The CEF Professional profiles for the field of business (2)

 

Aims of the work package: To find out by interviewing companies in the field of business about the language and communication competencies needs of the professionals working in these fields. The interviews will form a basis of the CEF Professionals profiles (see Appendix 1 for a raw version) The fields of business included in the project are 1. office employees (vocational secondary education) - administration (higher education) 2. assistant in wholesale and export trade (vocational secondary education) -international business (higher education).

Start: As the project starts, i.e. 10/05
The first version: completed 02/06
Comments: completed 03/06
The improved second version: completed based on the comments received in cross-evaluation of the profiles 04/06
Testing the profile: in course and curriculum planning 05/06-12/06
Finish: as the tested version is completed 12/06

Partners involved: Heidelberg Pädagogische Hochschule (vocational secondary education); Jyväskylä Polytechnic, (higher education aspect of the profiles) and Warsaw University; EAPLA and Tampere College (cross-evaluation of the profiles).
Indirect partners involved: Companies operating in the fields mentioned above in Germany and Finland
Roles of partners: The two language and communication competencies profiles (products as a result of interviews with the companies operating in the field) in the business field form a continuum where both the needs of the secondary vocational education as well as those of the higher education are taken into consideration. Based on this procedure Heidelberg Pädagogische Hochschule works on the secondary education descriptions of the business profiles conducting the interviews with companies on the language and communication competencies needs, the same is completed for the higher education by Jyväskylä Polytechnic. The communication competencies needs are analysed and these are translated into CEF professional profiles in the work package.

Expected outcomes: Profiles that describe the language and communication competencies needs in the chosen fields of business and thus completes the first step of the project for this field. A total of two profiles in the field of business will be completed. These are to function as a base on VOLL / LSP curriculum planning and course implementation in the English language education in the participating countries.

Input Requirements: Completing the three CEF professional profiles requires an input of 15 days of labour (calculated as full working days, 8 hrs per day) from the secondary education and the equal amount (15 days, 8 hrs per day) from the higher education. The evaluation of a profile is worth an input of three 8-hour work days.