A primary area of Rinova’s work is concerned with inter-agency, or partnership working. In training and employment, this is in recognition of the need for multiple agencies to collaborate when addressing the needs of job seekers, especially those with complex needs. Working with partners to drive solutions in ‘the system’ allows collective solutions to support those who are most vulnerable to ‘go off the radar or fall through the cracks’, dropping out of mainstream support. So, to be involved in the EU transnational project, Networking for Quality Culture and Assurance (NQCA), hosted by lead partner, Ballymun Job Centre in Dublin, is no doubt going to inform how we work in the future. Further, how we can collaborate to ensure that a quality culture and not simply a quality assurance system is at the heart of what we do.
The NQCA project is funded through the Erasmus+ programme, enabling like-mined and complementary organisations to exchange models and practice, and develop and implement new approaches. Through the project, eight partners from across six countries will adapt and develop the Net-Working for Quality Assurance model, so as to ensure its relevance across a wider Vocational Education and Training (VET) journey – defined as one which includes career guidance or referral into relevant VET training programmes, ongoing workplace learning or an employment placement following on from vocational training.
The NQCA partners kicked off the project in Dublin between the 2nd and the 4th December. As a result, we are now tasked in each country with a programme of work to (i) develop a local inter-agency group, (ii) engage key stakeholders in a discussion about inter-agency working and a quality culture, and (iii) engage a learner forum to inform the quality culture approach.
Update: the project has now launched a website – and you can also follow us on Twitter to find out who the partners are and for updates on the project @nqca_info
