzerland.