Subscribe Feed (RSS)
-
April 6th, 2008Innovation & TechnologyI’ve just got back from the Social Innovation Camp where I took along the idea of ‘Personal Development Reports’. Over the weekend the name was changed to - ‘On The Up!’.
The final ‘pitch’ was to a panel of judges for the opportunity to win £2,000 (£1k for the runner-up). We didn’t win (or run-up) and I think its fair to say the judges were distinctly underwhelmed with our effort! Maybe this was because what we’re aiming to achieve is a bit too involved to get across in a 5 minute presentation and that people were hoping to see something that felt more finished - but it was never going to be Read the rest of this entry »
Related posts
Tags: innovation, soft skills -
April 3rd, 2008Innovation & Technology, Resources
I’ve done quite a bit more on this but I’ve stopped myself because I’m sure other people will be wanting some flexibility and opportunities to be creative over the weekend - so hopefully I’ve now got a clear brief but not too rigid to allow for some further innovation.You can read the brief in the attached pdf. The first page gives an overview of the purpose of the Personal Development Report concept, and this is followed by some ‘case studies’ illustrating how different people might use the system. I had quite a few further examples but I think this is enough to give people a picture.
So now its a case of taking along these ideas tomorrow and hoping that there will be a few people interested in developing the idea further. If so I think one of the interesting debates will be about which model to use for sustainability and I think there are several opportunities towards this (but I’ll save the discussion for the weekend!).
So fingers crossed that I’m lucky enough to meet up with some enthusiastic talented people (well I’m sure I will but lets hope they want to work on this idea!). Personally I can see all sorts of potential and there is a strong need for a system like especially if we can make the use of what technology has to offer now. I can also see a system like this paving the way for many similar ones by various award schemes etc.
Related posts
Tags: Resources, soft skills -
April 2nd, 2008Innovation & Technology
Thanks to everyone thats contributed and made suggestions towards the Personal Development Reports idea that I’m taking along to the Social Innovation Camp this weekend in the hope that some people there will help to make the idea a reality.
In between work stuff I’ve been trying to pull thoughts together so that I can go along with a nice clear brief. Unfortunately somehow losing most of the work I’d managed today I need to start all over so in between frustration and brain overload I’ve just wasted a bit of time redoing the soft skills drawn up so far - this time though I’ve redone them as ‘negative soft skills’ - just for fun so don’t worry that we’ll be incorporating these into the system (although it is a little tempting!). Heres the list…. Read the rest of this entry »
Related posts
Tags: innovation, soft skills -
March 31st, 2008Education & Skills, Innovation & Technology, Resources
I’ve been starting to pull ideas together for the Social Innovation Camp this coming weekend. I’m already starting to think the ‘Personal Development Reports‘ will be more of a ‘Soft Skills Plotter’ albeit the measurement of development over time is critical so hopefully a better name will come up in time.
For the concept to work there are two key factors - usability and credibility. Credibility will take some time but one of the main ways of achieving this will be through use so I’m very much hoping that over the weekend I’m lucky enough to get to work with technical people who are able to make very complex things very simple!
In terms of use I think those that will find the system most useful will be:
- Young People - becoming aware of their skills and feeling confident to talk about them
- Practitioners - measuring impacts of projects and comparing different the outcomes of different programmes and projects
- Employers & Educators - understanding what soft skills are and who has what
So we’ll need to understand what soft skills are too! And then having worked out what they are we then need to find a sensible way of helping people assess them over time (and in a way that they understand and enjoy).
This isn’t something new to me - our kind of work has far more outcomes in the soft skills area than anything else and its always been a frustration that its so difficult (and questionable!) to measure the ‘journey’ that people have gone on. If you ask yourself the question “what kind of a person was I five years ago and what skills have I developed during that time?” - its very difficult to answer other than in terms of hard skills & experiences “I was a Supervisor, now I’m a Manager” or “I completed my Diploma or I did a First Aid Certificate” - but this doesn’t give a real insight into the person you are and what you have to offer.
Anyway back to what those soft skills are. I’ve been building a list and Read the rest of this entry »
Related posts
Tags: dyw, Education & Skills, innovation, Innovation & Technology, Resources, soft skills -
March 26th, 2008Courses & Events, Resources
Five banners down, 40 new people, Five 3D maps cleared, 80 odd pictures and a sandwich spread later- and its only day one!
Myself and 3 volunteers began training in Letterkenny, Ireland today as part of a Leadership through the arts project. We will be running the one-day course for 3 days, with 6 new groups every morning, so we will meet and work with over a hundred different people! Apart from a slightly delayed flight and a forgotten driving license, we got off to a good start this morning with a new idea we were piloting.
The idea came from the current resource we use, prospective. Prospective aims to make participants consider and make a link between their community, the people and resources in it, issues those people face and opportunities which would allow them make a positive contribution. We decided to take a more practical approach to this method incorporating arts to have participants create a 3D sculpture for their map and then using a bit of social media by way of films to present the different aspects of their area. There were positive and negative aspects to this method in comparison to the resource so this has allowed us to identify what works best. Thats why it’s great we are doing it again tomorrow!
Due to the late arrival in Ireland and the extremely early start, unfortunately we haven’t had much time to enjoy Donegal, so hopefully tomorrow we’ll be more up for a mission! As for traveling out here alone, everythings gone to plan so far (apart from a few currency worries!!), so the long term planning and folders full of addresses, bookings, session notes etc paid off!!
Related posts
Tags: events, Resources, social media, soft skills, volunteering -
March 18th, 2008Education & Skills, Innovation & Technology
I’m very pleased (and surprised) that an idea I submitted for ‘Personal Development Reports’ has been selected to be one of the ideas to be developed at the Social Innovation Camp next month in London. This convention has had a fair amount of positive publicity lately particularly on online media. It’s been mentioned numerously in passing in various forums with huge traffic, just a couple of days ago a long thread about this was posted on Pokerstars
You can read the details about what this is here (and please do add comments if you have suggestions for its use/development).
The concept is something I’ve been thinking about for a long time and is based on the booklets we use (details here) and also the Youth Awards site that we’ve been developing for some time (and still have a very long way to go!).
The Personal Record Cards we currently offer aren’t designed to be an assessment of young peoples skills - their purpose is to try and make young people aware of their personal skills and qualities and also to encourage adults working with them to have conversations about these things.
Now in theory the booklets could also be useful as evidence of young peoples learning/development - but to use them this way depends on young people using them honestly (and understanding the various ratings), and the supporting adult keeping good records.
An online version can take the principle of this idea much, much further. First of all the questions can be Read the rest of this entry »
Related posts
Tags: Education & Skills, events, Innovation & Technology, Resources, soft skills -
March 12th, 2008Participation & Citizenship
I finally got round to submitting our response to the DCSF Consultation on ‘Youth Sector Support‘ and one of the questions raised an issue I’d considered a while back.
Participation is the current ‘in term’ (although I see ‘empowerment’ is making a come back!). But while I think youth participation is in principle a good thing, its not the be all & end all. I also think too much apparent participation is in fact minority participation - it uses a model of representation rather than effectively allowing any young person to be able to participate in an organisation or service. Representation is very useful - but only if those doing the representing are effectively representing the views and needs of others (and often this is questionable).
So how do you broaden participation so that young people who are not ‘represented’ are able to have an input? Read the rest of this entry »
Related posts
Tags: adults, campaign, soft skills, youth work -
March 10th, 2008Resources
I’m in the process of updating our information sheets and along the way also giving some of our downloadable resources a makeover. We’re also making some of them free to download and heres the first one!The ‘Group Rating Sliders’ are taken from a section on the Prospective Sheet. They are used for two reasons:
- To help young people understand what the qualities are of an effective group
- To help groups measure their own development as a group when involved in an activity or project
The download includes cards that groups can use to assess themselves at various stages during a project/activity. It also includes a facilitator guide that includes descriptions of the various qualities so that a facilitator can help participants understand the qualities when making their assessment.
The ratings are a self assessment and so can’t be compared Read the rest of this entry »
Related posts
Tags: res, Resources, soft skills, youth work
Subscribe Feed
Of Most Interest..
