Case Study 6, Estonia, Vocational Education sector, 2010 ESTONIAN SCHOOL OF TOURISM AND HOTEL MANAGEMENT (private school)
Case Study, vocational training The System and Process of APEL Evidence, material – content The context for this case Estonian School of Hotel and Tourism Management has A purpose of Accreditation of Prior Learning and more than 400 Students. www.ehte.ee Work Experience (APEL) is development of links Study languages are Estonian and English. between different levels of education. 2 departments: Implementation of APEL for this purpose - Tourism, travelling, leisure time; improves flexibility of education and saves - Catering and hotel management. resources for both the student and education Two levels: provider. - Vocational education Professional higher education.
APEL system Steps of APEL: • APEL counsellors in departments and students • Information and counselling service centre • Submission of application • APEL assessors in departments • Assessment • Possibility to invite experts from outside • Decision and feedback • Head of study department is responsible for • Appellation APEL Tools for APEL: • Tools for APEL • Description of Estonian educational • Regulations system • Application forms • Regulations • Study Regulations Support system for APEL • Regulations of Admission • APEL counsellors in every department • Procedure and conditions for • Support materials for: accreditation of prior and experiential – students learning – APEL counsellors • Application forms: – APEL assessors • for fulfilment of the curriculum • accreditation of prior certified learning • appellation Example
Admission to free study places in the third year of the applied higher education curriculum of "Hotel Management Diploma Course" is open to students who have previously completed the vocational education curriculum of "Hotel Service Operations" on the basis of secondary education. This opportunity is set out in the admission rules of the school, which also give a detailed description of the principles used for establishing the ranking of applicants. Transfer between the levels of education is facilitated by a legal basis, which enables the school to develop respective internal regulations. The school regulations should comply with the statutory requirements for both levels of education. The APEL process in the example case consisted of the following stages: 1. Advising the applicant and drafting of application – advisory service provided by the specialist in the organisation of studies; 2. Completion and submission of the APEL application form – advisory service provided by the head of the study field; 3. Assessment of the application and additional documents (school certificate, study results report) by the technical admission committee and the admission committee of the curriculum. In this case, the applicant added to the application the school certificate and the results report. As she was unable to submit documents on the content and learning outcomes of the previous studies, the admission committee of the curriculum sent a request for the respective documents to the school that had issued the certificate. 4. Adoption of decision and provision of feedback. After comparing the goals and learning outcomes described in the curricula, the committee concluded that the applicant has fulfilled the requirements set out in the admission rules and can be included in the list of 3rd year students. However, during her first study semester, she was expected to prove her knowledge and skills associated with the learning outcomes of the modules "Basics of economics" (3 ECP), and "Marketing" (2 ECP), because the submitted application documents did not enable assessment of the student's competency in these subjects. The learning outcomes of these modules were prerequisites for the subjects in the second semester. 5. Contestation of the decision. According to the Regulation of Studies of the school, a student has the right to contest the decision pursuant to the procedure provided in the Regulation of Studies. The student did not contest the decision.
