Hosted by OSOS , contributed by Meie van Laar on 6 February 2018
The purpose of a Transfer Office is to reduce the gap between the school and its community, so that students can learn in the real world, with real needs and real audience.
A Transfer Office is a physical space in the center of the school where daily contacts take place between the school and its community. The purpose of a Transfer Office is to reduce the gap between the school and its community. A Transfer Office stimulates learning in the real world, with real needs and a real audience. The Transfer Office is manned by permanent office managers who are the direct contact for leaners and teachers who are looking for organizations and / or assignments from outside. Based on their needs, the officer managers search for a suitable organization and share the needs of students and teachers and make sure that their expectations are clear at both sides. Then, the office managers connect the student or teacher with the organization. On the other hand, organizations can sign up if they want to do more for the school. The officer manager will search for a connection with students and teachers and the organization. Results of a Transfer Office are, for example, masterclasses for students, real life assignments, apprenticeships and teacher courses. This results in an enrichment of education.
It is a very structural way of setting up a collaboration and maintain the relationship between a school and its community. The office manager has just one main goal: establishing relationships between school and its community in different ways, which helps to reduce the gap between both worlds.
The objectives of the HTO are:
- being a bridge (and reducing the gap) between education and its community such as companies and other (society) institutions.
- being one clear point of contact for students, teachers and the community of the school. People know where they can ask their questions or discuss their needs when they want to collaborate with the other party.
- giving students a better idea about professions and real life situations by organizing, for example, master classes, apprenticeships and real life assignments. All of this ensures that students can make better choices, for example, better study choices.
- contribute to research, design and entrepreneurial education.
resources needed
- A permanent office manager who focuses exclusively on making connections between the school and its community.
- The office must be a visible space in the school, which invites students and teachers to enter if they have questions or searching for assignments from outside.
- A large network of organizations or other stakeholders who can contribute to education. Building such a large network takes time. Many involved stakeholders have their own role, but everything is coordinated by the transfer office manager. The manager also informs all stakeholders about the tasks and responsibilities for each role. For example, there are start meetings with organizations if they want to join.
AVAILABLE PARTNERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
The whole community:
All people and organizations from the community can contribute to education and enriching education. For example, entrepreneurs can share their entrepreneurship experiences, employees can tell about their profession, managers can give students master classes, for example, about leadership, and companies can open their organization for students for apprenticeships or ‘real life’ assignments.
http://www.heerbeeck.nl/onderwijs/career-center/heerbeeck-transfer-office/
http://www.kortlopendonderzoek.nl/onderwijs_pdf/OS96_Onderwijs_en_vermaatschappelijking.pdf
ORGANIZATION IN CHARGE:
European School Heads Association, ESHA
Herenstraat 35
3512 KB Utrecht, Netherlands
http://www.esha.org/
CONTACT PEOPLE:
Suzanne de Kroon
suzannedekroon@gmail.com
Rob van der Vorst
r.vandervorst@voboscholen.nl
Rob Mataheru
r.mataheru@andreascollege.nl
RRI principles
One of the key aspects of OSOS is the inclusion of RRI — Responsible Research and Innovation — principles (more information at RRI-Tools.eu). This is how this Accelerator fits into the RRI model:
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Governance |
Students will share the responsibility of the project with different stakeholders (associations, organizations outside the school) who will act as mentors to students. This will allow them to share the responsibility of the actions to be carried out during the activity. I.e.: students will get in touch with experts from different areas, who will always be informed of the project updates and with whom they will plan the next steps in the activity. |
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Public engagement |
Students, with the help of teachers and other members of the school, will create an association of stakeholders involved in the activity, with whom decisions will be made collaboratively. I.e.: in order to carry out this Accelerator, it is necessary for the school to create a Transfer Office which will be in charge of putting different stakeholders in contact with students. |
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Gender equality |
Students will be able to discuss issues related to gender equality, by contacting experts (including both men and women) in the respective areas. I.e.: the Transfer Office will connect students with experts and professionals from all areas, taking into account issues of Gender Equality and creating working groups in which both boys and girls can participate. Students will look for areas and topics that can improve the gender equality of society. |
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Science Education |
Students will be responsible for raising problems and challenges, and for finding a creative solution through critical thinking. In addition, students will share responsibility in the activity and make decisions collaboratively with the stakeholders involved. I.e.: Once the subject is set and stakeholders are established, students will be responsible for finding a problem to solve and to know how to solve it. |
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Ethics |
Students will work on the issues to be addressed through the Transfer Office so that they can add value to society in the school environment. In addition, students can learn about the concerns of people around the school and reflect on how to propose solutions that solve these problems. I.e.: students will investigate their environment to look for social problems that they can solve through the project proposed in this Accelerator. These problems will be shared with stakeholders, with whom they will share responsibility in finding the solutions. |
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Open Access |
Students will use scientific materials and literature reviewed by experts to better understand the context in which the problem that the project proposes is developed. I.e.: when planning the project and the challenges, students will investigate the topic by reading dissemination articles that will help them to better understand the social and scientific context of the problem. |
Осетити
Замислити
Examples of existing assignments are:
- Create a manual for a process, so that customers have a reference book in which they can look up for information.
- Show the energy consumption of a company or institution. Do measurements and based on your findings, do your recommendations.
- Design a monument route in our region. Describe the images, make a few variants for walks, possibly on GPS, provide a booklet in which you can read this.
- For freelancers and small and medium-sized businesses, the time is often lacking to keep the company's internet sites up to date. Discuss with stakeholders how the site can be improved and create a customized site.
- Bring the history of a company in word, but also visual. Make a nice brochure, possibly with an internet site. Or make an introductory film of a company for a fair.
- How can a company / institution reach the young people's target group? Which resources should be used for this? Facebook? Instagram? Twitter? How can this be optimized?
- Compare the company with the competitors. Make a strength / weakness analysis. Then make proposals for the market opportunities of the company with the necessary conditions.
- Show the technical / chemical processes in a company. Make a video for visitors to the company
Креирај
- being a bridge (and reducing the gap) between education and its community such as companies and other (society) institutions.
- being one clear point of contact for students, teachers and the community of the school. People know where they can ask their questions or discuss their needs when they want to collaborate with the other party.
- giving students a better idea about professions and real life situations by organizing, for example, master classes, apprenticeships and real life assignments. All of this ensures that students can make better choices, for example, better study choices.
- contribute to research, design and entrepreneurial education.
- building, proactively maintaining and professionalising a regional network with, for example, commercial companies and government institutions;
- educational development in the field of entrepreneurship, aimed at broadening the theme within education and a firm anchoring in the curriculum;
- developing new projects in the field of education and entrepreneurship, including subsidy and fundraising for the execution of those projects;
- organizing knowledge exchange with and information to teachers; and ensuring student involvement in the design of the HTO, so that also students can act as an intermediary.
- managing substantial educational projects. This has already been pointed out in the project The Young Entrepreneur in cooperation with the local bank.
- establishing relationships between companies and the school for organizing professional internships and social work placements, education integrated cases, excursions, guest lessons, workshops by companies and institutions, simulation games and so on.
- the recruitment of students’ assignments by and for the business sector. Examples of existing assignments can be found in the imagine phase