IECUVADVLA Project Grundtvig 2 - SOCRATES Dr. Adina Ionescu “Octav Onicescu” High School Bucharest, ROMANIA

“Octav Onicescu” High school Bucharest, Romania "Octav Onicescu“ was founded in 1957; Since 1992 has been known as Vocational High School Octav Onicescu. Presently, “Octav Onicescu” is a theoretic high school; "Octav Onicescu“ is a public education institution where 120 adults attend part-time classes to different profiles as: mathematics- informatics, natural science and humanist.

“Octav Onicescu” High school Bucharest, Romania International projects: 1."Students' Achievement in Foreign Languages in Relation to the learning on environment“ - Comenius project; 2. “Improvement of Employement Chances of the Unemployed and the Visual and Auditive Disabled by Using Virtual Learning Applications - IECUVADVLA-” Grundtvig 2 Project.

Improvement of Employment Chances of the Unemployed and the Visual and Auditive Disabled By Using Virtual Learning Applications -IECUVADVLA-

Partners “Octav Onicescu” High School (Bucharest, Romania) The Romanian Foundation for Quality Promotion (RFQP, Bucharest, Romania) Institut Arbeit und Technik (Gelsenkirchen, Germany) Széchenyi István University (Gyor, Hungary) Fry-Samuels & Associates Company (Lymington, U.K) I.E.R.-Stichting International Excellence Reserve (Eindhoven, the Netherlands)

The target group Senior unemployed; (Senior) unemployed with visual and hearing impairments.

Objectives Improvement of the employment chances of the target group; National studies on unemployment situation and of the visual and auditive disabled; Comparative analysis on the base of the national studies; Short national studies about the specific needs of the target group and the educational assistance by electronic means; Questionnaires to identify the level of knowledge of the target group and their possibilities of employment; Training courses on basic computer skills and employment techniques;

Objectives Design and development of the training modules in different forms accessible for the target group (available on web, CD- Roms, in print form, in text speech conversion, Braille); Development of the project’s web site; Full practical testing of the training modules on learners; Dissemination of the project results; Evaluation of the project results.

Motivation for a Grundtvig 2 project Participation to the international conferences and workshops on E- learning and Assistive Technologies for Vision and Hearing Impairment (CVHI’ 2002 and CVHI’2004, Granada Spain; E-COMM-LINE 2001 and E-COMM-LINE 2002, Bucharest, Romania); The situation of the (senior) unemployed and of the unemployed with disabilities, who can find very difficult a job, because of their age or because of their disabilities; Leonardo da Vinci project “The vocational training by O.D.L of young people with a locomotory disadvantage – EURO–H 2000” (partners: Romania, Hungary, Germany, Scotland).

Partnership Some institutions which were involved in the Leonardo da Vinci project “EURO-H 2000”; Some institutions recommended by the institutions involved in “EURO- H 2000”, to participate to the project IECUVADVLA.

Classification of the project’s activities 1. Activities of the project’s organization: Launch of the project; Determining project tasks and responsibilities in details. Agreements on the detailed time table; Agreed Project Methodology and Action Plan the Activity and Outcome Matrix for years 2 and 3 of the project. 2. Linguistic preparation 3. Project activities provided by Activity Planning Table: Collecting data and information and developing national studies on the situation of the unemployed and the visual/auditive disabled;

Classification of the project activities Collecting data and information and developing short national studies about the specific needs of the target groups and of the educational assistance by electronic means; Disscusions and contacts established with National Agency for Work Force Occupation, with local Agency for Work Force Occupation, with the Town Hall, with potential employers and with representatives of the target group; Writing a matrix comparative report on the base of the national studies;

Classification of the project activities Elaboration of the questionnaires for evaluation of the target group needs, their level of knowledge and employment opportunities; Elaboration of the project’s quality charter; Design and development of the project’s web sites. Updating information about the project’s progress and results Design and development of the training modules in different forms accessible for the target group; evaluation of the project’s results (internal evaluation and the feedback from the adult learners);

Classification of the project activities Dissemination activities :  Within the training workshops;  On the project’s web site;  During the meetings with representatives of National Agency for Work Force Occupation and local Agencies for Work Force Occupation;  By publication and participation to the international conference;  By posters, folders and panels.

Classification of the project’s activities 4. Organisation of the project meetings: Planning of the project meeting activities in accordance with the Activity Planning Table. 5. Administrative activities.

The end products after the 1-st year National studies on unemployment situation and of the visual and auditive (unemployed) disabled, which identified and disseminated:  The current unemployment rates with specific reference to the target groups;  The national strategies to learning and employment opportunities afforded to the target group;  The national legislations in places protecting the rights of the target group;  The governmental benefits, support and inclusive policies promoting equal opportunity.

The end products after the 1-st year Short national studies about the specific needs of the target group and the educational assistance by electronic means; Comparative report on the base of the short national studies; Questionnaires to identify the level of knowledge of the target group and their possibilities of employment; Quality charter; Web sites of the project;

The end products after the 1-st year CD-s with project’s activities and project’s results; Training modules using virtual Application Models on basic computer skills and employment techniques (available on web, CD-s, in print forms); Panels, posters and folders; The paper entitled “Improving the quality of life and work of elderly and disabled people by using distance learning and virtual applications”, authors: Ileana Hamburg, Herbert ten Thij, Adina Ionescu was presented to the 11-th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (July, 2005, Las Vegas, U.S.A).

The experience gained after the 1 st year of the project Staff exchange improved intercultural and teaching abilities; The feedback obtained from learners was very efficient in the evaluation of the project’s progress and results; The project brought a new intercultural dimension to teaching and learning to unemployed and disabled persons by Using Virtual Application Models and contributed to the improvement of the teaching methods in the countries where the use of IT in teaching and learning to this target group is already applied.

The experience gained after the first year Staff directly participating in the project enriched new intercultural experiences in the use of IT in the teaching and learning process, with handicapped users; The communication between the project’s partners was very effective, each partner bringing his own contribution to the project, fulfilling his project tasks and responsibilities.

Conclusions The project drew attention to the issue of the senior unemployed and disabled persons; The project stimulated the change of employers’ attitude towards the value of employing (senior) unemployed and disabled persons; The adult learners actively participated to the project meetings and workshops; The institutions participating in the Learning Partnership, as a whole, found new possibilities and experiences in cooperation on European scale;

Conclusions The project IECUVADVLA introduced the use of Information Technology in the process of teaching and learning to (senior) unemployed and (unemployed) persons with hearing and visual impairments.

Mirror sites addresses  Romania - Romanian Foundation for Quality Promotion  Romania - Octav Onicescu High School  Germany - Institut Arbeit und Technik  Hungary - Széchenyi István University

Mirror sites addresses  The Netherlands I.E.R.- Stichting International Excellence Reserve  United Kingdom -Fry-Samuels & Associates (Lymington) Limited)

Thank you for your attention !