Improvement of Employment Chances of the Unemployed and the Visual and Auditive Disabled By Using Virtual

Learning Applications

-IECUVADVLA-

Dr. Adina Ionescu

“Octav Onicescu” National College

Bucharest, Romania

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)

partners

Genesis of the partnership:

• Some institutions which were involved in the Leonardo da Vinci project “EURO-H 2000”;

• Some institutions were recommended by the institutions involved in “EURO-H 2000”, to participate to the project IECUVADVLA.

The Target Group

• the (Senior) Unemployed with Visual and Hearing Impairments

• the Senior Unemployed

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

objectives• Questionnaires to identify the level of knowledge of the target group

and their possibilities of employment;

• National statistics on typology and disability of unemployed and persons with visual and hearing impairments;

• Development of a data base on national statistics, typology and disability of the target group, learning providers and available jobs;

• Identification of the appropriate software for the project;

• Training courses on basic computer skills, assertiveness and employment techniques;

objectives

• Design and development of the training modules in different forms accessible for the target group;

• Creation and maintenance of the project’s web sites;

• Full practical testing of the training modules on learners;

• Dissemination of the project results;

• Contact employers and workers from job centers and training centers

• Evaluation of the project results.

The Project’s activities

1. Activities of the project’s organisation:

Launch of the project; Determining project tasks and responsibilities in more detail; Agreements on the elaborated time table; Agreed Project Methodology and Action Plan; the Activity and Outcome Matrix for years 2 and 3 of the project.

2. Linguistic preparation.

The Project’s activities

3. Project activities according to the Activity Planning Table:

Collecting data and information and developing national studies by all partners on the situation of the unemployed and people with visual/auditive impairments;

Collecting data and information and developing short national studies by all partners about the specific needs of the target groups and the (possibilities of) educational assistance by electronic means;

Collecting data and information for development of national statistics on typology and disability of unemployed and persons with visual and hearing disabilities.

Collecting data and information for development a database on national statistics,typology and disability, learning providers and available jobs.

The Project’s 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;

Discussions and contacts established with the Romanian National Agency for Work Force Occupation, with the local Agency for Work Force Occupation, with the Town Hall,with representatives of the League for the Disabled People’s Rights from Romania, with potential employers and with representatives of the target group;

Writing jointly a matrix comparative report on the base of the national studies;

The Project’s activities

Design, development and realisation of the project’s web sites. Updating information about the project’s progress and results;

The supportive technologies necessary for the target group were identified and a range of software with hearing possibilites was analysed;

The existing learning providers were identified;

Design and development of the training modules in different forms accessible for the target group;

The Project’s activities

Training sessions on basic computer skills were organized at “Octav Onicescu” National College.

Internal evaluation of the project’s results (internal evaluation also based on the feedback from the adult learners);

The Project’s activities

Dissemination activities :

On the project’s web sites;

Within the training workshops;

By posters, folders and panels;

By publication of papers presented at national and international conferences and symposiums.

The Project’s activities

4. Execution of the organisational activities of the project:

Planning of the project meeting activities in accordance with the

Activity Planning Table; (Evaluation &) Reporting.

5. Administrative activities.

The end products

National studies on unemployment situation and of the visual and auditive (unemployed) disabled;

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;

Web site and national mirror sites of the project;

The end products

Questionnaires to identify the level of knowledge of the target group and their possibilities of employment;

Quality charter

National statistics on typology and disability of unemployed and persons with visual and hearing impairments;

The end products

Training modules using virtual Application Models on basic computer skills and employment techniques (available on web, CD-s, in print forms);

A database on national statistics, typology, disability of the target group, learning providers and available job;

Power Point presentations of the project’s objectives, activities and results were made at different conferences and seminars (such as Grundtvig 2 Learning Partnerships Contact Seminar on Learning and Disabilities organized by Tempus Public Foundation from Hungary, 29 September – 2 October 2005).

The end products

The paper “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 presented to the 11-th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (July, 2005, Las Vegas, U.S.A).

The paper “ E-learning to Improve Basic Skills Training of People with Disabilites“, authors Ileana Hamburg, Adina Ionescu, Tomas Sabaliauskas, was accepted to be presented to the Fifth International Scientific and Practical Conference “Internet – Education – Science – 2006”, Ukraine, 10-14 October.

The end products

• The paper “Training Basic Skills of people with disabilities by using e-learning”, authors Ileana Hamburg, Adina Ionescu, Gheorghe Ivan was presented to the National Symposium on Quality and Reliability organized by RFQP on 1-st of December 2005 and was published in OPTIMUM Q revue of education and culture, no. 1,2/2005.

• The paper “Supporting the Development of Basic Skills of People with Multiple Impairments by Training and New Technologies”, authors Adina Ionescu, Ileana Hamburg, Marina Muscan, was presented at CVHI Conference on Assistive Technology for Vision and Hearing Impairments (Kufstein, Austria,18- 21 of July, 2006).

The end products

• Panels, posters and folders;

• CD-s with project’s activities and project’s results.

Thank you for your attention!