Pro-kompetenz is a private institute for applied research in education, founded in 2003 as registered association. The institute is a non-profit organisation.
Main objectives:
To design education for promoting, developing and using human potentials in a holistic and sustainable way and to support education providing input from many years of practice and applied research.
Specific areas of expertise:
• Develop innovative pedagogical concepts and learning environments;
• Formative evaluation, provide input to project implementation and product development, Quality Assurance;
• Thematic areas: AE and VET, innovation and knowledge management, HRM, learning for social integration, foreign language and intercultural competences for cooperation.
In national projects, promoted by the German Federal Ministry of Research and Education, pro-kompetenz has provided guidance to introduce innovative learning programmes.
For HELP2 Pro-kompetenz brings in expertise in the following fields:
• Project management and quality assurance by formative evaluation (pro-kompetenz staff has coordinated or been involved in about 55 European projects so far).
• Didactics – development of concepts for learner centred and cooperative learning. Requirements for motivating learning settings for foreign language learning • Communication – foreign language learning and intercultural education. Experiences and results from development of learning materials, experience from the central LdV “The European Intercultural workplace” where the institute was a partner
The institute has coordinated the Erasmus+ HELP project and composed its six intercultural modules, the section on foreign language learning tips and the user guide. It was also responsible for formative evaluation in the project. Pro-kompetenz has been responsible for providing didactical and pedagogical input.
In HELP2 Pro-kompetenz will be responsible for didactic input, coordinate Intellectual Output 2 – Modules in German, adapt and develop intercultural modules and carry out quality management.
www.pro-kompetenz.de
Dr. Gerd Zimmer, project coordinator of HELP1, is the President and Senior Researcher of pro-kompetenz. He holds a PhD in pedagogy and adult education and has carried out research in the fields of motivation, organisation of foreign language learning and inter-cultural competence for cooperation in Adult Education and Vocational Training.
Since June 2004, he has been the President of pro-kompetenz, where his main activities have been related to human resources development, knowledge management and learning for innovation, as well as for providing sound pedagogical input related to new learning environments.
Gerd has coordinated or been involved in around 45 European projects and is a recognised expert for Quality Management and formative evaluation from projects carried out in charge of the German Ministry of Research and Education.
His professional expertise in HELP is based on 40 years of practical experience in foreign language teaching, foreign language learning material development and provision of pedagogic and didactic input.
Gerd’s main tasks in HELP2 are responsibility for German and intercultural modules and quality management.
Maria Costa Pau holds a university degree in Psychology (Universitat de Barcelona, 1991). She has also had interest in Theatre, Politics and Languages and taken several courses on these subjects.
During the last fifteen years, she has been teaching languages (Catalan, English and Spanish) in different contexts and to students of different ages. Working at Espiral-Entitat de Serveis (Catalonia, Spain), she was introduced to European Projects related to vocational training: SAGE-EU, Fit4work, Fairstart, Parenting, Eurocall and Mediaplaying. Later on, led by the German institute Pro-Kompetenz, she has taken part of Babelium, another European project, contributing to learning material development.
Currently, Maria teaches Spanish at the Language Centre of Rostock University. For HELP2 Maria is in charge of contributing to all project products with focus on module development and cross-checking for quality assurance.