Job Applications without paper: Project „PLAnB“ finds new paths for young people to go

Written by  Bianca Kläner

Translation: Katharina Kracht

20th October 2005 in the Stadtteil Kurier - full article in German here

NEUSTADT. Members of the „Project Learning and Living in Buntentor“ (PLAn B) team have been probing new ways to make the Hauptschool diploma attainable for their youngsters. PLAnB consider themselves a business that offers services to costumers and have thus placed their emphasis on practical work experience. When it comes to job applications, they are also set on finding innovative methods: The students construct electronic portfolios (called ePortfolios) which potential employers can access from their computers.

Marcel would like to do an apprenticeship as a salesperson in retail. “But it’s just not easy at all to find a place where I can do the apprenticeship”, he states regarding the situation on the labor market. In the computer pool, Marcel is working on his “ePortfolio,” a kind of an electronic profile for job applications. This electronic portfolio demands that he give detailed information about himself, for instance regarding his own strengths. Marcel explains that this kind of self-assessment was difficult to start with.

His fellow student Tobias tells us that he is interested in agriculture and machines. He is looking for an apprenticeship as mechanical engineer. He likes the ePortfolio a lot better than conventional applications: “It’s just so much more fun to work on the PC,” he states. He believes that the ePortfolio will also improve his opportunities of getting an apprenticeship, because it looks more tidy. Apart from the information regarding his professional goals and his skills, his photo is also included in the ePortfolio: The students take photos with a digital camera and upload them to the internet.

These ePortfolios are being introduced as part of the European wide project Keypal whose Bremen representative is the German Red Cross.

“Those young people who experience major difficulties when they have to go to normal schools are the ones who find it extremely difficult to assess their own skills adequately,” explains Carsten Floemer, social worker and Keypal project manager. “We consider the ePortfolio a special way to motivate the young people to think about their own skills and knowledge so that they get to know themselves better and can better assess their skills.” While working on the computers, he states, the young people are training their communication and IT skills.

A while ago, experts from the area of IT and education, coming from the Keypal countries France, Scotland, England, and Slovenia, visited Plan B and praised the motivation with which the young people approached the ePortfolio.

The students have the chance of testing their skills and gaining experience when they provide services to the local customers. They clean out garages, do the cleaning for a lady from the neighborhood, and just recently they explained six senior citizens how to use a PC. Municipal administrators and other organizations also form part of the clientele. The “Sozialverband SoVD” have ordered Christmas cards from PLAnB and the administration for social issues have bought from PLAnB 5000 prints for the city’s preschool section.

Students also have to take the normal exams and tests, of course. The aim for all students is, after all, getting their leaving diploma (Hauptschulabschluss). Susanne Schröder, vocational school teacher, explains that many of the PLAnB students did not go to school for a long time before they finally came to PLAnB and that they usually come from disaffected families. The mixture of real work experience and school based learning is intended to reach these young people where they could not be reached by the normal school and offer them a new perspective. “We are a community in which everybody is considered special,” she states.

© Copyright Bremer Tageszeitungen AG Ausgabe: Links der Weser Seite: 2 Datum: 20.10.2005

Translation: Katharina Kracht