Involvement of Stakeholders

Stakeholders, also called interested parties are, by ISO definition those who can affect, are affected by, or perceive themselves as being affected by, the organization.

Both EQAVET and ISO 21001 recognize the importance of their involvement in two distinct phases of the plan-do-check-act continuous improvement cycle:

  • In the PLAN phase, to identify needs and expectations for the educational products and services
  • In the CHECK phase, to verify to what extent the products and services provided fulfilled those needs and expectations.

To enable this, educational organizations need firstly to thoroughly identify their interested parties and their relevant requirements (needs and expectations) and secondly, to establish communication channels to survey them periodically.

Under this framework, ISO 21001 emphasizes giving voice to learners with special needs and including their requirements in the design and development of the educational products and services.

Criteria

1.3. Ongoing consultation with social partners and all other relevant stakeholders takes place to identify specific local/ individual needs
1.7. The relevant stakeholders participate in the process of analysing local needs
3.3. Evaluation and review includes the collection and use of data, and adequate and effective mechanisms to involve internal and external stakeholders
4.2 Understanding the needs and expectations of interested parties
5.1.1 m) ensuring that learners’ educational requirements, including special needs, are identified and addressed
7.4.2 Communication purposes
8.2.1 Determining the requirements for the educational products and services……. b) those resulting from needs analysis that is performed to determine requirements of (current and potential future) learners and other beneficiaries, in particular those with special needs
8.3.2 Design and Development planning… m) the extent to which learners require individualized learning pathways, based on their skills, interests and aptitudes;
9.1.2 Satisfaction of learners, other beneficiaries and staff
9.1.3 Other monitoring and measuring needs

VET21001 Tools

The template for interested parties is based on the definition of interested party/stakeholder given by ISO 21001 and therefore has columns to categorize each interested party identified as:

  1. being internal or external to the educational organization; and
  2. affecting, being affected or perceiving itself as being affected by the educational organization.

Other columns exist to identity the interested parties and to describe the way it affects, is affected or perceives itself to be affected by the educational organization.

The table is organized in such a way to allow the identification of interested parties to be done by process, instead of for the organization as a whole. The advantage of doing this identification by process is that it facilitates the identification of more interested parties that might be relevant for a given process, but not for the whole organization, and which might be missed otherwise.

The template provides a structured and systematic approach for identifying interested parties.

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SURVEYS

Surveys to evaluate the involvement of interested parties and achievement of goals are one of the tools that can be used.
The surveys should be created according to the objectives, goals and requirements defined by each educational organization.

Some templates and Use Cases from a VET School (both templates and use cases are from several different years and different between then, according to the goals defined by the VET school under the EQAVET system). All the documents (survey templates and survey use cases) also comply with ISO 21001:2018 as they specifically focus on learners and other beneficiaries satisfaction.

The Educational Organization implements, every year, a survey on students in order to know their satisfaction concerning the programs’ contents, teachers/trainers, pedagogical materials and the premises/resources. The document is essential for the EQAVET:2019 implementation methodology since it provides us with an updated information on students’ satisfaction.

The document targets the Educational Organization’s recent former students.

This document is related to all the other documents that are referred to the satisfaction evaluation, namely the survey on parents’ satisfaction. It relates to ISO 21001:2018 Clause: 5.1.2, as it specifically addresses to students’ and other beneficiaries’ satisfaction.

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The Educational Organization implements, every year, a survey on parents in order to know their satisfaction concerning the interaction with the school, communication, premises/resources and administrative services. The document is essential for the EQAVET:2019 implementation methodology since it provides the Educational Organization with an updated information on parents’ satisfaction.

The document targets the current students’ parents.

It is related to all the other documents that are referred to the satisfaction evaluation, namely the survey on students’ satisfaction. This document relates to ISO 21001:2018 Clause: 5.1.2, as it specifically addresses to parents’ satisfaction.

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The satisfaction and perceived quality questionnaire is administered at the end of the course, prior to the certification/qualification exam. It includes a socio-personal section with categorical variables and a series of self-anchoring scales (scores 1 to 10) on the quality of specific aspects of the course:

1) Organization and logistics;

2) Guidance activities;

3) Knowledge/skills acquired;

5) Teachers;

6) Conditional section relating to any laboratory activities and therefore to be completed only if these have been carried out;

7) Conditional section related to any distance learning activities;

8) Conditional section relating to WBL activities, company visits and testimonials to be filled out only where these have been carried out;

9) Section relating to actions that the learner intends to take at the end of the course.

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The questionnaire is administered every 2 months and at the conclusion of the WBL pathways to monitor progresses both from the point of view of the beneficiary and the company mentors. The dimensions of learning, integration in the workplace and compliance between the training project drawn up at the beginning and the activities assigned/performed are investigated. It is a quick and streamlined tool that does not burden monitoring activities incentivizing a mechanical compilation by both stakeholders.

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The students Assessment is evaluated through two different surveys:

Students’ Assessment this survey includes the Students’ Self-assessment, as well as, the satisfaction in relation to the school facilities, materials, etc.

Teacher Evaluation Survey (by students) -The students also give feedback about the teachers.

Both surveys are important to rate the overall satisfaction of the students and to improve the school services and to verify if the objectives defined in the management review and EQAVET are being reached.

Both surveys are conducted every year targeting all students of the educational organization.

The educational organization, a VET school, every two years, conducts an analysis to access if the former students of the organization, after completing their studies, are employed, studying, etc.

This document is essential for both the management review as well as for the verification of the EQAVET implementation and objectives established by the educational organization in each EQAVET cycle.

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After conducting the Survey “evaluation questions to ex-students – interview” the information is compiled in a document. In this document the responses of the former students, based on the template “Guideline of evaluation questions to ex-students – interview” are analyzed according to three answers: former students are working, continuing further studies, looking for a job, at the army or migrants.

Based on these results, the school is able to determine if the goals defined for the student were reached and, if necessary, improve the future students support in order to reach the goals.

The evaluation is done separately for each course.

This document is essential for both the management review as well as for the verification of the EQAVET implementation and objectives established by the educational organization in each EQAVET cycle.

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Most of the VET programmes offered by the educational organization are based on the national dual system with a strong component of apprenticeship and work-based learning aiming to meet the needs of the labor market and boost employability. The educational organization has more than 500 protocols with different enterprises in the region (with whom we work in a very close way). These enterprises are an important stakeholder and therefore their satisfaction is very importance to our educational organization.

The report is important for management review and continuous improvement of the partnerships established between the school and the companies, as well as, accomplishing the EQAVET objectives established by the educational organization.

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