Profile of VET organisation
Name of organization: VHS Leipzig
Country: Germany
Type of VET institute: Further education and training
No of staff: 11-50
No of trainees: >1000
Short description
The Adult Education Center Leipzig belongs to the biggest in the east of Germany. It is famous for the “Leipzig direction” in the adult education – a unique pedagogical concept of the 1920s and 30s, which brought together young adults and pedagogues for learning together in study groups. In the GDR era the adult education centers were responsible for the second-chance education. We pick up the old traditions of a holistic education orientation and combine them with contemporary requirements on Lifelong Learning. In the year 2009 the Adult education Center Leipzig held 2649 courses with 67117 hours of education, which were visited by 30923 participants.
Description of good practice
Title: QES Quality management system
Process:
The introduction of the Quality management system of the Adult Education Center Leipzig started on the 20.9.2006 with a kick off meeting with all 35 employees of the center. There the positive expectations on the certification process were uttered, as well as the fears that it could cause changes in the work flow or structural changes. The Quality management system QES developed in Saxony by the University of Leipzig and the University of Dresden was introduced, and dates for the following workshops agreed upon. The focus in QES is on the understanding of quality in the establishment, with the quality development circle belonging to it. The model differs between two areas where quality is implemented: the establishment with its structure and work flows, as well as the services which it produces for the participants and customers. For both areas scopes of duties are specified and concrete actions mentioned in the QES, which are necessary for the covering and development. (Information to the system on http://qesplus.de).
Responsible:
A working group quality management was founded, which worked on the scopes of duties in 15 workshops, always with the participation of the employees from the area which concerned the process.
Documentation:
There is a handbook for all relevant processes, especially the core process of the work - the quality assurance in detail. The employees of the adult education center are jointly responsible for the positive overall development of the adult education center and have sole responsibility for the quality within their own field of work. The principle of participation and responsibility is also shown therein that the handbook has many writers, which took over the task to document and further develop specific processes and fields of activities. This engagement of the workgroup quality management led to the application of certification after two years of intensive preparation. The work on the quality management handbook was innovative and intensive, the adult education center went through a process of verifiable competence and organization development. The quality development was a process of learning, which gave the opportunity to learn with and from eachother.
Evaluation and Review:
Since 23.2.2009 we have the certificate from the certification body GZBB (Association for certifying of quality management systems of service businesses). Thereby we have not reached the end of our quality discussion. We have rather realized that quality assurance is a continuous process. The quality management handbook is a documentation of reached practice-relevant standards. The next steps will bring new challenges for the quality development, just as well as quality management leads to a modified practical action. In the certification record of the GZBB is stated as especially positive: “ Since years the management and employees of the adult education center follow the goal to develop the center and to systematically enhance the attractiveness and the charisma of it. This was combined with a continuous quality debate, which resulted in the awareness that it is necessary to optimize the process flows and get and ensure resources serving the quality development. Embedded in this discussion was the definition of an overall concept, which consists of the guiding themes Education – Experience – Communication”.
Deviances from the standards of QES were not discovered in the audit, but recommendations for the further work were given. These concern the areas communication, reporting, evaluation and public relations. Concrete it was recommended that the concept of marketing should be updated and a more varied reporting system to be created. Our workgroup quality management dealt with these themes in several consultations, in which all employees were involved. The results were documented in the quality handbook. On the 22nd and 29th of March 2010 the first internal audit was carried through according to QES by all employees of the center. Themes were evaluation and service/consumer protection.