CARMA projekt

1. About the project

Increasing number of students are in risk of dropping out from VET schools nowadays in Europe. The aim of CARMA project is to empower teachers from partner countries (Hungary, Finland and Bulgaria) and beyond to deliver career guidance and foster the development of career management skills among VET students in order to prevent early school leaving, increase motivation and attainment levels as well as employability. To reach this, a 5-member international consortium, which represents 3 countries (Hungary, Finland and Bulgaria) and is led by Raabe Klett Ltd (Hungary) undertook to compose a comprehensive Career Management Manual for VET teachers. On the basis of this Manual, 10 teachers from two partner schools (Manfred Weiss VET School from Budapest, HU and Raahe VET Institute, FI) take part in a 5-day training in Sofia, BG. After this, trained teachers conduct career guidance pilot sessions in their respective institutes for altogether 100 students. The experiences of the pilot sessions - e. g. the practical use of Manual - will be presented and discussed on two multiplier events, on a workshop in Sofia, BG and on an international conference in Budapest, HU.

Career management skills combine elements of several transversal competences, highlighted in the European Framework of Key Competences for Lifelong Learning such as learn to learn (setting and following learning goals related to career choice made, investing efforts and maintaining discipline for continuous development in the professional area of one's interest); digital competences (applying ICT to process career relevant information, develop electronic portfolio of one's professional and personal development, market oneself in social media and the web in general) and social competences (ability to communicate effectively own strengths in the context of working life relations).

Our project builds on the profound knowledge base and policy recommendations of European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network (ELGPN). In 2007-2015 the network assisted the EU Member States (and the neighbouring countries eligible to participate in the EU Erasmus+ Programme) and the European Commission in developing European co-operation in lifelong guidance in both the education and the employment sectors. One of the recent documents, issued by the network, ELGPN Tools No. 6: Guidelines for Policies and Systems Development for Lifelong Guidance (November 2015), highlights promotion of career managements skills as a key element for high-quality VET systems. In addition, guidance at schools should provide focus on transition to labour market and be responsive to classroom diversity.

Our analysis of the current situation in partner schools from Hungary, Finland and Bulgaria shows a stable trend in the numbers of learners that are facing difficulties in graduating. The roots of this phenomenon reflect the different national and local contexts: in some cases, these are linked to the migrant and disadvantaged background of students (FI) and in others to the lack of employment prospects for VET graduates (HU, BG), which impacts negatively their level of motivation. National governments employ long-term strategies to alleviate the negative effects from school leaving, focusing on further exploiting the potential of work-based learning at VET schools and maintaining quality and effective guidance service for students, so they can take free and informed choices of their career development. However, providing accessible guidance for learners calls for more active involvement of VET teachers in the process. Currently, VET focuses predominantly on developing competences for a specific profession and is not offering enough guidance for learners to yield the so called horizontal skills that increase adaptability to different occupational settings. Guidance services at VET schools are seen as the bridge between current education offer and business demand, stimulating students to reflect on the transversal competences for successful career development, setting long-term goals and undertaking structured and well thought actions in reaching these goals. In Hungary, over a quarter of vocational secondary students and over a third of vocational training students indicate that they would choose a different occupation, if they could start again. It is therefore important for career guidance and placement services to be available towards the end of courses, to help students to review their career plans and to find jobs that meet their interests and goals. Such services need also to be available earlier in courses for any students that are thinking of, or at risk of, dropping out, to ensure that they are able to transfer as easily as possible to a more appropriate programme (Field et al.; Kuczera et al.).

Early school leaving can be explained by a number of reasons. Uncovering and understanding these is a must to take the right measures in order to alleviate the problem. One of the main targets of the European Union is to reduce the average share of early school leavers under 10 percent by 2020 ( Europe 2020 Target: Early Leavers from Education and Training) To reach this you will need a comprehensive strategy, furthermore it is necessary to uncover the reasons and to find the right instruments of prevention and intervention. These also help to improve the quality of vocational education and training.

2. Partners

Raabe Klett (HU)

Klett Group is one of the leading European publishing groups in the field of education and training. The company has established itself as a prominent provider of a variety of educational products, focusing on development of learning materials for school leaders, teachers and students.

Our aim is to continuously support teachers and education leaders through conducting school teacher/headmasters accredited trainings and conferences, development of subscription-based reference books, consultancy in process development and monitoring of school leadership training programmes, quality assurance of language courses.

We have 27 employees and we work directly with more than 200 experts in the field of education and training. The company has an excellent strategic relationship with the Hungarian Ministry of Education, as well as with some of the leading European Universities providing educational management courses.

Below is a list of some of our most recent and widely successful products and activities:

- more than 45 accredited teacher training programs;
- each year we train more than 2000 teachers and headmasters;
- only in 2015 we organized more than 150 accredited teacher trainings;
- in 2008, we started the Raabe College, which offers legal and methodological training for headmasters in public schools.

Additionally we have developed and maintain a VET-oriented website, i.e. http://szakkepzes.raabe.hu, which is targeting the vocational sector stakeholders. The format is a 12-page monthly magazine, developed in cooperation with the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. On our specialised electronic page, we also offer our end-users to ask VET-related questions, which are answered by a team of leading national experts.

Annually, we organise the largest national school start conference for school leaders and teachers in Hungary, which for 5 years now, gathers together hundreds of renowned European and national education stakeholders to exchange ideas and share best-practice in school education and leadership.

BME University (HU)

As one of leading technical universities in Hungary and provider of quality training for VET teachers, it will contribute to all aspects of intellectual outputs design, with focus on quality assurance of the development process. Furthermore, the organization will offer comparative research to effective training models in intercultural setting to be used for the design of the international joint staff training for VET teachers planned. Furthermore, the university will provide leading expertise in collecting evidenced base information for drafting the policy recommendations envisaged.

Budapest University of Technology has more than 80 departments and institutes operate within the structure of eight faculties. About 1200 lecturers, amoung than 700 researchers and other degree holders and numerous invited lecturers and practicing expert specialists participate in education and research at the university. Approximately 800 of the university's 24.000 students are from 50 countries abroad. The Budapest University of Technology issues about 70% of Hungary's engineering degrees.

Raahe VET Institute (FI)

Raahe Municipal Education and Training Consortium (Raahenkoulutuskuntayhtymä) provides qualified vocational upper secondary education and training at three different schools in Raahe region. Each of these schools offers several different study programmes.

The three schools - Raahe Vocational Institute, Lybecker Institute of Craftsand Design and Ruukki Agriculture Institute - altogether have about 1000 students, most of them receiving initial vocational training at the age of 16-19 years. The average length of a training programme is three years, which gives students an initial vocational qualification and the skills to work in the employment of one's choice. The three-year training programme consists of theoretical studies, practical studies in the college workshops, and a minimum of six-months' work experience in working life.

It is a source of pride for the Institute that the number of early school leavers in Raahe region stays below 9%.

Manfred Weiss VET School (HU)

The institution is 67 years old, it includes a secondary school, a technical school and a student hostel. It is situated on the southern border of Budapest. We have about 50 classrooms and a 4000-square metre workshop. Until the 1980s we served the purpose of foundation: we primarily qualified metallurgical and engineering professionals for the local factory first called Weiss Manfréd, later Csepel Works. Meanwhile, due to the changes in the country our areas of training transformed, today the electric - electronic and the IT groups are dominant.

This school year, 640 students are engaged in training at our institution, 352 are in vocational training. Currently, we have 92 teachers. Our hostel provides housing for 150 students.

Selfinvest (BG)

As a training company and guidance centre for students it has a rich portfolio of training experience both with business companies and schools.

In 2012, three years after its foundation Selfinvest was awarded best practice in the Bulgarian National competition for innovative practices in career guidance in the field of secondary education, organized by the National Euroguidance Centre. The award is for the development of simulation training based on the "learning by doing" method that aims to develop career management skills of 16 to 19 years old students. The awarded program is named "Journey through Indian lands". The training aims to illustrate the whole process of planning personal and career development of specific skills through management of unforeseen circumstances and constant change . In 2012 the simulation game was presented during the International Conference for career counsellors' "Motivation for development" in Sofia, Bulgaria, receiving extremely positive feedback and high marks from career guidance experts from across Europe.

3. Outputs

CARMA - Career Management Skills at VET school level

- a comprehensive Manual for VET teachers to support VET learners in developing career management skills;
CAREER MANAGEMENT SKILLS TRAINING MANUAL FOR VET TEACHERS - Download here >>

- structured training to enhance VET teachers' competencies in career guidance;

- career guidance pilot sessions held by trained teachers in two partner schools (Manfred Weiss VET school, Budapest, HU and Raahe VET Institute, FI);

- policy recommendations - a document, which provides information for the decision makers on national and European level about the key conclusions of the project and suggests policy improvements.
You can download our Policy Recommendations based on the experiences of the CARMA project here.>>

4. Events

March 2018

VET Education and Career Management

The reasons for early school leaving has different roots in each country, yet it is an existing phenomenon in all Europe.

The problem is an obstacle to economic growth and employment everywhere, it hampers productivity and competitiveness.

Young people who are affected face other disadvantages, that define their success in life for a long term.

Young people who leave education and training prematurely are bound to lack skills and qualifications. They face a higher risk of unemployment, social exclusion and poverty.

What can VET teachers do, what can the education system do to prevent this?

With the Manual developed in our project called CARMA we are offering a practical tool for VET teachers to support the key competencies needed for lifelong learning.

Stay informed about the results of the Carma project, the experiences of the testing of the Teacher Manual, about out Policy recommendations based on the results of the project as well as the opinion of the VET schools, employers and the Chamber on our international conference VET Education and Career Management -Let’s bring career guidance to the classroom! to be held in Budapest, 26th April 2018.

Our newsletter subscribers can take part on the event free of charge by providing the code „GoodCarma” at the Comment section of the Application form.

If you would like to know more about the Carma project, click here!

Please, register at the Carma website to get regular updates!

This project has been funded with the support of the European Union or This project has been funded with the support of the Erasmus+ Programme, action Strategic Partnerships in VET.

February 2018

What is my job?

This was the final exercise of the piloting period at the Raahe VET Institute in Finland conducted by the teachers who took part in the CARMA project

The aim of this CARMA class is that students get to know different, relevant occupations, the tasks that are related to these jobs and the skills needed.

With this also our Finn colleagues have completed the testing of the Career Management Skills training Manual for VET teachers.

You can get more information about the experiences of the testing of the Teacher Manual, about our Policy recommendations based on the results of the project as well as the opinion of the VET schools, employers and the Chamber on our international conference VET EDUCATION and CAREER MANAGEMENT -Let’s bring career guidance to the classroom! to be held in Budapest, 26th April 2018.

Further details and application:

When applying, please add the code “GoodCarma” at the comment section for free participation!

If you would like to know more about the Carma project, click here!

Please, register at the Carma website to get regular updates!

January 2018

Being well informed: How to recognize fake advertisements and bogus job opportunities.

This is the title of the practical activity that was tested as last during the pilot period by the team of Weiss Manfréd Vocational Secondary school in Csepel.

The aim of the last CARMA-class was that students will be able to recognise those job opportunities in which there is no guarantee that it will be paid for.

With this, our Hungarian colleagues have finished the testing of the „Career Management Skills Training Manual for VET teachers.”

Taking their experiences into account, we will fine tune the content of the Manual; also their recommendations will be included into the Policy recommendation that will be produced within the project.

If you would like to know more about the Carma project, click here!

December 2017

Currently, and until the end of January 2018, a group of trained Finnish and Hungarian teachers are testing the activities developed in the project manual in the premises of the Finnish Raahen koulutuskuntayhtymä (Education Centre Brahe) and the Hungarian BKSZC Weiss Manfred Vocational Secondary School.

Experiences of the pilot period determine the final context of the publication „Career management skills training manual for VET teachers”.

The aim of the authors was to develop a manual using the added knowledge and experience of project partners that can be used in the following ways:

As an activity book to be used by teachers, coaches and students for the development of skills, which effectively support the development of career routes in different contexts and at different levels.

As a manual with background information for the world of work.

As a guide to how to use different practical tasks to give them an appropriate challenge and support for students in real and imaginative life situations.

As a collection of model activities, encouraging colleagues to develop similar activities tailored to their own situation.

The manual is available in four languages:

Hungarian, download here

English, download here

Finnish, download here

Bulgarian, download here

If you would like to know more about the Carma project, click here!

November 2017

Testing of the career guidance Manual has begun at Weiss Manfréd Szakgimnázium és Szakközépiskola in Hungary.

This group of VET teachers have been attended to attended the joint staff training at the end of September in Sofia.

The content of the Manual could be modified due to the experiences of pilot sessions and evaluation of the results.

"CAREER MANAGEMENT SKILLS TRAINING MANUAL FOR VET TEACHERS" developed during the project can be downloaded for free.

Click here to download in Hungarian

Click here to download in English

Click here to download in Finnish

Click here to download in Bulgarian

October 2017

The success of the CARMA Manual developed under the CARMA project depends on the cooperation among the teachers of different nationalities as well. A joint staff training for 10 Finnish and Hungarian teachers, who also contribute as the promotional team of the CARMA project was organized by Selfinvest Ltd., one of the partners of the project.

The training in Sofia was successfully concluded between 26-30 September 2017. The aim of the project was to inspire and make teachers involved suitable to give pilot lessons starting this November on the highest level.

This time the participants evaluated the CARMA Manual too, this feedback will help to fine-tune the Manual.

If you would like to know more about the Carma project, click here!

Semptember 2017

Our Bulgarian Partner, the Selfinvest has begun the 5-day training for Hungarian and Finnish teachers in Sofia. The aim of the training is not only about the introduction and application of the Manual, but also the motivation and developing career consuelling of the participant colleagues.

The Selfinvest is doing everything for intercultural cooperation and professional networking. It is supported by changing good practices and "Know-how" tips at the training.

July - August 2017

The Bulgarian, Hungarian and Finnish translations of the Manual have been completed.

Summer has moved on, a new school year begins, new worries and pleasures await.
We really hope that we will contribute to the pleasures because beside the English version of the Manual, the Bulgarian, Finnish and Hungarian adaptations have also been completed.

The Manual contains more than 40 playful exercises that can be implemented in classroom, hereby the competencies of learners, later utilized at the labor market can be developed by teachers.
A 5-day training will be held by our Bulgarian partner (Selfinvest) in Sofia, so that the new material can be applied efficiently and as soon as possible. Selfinvest is one of the market leader firms organizing trainings in Bulgaria.
Teachers from Hungary and Finland will take part in the training, the material will be tested within the confines of lifelike classes, then feedback is given to the authors of the Manual. These opinions will also determine the final content of the Manual.

After finalizing the editing of the Manual, all volumes will be available on carma.hu for free very soon. Register here, to get the latest information about the Manual and other updates too.

If you would like to know more about the Carma project, click here!

The National School Year Opening Conference was held on 24th August by the Hungarian coordinator of the CARMA project, Raabe Klett Ltd. More than 200 school leaders and educators were present, the participants were informed at the info stand about the CARMA-project.

The celebrational dinner of the 25th anniversary of the company was also held on the same day. More than 200 guests attended, experts of educational issues, strategic partners, trainers and major editors of our publications.

In the welcome speech Szilvia Szaniszló, the managing director of Raabe Klett Ltd. reported to the guests about the progress of the Erasmus + CARMA project.

June 2017

The second Carma Project Meeting was held in Raahe in the beginning of June. Reviewing the Manual was the most important point of the professional program. The first, shorter part of the Manual introduces the system of skills needed to achieve successful lifelong guidance - this will also help teachers to choose the exercises covering the rest of the Manual that are suitable to strengthen the skills tend to be improved.

The second Carma Project Meeting was held in Raahe, a small Finnish town by the sea, between the 8th and 10 th of June. The project partners introduced their activities to date, the upcoming tasks were discussed thoroughly. We also had some free time to spend.

We reviewed the Manual with the guidance of dr. Judit Reményi Vidékiné and dr. György Molnár - representing the university, the tasks relating the training of the teachers using the Manual in pilot classes have also been discussed.

The Manual will be really practical, it will contain a theoretical intruduction and lots of in-class activities which help teachers and school psychologists to improve the skills of learners regarding entering labour market or changing jobs

May 2017

The team started preparing for the meeting in Raahe. The university graduated from writing this manual, and Raabe edited it.

At the meeting, I would like to listen to the opinions and suggestions of other members of the team, as well as to organize the training of the teachers of the two partner schools, where they can prepare for the piloting of the Manual.

If you would like to know more about the Carma project, click here!

April 2017

Each institution has conducted their focus group meeting. In doing so, they discussed the strengths and weaknesses of their vocational education system, the threats and the opportunities inherent in the systems, moreover, the skills and abilities that they believe should be developed to meet labor market expectations.

As it turned out, the problems are not primarily seen in the fact that there is not much talk at vocational school lessons about practical things like how to write CVs or how to dress up for a job interview. Rather, the development of so-called soft skills, such as active, practical knowledge of personality development methods based on self-knowledge is lacking.

If you would like to know more about the Carma project, click here!

March 2017

Three project partners will lead a focus group discussion for taking external opinions into consideration. It means 10-10 invited persons (experts and other Carma project target group members) will participate in a moderator guided discussion on important questions and challenges of the national vocational education system and early school leaving. The experiences and opinions gathered in these discussions will serve as a basis for the manual.

Preparing for focus group meetings, partners chose and invited participants of focus groups, prepared the list of the topics/questions to discuss and a screenplay of the meeting including a presentation of Carma project.

Selfinvest asked 10 coaches experienced in career planning and management in VET area to attend their focus group meeting, Weiss and Brahe vocational school selected and invited 10-10 external persons (teachers and students) who are all active in the field of vocational education but not at the focus group meeting leader school.

If you would like to know more about the Carma project, click here!

February 2017

The collected data had been overviewed, analysed and rendered by the team of BME University, who prepared a list of activities needed for effective career management, which needed student competency development for support.

Our list:

1. Personal Management

2. Build and maintain a positive self-image

3. Interact positively and effectively with others

4. Change and grow throughout ones' life

5. Learning and Work Exploration

6. Participate in life-long learning supportive of life/work goals

7. Locate and effectively use life/work information

8. Understand the relationship between work and society/economy

9. Life/Work Building

10. Secure or create and maintain work

11. Make life/work enhancing decisions

12. Maintain balanced life and work roles

13. Understand the changing nature of life and work roles

14. Understand, engage in and manage one's own life/work building process

They have determined the competences, skills needed, and after assigning the tasks within the group, they have started to write the Manual. If you would like to know more about the Carma project, click here!

January 2017

Gathering country-specific raw data about the vocational system

It is of primary significance from the point of view of the utility of the manual, that the authors should have an exact enough understanding about the initial educational systems in which it is meant to be used.

The pilot of the manual, based on the research of the general educational framework, will aim to try the specific pedagogical method, and collect and feedback experiences gained in specific socio-cultural contexts.

For this reason the content development started with collecting country-specific row data, which results in an outline of characteristics of vocational educational systems partner countries, which are important from the point of view of career management.

If you would like to know more about the Carma project, click here!

December 2016
Number of vocational students who are at risk of dropping out is increasing in Europe nowadays.

The goal of Carma project is to prepare teachers of the participant countries - or hopefully as many european countries as possible - for giving advice about career planning and management to students enrolled in vocational school, who, having new skills boosted can make better career choices. This will make them more motivated, and number of absences and students who leave the school early will decrease. Thanks to this the graduates have more opportunities in the workforce.

To achieve these aims, our international consortium from the above mentioned three countries - Hungary, Finland, Bulgaria - with the leadership of the Raabe Klett Kft. have taken it upon themselves to develop a Carrier Management Manual for the teachers of vocational schools. 5-5 teachers of two partner schools will attend a training course based on the Manual in Bulgaria.The trained teachers will conduct experimental classes in their own schools, for 100 students altogether.

The experiences gained from practice will be spread and discussed in the course of two international multiplicator events by experts, school directors and decision makers operating in the field of vocational education, which will be held in Sophia and Budapest.

If you would like to know more about the Carma project, click here!

Project meetings

kick off (Budapest, HU)

interim (Raahe, FI)

final (Budapest, HU)

Kick off meeting (Budapest) - 30 November 2016

Partners of CARMA Erasmus+ Project - which aims reducing share of early school leavers - held their first meeting on the last day of November in Budapest. The ten participants - two persons from each organization, e.g. project leader Raabe Klett Educational Consulting and Publisher (Budapest, HU) and the four partners, Budapest University of Technology, Manfred Weiss VET School (Budapest, HU), Raahe VET Institute (FI) and Selfinvest, a Bulgarian training company and guidance centre for students - once more went through the timetable and to-do list of the Project, with special focus on first tasks regarding the first major output of the project, a Career Management Manual for VET teachers.

At the beginning of the meeting, each partner introduced themselves, telling about their organization's past and present activities.

Partners received a pile of documents, first and foremost the so called Partnership Agreement, which is a comprehensive contract between project leader Raabe Klett (HU) and each participants. Among other things the contract includes the general and special rights and obligations of every partner, the estimated budget, description of tasks and calendar of activities, what is more, the financial rules of the cooperation. Partners also received four Strategic Documents: these describe the means and methods of communication under the lifetime of the project, how to disseminate and exploit results of the project, the way of monitoring and evaluation of project activities and results and last but not least, how to cope with threats which may delay or even derail carrying out of CARMA Project.

In the Kick-off meeting participants agreed to use technical terms according to the relevant glossary of europass.cedefop throughout the project. They also agreed to add Skype, a mailing list and a file sharing platform to the communication methods. On this new platform, Raabe Klett (HU) pledged to share presentation and detailed Timesheet of CARMA Project.

As a first step of the implementation of the Project, partners need to collect country specific row information, e.g. rules, data and best practice regarding career management in Vocational Education and Training relevant in their countries. Participants thus undertook to complete Country Reports based on a draft to-do list completed and presented in the meeting by BME University. This draft will be finalized by project leader Raabe Klett (HU) and will be sent to partners who need to collect all the information by 22 January.

Above all, the Bulgarian project partner Selfinvest pledged to complete a 5 page (A4) general introduction to Manual. According to plan, the English version of the Manual should be ready by the end of May 2017 the latest.

On the basis of the Manual, 10 teachers from two partner schools will take part in a 5-day training in Sofia, BG. After this, trained teachers conduct career guidance pilot sessions in their respective institutes for altogether 100 students. The experiences of the pilot sessions - e. g. the practical use of Manual - will be presented and discussed on two multiplier events, on a workshop in Sofia, BG and on an international conference in Budapest, HU.

Besides, participants provide recommendations for policy makers in the member states and on European level on the basis of experiences collected during the 18 months of the project.

Multiplier events

We present the results of the project for the vocational public, namely the vocational training schools and the representatives of the decision-maker authorities.

Workshop (Sofia, BG)

Int'l Conference (Budapest, HU)