“Improvement of Quality Management System for Vocational Education

and Training Organizationsin the Field of Agriculture”

Acronym/short title – VocEduImpProject number - LdV/TOI/2007/LV/007

9th – 10th September 2009, Latvia

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission

IdeaHELP, o.p.s.

• Development of QMS handbook• New training curriculum

• QMS and reformed vocational education and advisory service

concepts

Developmentof QMS handbook

Development of QMS handbook

Quality handbook is developed on the basis of the QMS conceptdeveloped by ProAgria (Finland).

QMS concept is based on four topics:

planning – implementation – checking – improving

Development of QMS handbook

• we designated and clearly identified basic processes that run both at the level of company management, and at the level of implementation of individual advisory and educational services

• this examination of basic processes proceeded from the fundamental level – from interviews with individual lecturers and advisors, a meeting with a selected group of end customers took place too (private farmers, agricultural specialists from agricultural companies, management of agricultural companies)

• on the basis of such information we also mapped current needs of our clients, which enables us to provide selected services directly

What we have done within the framework of QMS handbook preparation:

Development of QMS handbook

• we described a basic scope and goals of the prepared quality management system

• we defined basic goals of this QMS handbook within the framework of the internal company policy

• on the basis of the information obtained we also defined a scope of services and a range of clients on which we want to focus

• we also defined rules for getting feedback from our partners and clients, and rules for maintaining the quality of services

What we have done within the framework of QMS handbook preparation:

and now I will speak briefly

about some parts of the QMS handbook being prepared....

Development of QMS handbook

The scope and goals of the quality handbook

Our QMS handbook aims to define concisely and clearly and to describe generally basic processes that run in educational company IdeaHELP PBC., as well as to determine goals of the company and clearly identify principles with the help of which it is possible to achieve such goals. It will help us to improve the functioning of processes, to make individual activities transparent and to lay down clear rules for them.

On the basis of this QMS handbook it will be possible to build up a complex quality management system in our company, to put it gradually into every day practice, and subsequently, to enable certification according to international standard ISO 9001.

Development of QMS handbook

We are already in contact with a national specialist for ISO certification that already knows our company from the past, and therefore a qualified specialist for the certification process will be also available to us upon termination of the project titled VocEduImp.

 Preliminary schedule of ISO 9001 certification:• by 1st June 2009 to create a work team for the certification

process – already done• by 31st December 2009 on the basis of experience and outputs of

the VocEduImp project to finish the basic form of all documents necessary for the certification

• by 1st June 2010 to verify working processes and defined principles of the quality management in practice, and with the use of feedback from the clients and also employees to make modifications

• by 31st December 2010 to carry out the certification of our company according to ISO 9001

Development of QMS handbook

Here is an example taken from the QMS handbook …

Preview of the QMS handbook

Management structure of educational centre

The basis of the company is formedby its director and his assistant.

Other lecturers and advisors are hired to implementindividual projects.

Within the framework of our internal policy, we defined the following Mission and Vision:

Internal policies – Role of the quality handbook – MissionThe role of the handbook is to help establish an integrated system

of the quality management that will enable us to achieve a continually higher quality of our services in our company and satisfaction of our clients.

 The task of this handbook and of the planned future

certification according to ISO 9001standard is:• to establish order and a systematic access to company activities• to make company more transparent towards clients, management,

as well as towards employees• to improve credibility and image of the company, and thereby to

easily approach individual clients, and to increase the success rate when applying for projects within the EU or the Czech ministry

• stabilization of the achieved quality level in tems of time and range of services

• easier new employee orientation• creation of foundations for further quality improvement

Development of QMS handbook

Vision

The goal of our company is:• to provide services to our clients within the framework of life-long

education and agricultural consultancy in the area of our region• to gradually extend the services into other regions • our goal is to increase the number of our advisors as well as a range

of services offered, and thereby to provide our services to a wider scope of clients

• our goal is also to continually increase the quality of these services using the principles pursuant to ISO 9001 standard

Development of QMS handbook

Human resource management – Education Management

• we require a corresponding level of expert knowledge with our employees• each agricultural advisor in the Czech Republic must be accredited by the

Ministry of Agriculture, and without such accreditation they are not entitled to perform their activities

• further, we require a corresponding level of computer literacy with our lecturers and administrative workers, which will be proved by an international certificate ECDL (European computer driving license, or ICDL)

• if a new employee does not have the above-mentioned certificate, there is created a plan for her/his further education, and for obtainment of a necessary certificate

• each employee is evaluated every year, and if it does not automatically follow from his regularly renewed certification of the Ministry of Agriculture, s/he shall be retested, and will be placed in the plan of further vocational training of employees so that we are able to professionally meet all requirements of our clients

Development of QMS handbook

Current Status of the QMS handbook development

-> done for 100%

… nevertheless, it is not obviously a final status, for QMS will be continuously updated as necessary …

Part of our QMS handbookis the Ethics Code of the advisor...

Ethics Code of the Advisor

Within the framework of this Ethics Code, there are defined basic principles and rules for the work of the advisor.

Ethics code summarized in 10 points or “Top Ten Recommendations” of the good advisor

1. Professionalism2. Individual approach to client3. Objectiveness and impartiality 4. Corresponding education, professional knowledge, skills and

experience5. Permanent vocational education6. Responsible approach to client7. Fairness and ethical conduct8. Credibility and confidentiality9. Independence 10. Being without criminal records and moral integrity

This brief list is elaborated into 17 points in the Code which we use.

Preview of the Ethics Code of the Advisor

Current Status of development of the Ethics Code of the advisor

-> done for 100%

Status of the

- New training curriculum

- QMS and reformed systemof education and a concept

of advisory services

Status of theNew training curriculum

QMS and reformed system of education and a concept

of advisory services

• a new training curriculum for one of our new projects in the field of vocational education of farmers was created on the basis of new knowledge obtained within the framework of QMS handbook preparation

• this new curriculum follows our general service guidelines and our new concept of vocational education

• new educational documents were prepared within the framework of a new approach – detailed guidelines (manual) for course participants – our clients; with the help of which practical application of skills obtained during vocational training is very easy in agricultural practice

Status of theNew training curriculum

QMS and reformed system of education and a concept

of advisory services• these user guidelines were gradually completed with

other instructions for the advisor (lecturer) performing vocational education (instructions how presentation of specific information is to be performed, on which points of the curriculum it is necessary to focus during lessons, how to present individual facts, where the farmers make mistakes very often, ... – here we make use of feedback obtained directly from the clients)

• in this way there were gradually created detailed service guidelines for the provision of this service (we obtain feedback from clients both continuously during training, and outside such training, and when they finish their training they fill in a questionnaire in which they evaluate services rendered, the questionnaires are subsequently evaluated and in case of necessity the results of the evaluation are applied in the form of a modification of individual service guidelines, or there are taken other steps leading to maintaining and improving the quality of the services rendered.)

Status of theNew training curriculum

QMS and reformed system of education and a concept

of advisory services

Just briefly about the practical content of the project“Practical using of FARMÁŘ server by farmers“ withinthe framework of which we implement principles of QMS:

• The main aim of this project is improvement of vocational skills and qualification of employees in agricultural companies

• The obtained knowledge will help to easily understand a cross-compliance system as well as to acquaint these users with relevant EU law and directives and corresponding Czech legislation

• The participants will get acquainted with web-portal FARMAR in the course of FARMAR project, and will learn to use all of its possibilities and information provided thereby to increase their competitiveness and meet all requirements of the cross-compliance system

All participants completed an anonymous questionnaire at the end of the course to evaluate the training quality and benefits of training, and how such training will help them in their work. These questionnaires are statistically processed and the results is published in preliminary and final reports. We use these questionnaires in all our courses (in all our educational projects) to have feedback from participants/customers.

These results will be also used to improve the quality of our services.

The answer possibilities are usually set-up (either possibilities a, b, c, ... or scale from 1 to 5). The questionnaires are filled out manually and also the evaluation process is manual. After evaluation, there are stipulated weaknesses to be solved necessarily and actions to be taken to improve the quality of our services.

We are currently working on conversion of this manual filling and evaluation of questionnaires into an electronic form that is more effective in processing end statistical evaluation. It will be a general questionnaire system that will enable us to pre-define any questions and types of answers, and subsequently evaluate the answers automatically.

Feedback

Here is a diagram „Educational methodology“part of the service guidelines created...

Here is preview of

• New training curriculum• Detailed service guidelines

Actual Status of the New training curriculum development

-> 100% is done

Actual Status of the Reformed vocational educationand advisory service concepts development

-> 100% is done

Summary - status of individual project outputs

  Output Description Status

1 Quality handbookwritten material in formof a quality handbook

100%

2 Ethics Code as part of QMS handbook 100%

3 New training curriculumvarious training materials; books

handouts etc.100%

4Reformed vocational

education and advisory service concept

written material in the formof detailed service guidelines

100%

Publicity:

within the framework of our implemented project of vocational education, we informed farmers of the content and goals of Leonardo Da Vinci project, and we also informed them of benefits of the implementation of the QMS in every-day practice. We address this informations to the 150 farmers. The farmers may obtain further information from our website at www.ideahelp.cz/leonardo

The seminar for farmers and agriculture society will be held in Czech Republic in September 2009 and the program Leonardo da Vinci and project VocEduImp and its outputs will be presented. Representatives from Ministry of Agriculture and Pardubice Region Government will participate as well as we expect more then 200 of farmers and agriculture specialists will take part this event.

Project evaluation:

In conclusion, I would like to summarize the benefits and problemswhich we had to deal with.

Problems:

our biggest problem was to understand the issues and the point of the Quality management system and ISO system, at first we did not know how to handle this topic.

In the course of this project we understood the basic principles of the QMS thanks to consultations with our project partners, and came to realize thatthe basic idea of the QMS is in essence very simple.

However, basic principles of the quality managements system are valid in all conditions, whether the company has 10 or 200 advisors.

Benefits:

in the course of the project we understood the idea of the QMS and ISO systems, we carried out mapping of individual processes in our company, we prepared a new QMS handbook, we finished the ethics code of the advisor, we created a new training curriculum and detailed service guidelines.

All that enabled us to create a basis for our further work and for further enhancing of the quality of our services, and also upon termination of the project we will continue in the preparation of the certification of our educational and advisory services according to ISO 9001 standard.

Benefits:

As I already mentioned, the vision and the goal of our company is to provide services within the framework of life-long education and agricultural consultancy in the area of our region, and gradually to extend these services into other regions.

Our aim is to extend the number of our advisors and a range of services offered, and to offer our services to a wider range of customers.

Benefits:

Within the framework of the already mentioned pilot project “Practical using of FARMÁŘ server by farmers“, we have provided our services in 3 regions of the Czech Republic so far. Now, upon evaluation of this pilot project we applied for extension of this project into other regions with state bodies.

Actual state:

Benefits:

At the moment, we are waiting for the final approval of the extension of the project into other 3 regions so we will be able to provide this service already in 6 regions (NUTS 3 region).

Thanks to a careful preparation of the project and its hitherto implementation in the spirit of the QMS system, we are successful in fulfilling our visions of further development and goals of our company, and in extending our educational advisory work into other regions of the Czech Republic, and in offering our services to a wider range of customers.

Near future:

Benefits:

Another not insignificant benefit is the possibility to discuss the given issues with our project partners, possibility to get acquainted with working methods in more detail in the area of educational and advisory services in other countries of the European Union.

We created personal contacts which will surely survive the termination of this project, and which will contribute to the idea of bringing the countries in the EU closer together.

Conclusion:

For the time being, there is no final version of a comprehensive advisory system for farmers in the Czech Republic, but there are efforts leading to the creation thereof, and we also take part in such efforts.

We want to build up a functional system of the quality management on the basis of knowledge and experience obtained within the framework of this VocEduImp project, and to gradually meet all requirements required by the certification authority for the certification of our company according to international standard ISO 9001.

And the experience could be one of the cornerstones of the new advisory system in our region, and if its functionality is successful, then it will be possible to apply it subsequently in the whole of the Czech Republic.

Thank you very much for your attention

Acronym/short title – VocEduImpProject number - LdV/TOI/2007/LV/007

9th – 10th September 2009, Latvia

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission