EVA - European Virtual Academyec.europa.eu/echo/files/civil_protection/civil/prote/pdfdocs/eva.pdf · EVA - European Virtual Academy FINAL TECHNICAL IMPLEMENTATION REPORT AGREEMENT

EVA - European Virtual Academy

FINAL TECHNICAL IMPLEMENTATION

REPORT

AGREEMENT NUMBER 07- 03 06 01/2005/423869/SUB/A5

Project Leader: - CEFRIEL

Project Partner: - Italian Department of Civil Protection

Technical Manager: Lucia De Francesco

20/01/2008

Version: 1.0

Status: Final

Table of Contents

Executive Summary .................................................................................................. 5

1 Introduction to EVA - European Virtua l Academy Project .......................... 7

1.1 Projec t overview ...................................................................................... 7

1.2 Contents: Thematic Areas ...................................................................... 8

1.3 Services and Tools: EVA Porta l ................................................................ 9

1.4 Partners and partic ipants ...................................................................... 10

1.4.1 CEFRIEL .............................................................................................................. 10

1.4.2 Ita lian Department o f Civil Protec tion ............................................................. 10

1.5 EVA Core Group .................................................................................... 11

1.6 Agreement w ith THW and SGSP ........................................................... 11

2 Thematic Areas .............................................................................................. 12

2.1 Community Mechanism Tra ining Programe ....................................... 12

2.1.1 Highlighted needs ............................................................................................ 12

2.1.2 Open issues ....................................................................................................... 12

2.2 Tra ining on Interna tiona l Assistance .................................................... 13


2.2.2 Open issues ....................................................................................................... 13

2.3 E-Learning ............................................................................................... 14


2.3.2 Open issues ....................................................................................................... 14

2.4 Tra ining on Prevention ........................................................................... 14


2.4.2 Open issues ....................................................................................................... 15

2.5 Tra ining on Information to the popula tion .......................................... 15


2.5.2 Open issues ....................................................................................................... 15

2.6 Tra ining for Volunteers ........................................................................... 16


2.6.2 Open issues ....................................................................................................... 16

2.7 Study Groups Ac tivities .......................................................................... 17

2.8 From 6 to 3 Thematic Areas .................................................................. 17


20 Ja nua ry 2008 – Ver. 1.0 - © 2008 CEFRIEL Page 3

3 EVA Porta l Pla tform ........................................................................................ 19

3.1 Pla tform desc rip tion .............................................................................. 19

3.2 Features and func tiona lities.................................................................. 19

3.2.1 Ac c ess to informa tion and sec urity ................................................................. 19

3.3 Multimoda lity .......................................................................................... 20

3.4 Services for the users.............................................................................. 23

3.4.1 Doc uments and multimed ia ............................................................................ 23

3.4.2 Ca lenda r of events .......................................................................................... 26

3.4.3 Forum and b log ................................................................................................ 26

3.4.4 European Civil Protec tion Schools Da tabase ................................................. 27

3.4.5 Ac ronym and Glossary ..................................................................................... 29

3.4.6 Online News ...................................................................................................... 30

3.4.7 Multibrowser/ multip la tform .............................................................................. 31

3.4.8 Restric ted Ac c ess to the Po rta l informa tion / Users p rofile ............................. 31

3.4.9 Weekly news servic e ........................................................................................ 33

3.5 Services for the ed itor ............................................................................ 34

3.6 Sta tistic s ................................................................................................... 35

3.6.1 Genera l informa tion on the EVA porta l reg istered users’ profile. .................. 35

3.6.2 EVA Porta l users and the Community Mec hanism Tra ining Programme ...... 36

3.6.3 EVA Porta l subscribers and the use of the web servic es ................................ 38

4 Thematic Areas Guidelines & Recommendations ...................................... 41

4.1 Tra ining Programme and Community Mechanism (with

particula r emphasis on the interna tiona l assistance) ................................. 41

4.1.1 Genera l Issues ................................................................................................... 41

4.1.2 Tra ining Ac tivities .............................................................................................. 42

4.1.3 Future Perspec tives........................................................................................... 43

4.2 Tra ining on Information to the popula tion .......................................... 44

4.2.1 Genera l Issues ................................................................................................... 44



4.3 Tra ining for Volunteers ........................................................................... 46

4.3.1 Genera l Issues ................................................................................................... 47



4.4 ICT Tools in support to the three Thematic Areas ............................... 52



4.5 Remarks .................................................................................................. 52

5 Project follow up............................................................................................. 53

5.1 A Susta inab le Business model: EVA Porta l future ................................ 53

Annex A List of registered users institutions ................................................. 55

Annex B Dissemination activities ................................................................. 61

Annex C EVA Fina l workshop in Brugge (B) on 3 - 4 October 2007 –

List of Participants ................................................................................................... 63

Annex D Template Sheet for school / tra ining centers data collection .. 64



Executive Summary

The present document intends to report about activities carried on within the EVA – European Virtual Academy Project, lead by CEFRIEL in partnership with the Italian Department of Civil Protection, Presidency of the Council of Ministers an EU Commission co-funded project part of the Fourth Civil Protection Action Programme, which was published in May 2005.

The project had the following objectives:

1. To build up an innovative and flexible system for strengthening networking and coordination among Civil Protection training centres and schools at European level for favoring exchange of existing experience, curricula and best practice among European Civil Protection operators and professionals. Particular focus is put on the Community Mechanism Training Programme.

2. To design, develop and implement new training tools using new technologies in support of the enlargement and consolidation of the entire European Civil Protection training system

3. To carry on Work Group activity with the involvement of different partners and by mean of the new tools, aimed at the definitions of guidelines and recommendation on a number of selected Thematic Areas which have been identified in the first phase of the project. This activity allowed both to produce original statements on topics of interest for the EU community of Civil Protection operators and to test the effectiveness of the new proposed tools.

The project proposal was submitted on July 2005 and was approved at the end of the same year.

At that time the Community Mechanism Training Programme was at its first phases and some refinements seemed to be necessary both from the organizational side and also on the curricula, in order to better fulfill the requirements identified by the Member States.

In this scenario, in the proposal it had been portended that one the foreseen Thematic Area should have focused on the Community Mechanism Training Programme.

In particular, the objective of it should have been to propose suggestions to overcome some critical aspects that had come out during the first 2 Cycles of the courses. And in this perspective, to reinforce this intention, the project proposal stated that a Final Project Workshop would have been organized -“…in order to set up a complete training package towards a common vision concerning the objectives and the modus operandi of the European Civil Protection Mechanism to be used in all future EU courses of any level and specialty, including the training of trainer...”.

In the 2 years between the date of the proposal preparation and time of the EVA project conclusion (June 2007 later extended to October 2007) the before mentioned background scenario changed a lot: courses curricula have been refined by the joint effort of the EC together with the different Cycles courses organizers, and they are now very well consolidated. Moreover, clearer instructions are now available, derived from the experience of the previous editions, also under the organizational aspects.

From this evidence, project management, together with the partners, agreed on changing the focus of the Thematic Area on the Community Mechanism Training Programme mainly



addressing a series of other aspects which are still open issues for the programme implementation.

Groups activities within the project have been carried on in presence and, mainly, by remote locations making use of the platform.

As concrete outcomes of the project we have today:

1. EVA Portal, an on-line platform offering a number of different services and tools and which is a concrete tool for networking and access to different kinds of information.

2. A series of guidelines and recommendation for the EC related to 3 different Thematic Areas. They have been mainly consolidated through constant networking activities among the project partners, Core Group members and other affiliates.

3. A basic sustainability model and a plan of action through which the project leaders intend to follow up and continue the project.

Many of the results achieved within the project are clear evidence of the effectiveness and soundness of the idea in the community of the EU Civil Protection operators. Just to mention some figures:

- over 370 are the registered users with, on average, an increment of 10 users per week

- more than 700 are the monthly unique visitors, with a peak of more than 1100 last October 2007

- 217 are the users which today have subscribed the Weekly newsletter

- 19 are the published editions of the Weekly newsletter

- 124 are the news published during the project length

- 211 are the events present in the calendar.

- 1070 are the published files of contents

- 9 are the published videos

- 188 are the published pictures

- 92 schools are the EU schools inserted in the Training center database belonging to 10 different countries

- 112 are the acronyms and 18 the definitions in the Glossary section

EVA project is today a fact. Because of this it cannot finish up but it will be continued and enlarged in the next future.



1 Introduction to EVA - European Virtual Academy Project

1.1 Project overview

EVA – European Virtual Academy is a project co-funded by the EU Commission (Directorate General Environment, Civil Commission) as part of the Fourth Civil Protection Action Programme, which was published in May 2005.

The proposal was submitted by CEFRIEL jointly with the Italian Department of Civil Protection - Italian Presidency of the Council of Ministers.

The project aimed:

- To build up an innovative and flexible system for strengthening networking and coordination among Civil Protection training centres and schools at European level for favoring exchange of existing experience, curricula and best practice among European Civil Protection operators and professionals. Particular focus is put on the Community Mechanism Training Programme.

- To design, develop and implement a set of tools based on web technologies and internet, to be used for create a living network among Civil Protection operators in Europe, giving them the opportunity to know each other, exchange information, experiences and ideas on their competences and expertise, and in general on their activities in the area of training for Civil Protection;

- To identify and focus on a number of topics of potential interest for the community of Civil Protection in Europe, the Thematic Areas, opening a discussion within study groups to

o derive recommendations and guidelines for the Commission for improving the existing scenario, to facilitate the convergence towards a European training development path, for the different levels of civil protection professionals and volunteers;

- To analyze the European Civil Protection training system as a self-being structure independently from any specific content, considering, for example, the number of schools, the way they coordinate each other and with the Commission, their training offers and any other information helpful to depict the actual situation in Europe.

The Virtual Academy was built as a solid but flexible structure based on the web EVA Portal, www.evanetwork.net. This platform is used in a twofold manner:

1. on one hand, the it is a reference point for the community of Civil Protection operators in Europe as it periodically provides news, updates and any kind of information on activities in the field of training for Civil Protection in Europe and in the world.

2. on the other hand it provides the support tools to concretely networking people in order to carry on the work within the study groups on specific identified Thematic Areas, offering a set of available services like, for example, blog or forum.

http://www.evanetwork.net/



To summarize, the project had two main pillars: the Thematic Areas with specific topics analysis and development within experts study groups to identify specific guidelines and recommendation and the EVA Platform with its mix offer of collaborative tools and services.

1.2 Contents: Thematic Areas

During the first phase of the project a number of topics, called Thematic Areas, have been identified, which have been recognized by the project participants (see Section 1.4) of common interest for the entire European Civil Protection training professional community.

In line with the fundamental objectives of the Virtual Academy, each topic was analyzed under the training aspect in order to:

1. examine general issues of interest in on that topic, also in the light of previous studies/projects in that field

2. analyze the present training offer in that field highlighting features, methodology, case studies and excellence examples

3. identify the needs on the training in those fields for which further effort is necessary

4. define guidelines and recommendation which could be in support of overcoming the identified needs

5. specify if and how new tools and methodologies could assist in achieving such objectives

The following Themes have been identified during the first Work Group meeting in Brussels (July 2006):

1. Training programme and Community Mechanism Analyze and assess the present Community Mechanism training program and the offered curricula used to reinforce and facilitate co-operation in civil protection assistance interventions. Study and propose enhanced curricula and courses.1 Identify tools, recommendation and guidelines to make the Community Mechanism training programme more effective and known among the community of Civil Protection operators in Europe.

2. Training on International Assistance Analyze and asses the present policies and procedures on International Assistance with respect to organizational aspects and educational implication.

3. Training on Prevention Policies Analyze and asses training initiatives and activities related to prevention policies applied to the different risk categories trying to focus on their relevant training curricula and courses, as well as best and good practices, in Europe.

4. E-learning Try to make the point and clarify the use of e-learning platforms in Europe: how they facilitate networking and support remote educational programs in different areas and for different targets.

5. Training for Volunteers

1 The focus of this Thematic Area changed during the project life taking into account the evolution of the

Community Mechanism Training programme.



Analyze and asses the volunteers‟ phenomena in Europe under the training and educational aspect as well as in terms of existing policies for volunteers, organizational aspects, international coordination.

6. Training on Information to the Population Analyze and asses the way how information to the population activities are considered in the Civil Protection organizations, which policies and initiatives are applied for the different risk categories, which are the relevant training curricula and courses, as well as best and good practices, in Europe. Which tools are taken into account and in which way they are used.

During the project life they were set up study groups to deepen these topics and finalize the before mentioned objectives. As an outcome, in the project progresses the original group of Thematic Areas collapsed to a minor subset due to the partial overlapping of some Thematic Areas with others (see Section 2.8) and also to the big quantity of information to be elaborated for each of them.

1.3 Services and Tools: EVA Portal

Together with contents, the project focused also on the development of a set of tools for the implementation of the Virtual Academy.

EVA Portal is the open platform built up in the project framework as a concrete result and to be used as the operative instrument through which made the academy alive. Among the others it encourages the networking among all interested professionals in Europe, for example by periodically providing news and updates on training for Civil Protection in Europe, by proposing discussions on specific themes, by offering the access to a number of topics (documents and multimedia contents) (see. Section 3.2).

More precisely, the original and innovative web portal:

1. provides the Study Groups members with proper tools over which exchange information and material for developing the contents analysis and carry on the discussion on the Thematic Areas

2. provides the Civil Protection Community with a set of on line tools through which:

a. it is constantly updated about

i. events on Training in Civil Protection in Europe like training courses, conferences, workshops, … in Europe

ii. events related to other ongoing projects

iii. set of data on the training for Civil Protection status in Europe

b. it can know more about the Civil Protection European training system offer, thanks to a database with the list of the schools and their relevant courses (the work is still in progress)

c. it has the opportunity to access to multimedia contents and propose and discuss new discussions by mean of blogs and forum



1.4 Partners and participants

The project was lead by CEFRIEL, the ICT center of Information and Communication Technologies of Poliltecnico di Milano in partnership with the Italian Department of Civil Protection.

These two partners had the joint role of promoting and disseminating the project and its activities, each with a special focus on its field of competencies:

1. CEFRIEL had mainly the role of technical partner, also contributing to the Thematic Areas discussions, in accordance with its experience in the Civil Protection field

2. The Italian Department of Civil Protection played the role of Subject Matter expert for all the group of Thematic Areas. Moreover, as end-user, provided CEFRIEL with the necessary information to properly build up the EVA portal, in accordance with the typical needs and features of the Civil Protection environment, and also supported it in the test phase of the portal, before its publication on line.

1.4.1 CEFRIEL

CEFRIEL is the Center of Excellence for research, innovation and education in Information & Communication Technology of Politecnico di Milano – Italy. It is a no-profit consortium which counts today 200 people among professionals, researchers, and graduate students.

Since 2002 it has built up a group of competences in the Public Protection Area, whose main activities relate with training, research and technological transfer activities in the field of Safety and Security for citizens.

CEFRIEL has a long experience in the cooperation with end-users, also with a specific reference to the Community Mechanism training programme, as on 2004 it was in charge of the organization, in partnership with the Italian Department of Civil Protection, of the first 2 Italian editions of the Community Mechanism Induction Courses, at Erba (Co).

Moreover CEFRIEL has matured high competencies under the aspect of identifying and properly representing the Public Safety needs, proposing specific solutions under the information technology and telecommunication side. In the EVA Project CEFRIEL

was in charge of the leadership of the project, in full accordance with the Italian Department of Civil Protection

was in charge of the EVA portal design and implementation

built up the EVA Platform, implementing all the services and tools today available for the community of users and keeping the responsibility of their maintenance

was responsible of the Weekly news service (see Paragraph Error! Reference source not found.) and of the publication of all the other contents

1.4.2 Italian Department of Civil Protection

Presidency of the Council of Ministers – Department of Civil Protection, as established by the foreseen by Law n° 225/1992 and Law n°.401/2001 of the Italian legislation, is the Italian public institution in charge of safeguarding the integrity of life, goods, buildings and environment from any damage or risk of damage arising from natural disasters,



catastrophes and any other hazardous event. These laws entrusts the Department of Civil Protection with the coordination of the following tasks and activities

Forecast (activities aimed at studying and finding out the causes of disasters, identifying the risks and determining the areas of the territory subject to risks);

Prevention (activities aimed at avoiding or minimizing the possibility of damage resulting from disasters)

Relief operations (activities aimed at ensuring early assistance to the population struck by a disaster)

Early rehabilitation (activities aimed at removing obstacles to rehabilitation)

Emergency planning, training, and life size exercises.

1.5 EVA Core Group

Together with the two lead partners, since the project proposal preparation, a number of European Civil Protection schools and training institutions

2 supported the idea

of the Virtual Academy and joint the project for its entire length:

1. The Main School of Fire Service - SGSP (Poland)

2. Swedish Rescue Service Agency – Training Section (Sweden)

3. European Fire Service Colleges‟ Association - EFSCA (UK)

4. Finland Services – (FI)

5. THW – (D)

They represented the so called project Core Group which was made of training specialists, belonging to Civil Protection training centres, schools and/or institutions which participated to the EVA project sharing their expertise and giving their contribution to the Thematic Areas study groups.

They worked on the specific technical topics related to the European training system defined and selected at the beginning of the project on the basis of priorities and convenience in common accordance with the Project Management.

1.6 Agreement with THW and SGSP

From November 2006 CEFRIEL joined, as partner the project "Virtual Academy" by THW and SGSP with the objective of providing it with the use of the EVA platform and the development of ad hoc services.

In particular, as reported in the A8/3 Form of the Supplementary agreement N.1 to the Grant Agreement between the European Community and BA THW (Grant Agreement N. 07.030601/2005/423903/SUB/A5), “CEFRIEL will provide the project with its technical competencies in Information Technology for the implementation and management of different services and applications on the EVA Portal web site”.

2 At the time of the proposal the following entities expressed their interest to actively participate:

Directorate-general for Civil Security (Belgium), National Higher School of the Firemen Officers – ENSOP (France), The Main School of Fire Service (Poland), National Service for Fire and Civil Protection (Portugal), Escuela Nacional de Protección Civil - ENPC (Spain), Swedish Rescue Service Agency – Training Section (Sweden), European Fire Service Colleges‟ Association - EFSCA (UK)



2 Thematic Areas

The process of Thematic Areas selection started during the first Work Group meeting held in Brussels on July 2006, about 6 months after the project start.

The pool of potential topics was large and various3 in accordance with the

participants suggestions and interests.

Different key elements were taken into account for the proper evaluation of each candidate topic highlighting strength and weakness aspects of each (SWOT analysis) as well as the general impact of the study outcomes on the European Civil Protection community.

After a 2 days brainstorming the following Thematic Areas were selected with a series of open issues to be analyzed and discussed during the project long life.

2.1 Community Mechanism Training Programe

Analyze and evaluate the present Community Mechanism training program and the offered curricula used to reinforce and facilitate co-operation in civil protection assistance interventions.

2.1.1 Highlighted needs

The main elements identified as open issues for this Thematic Area are:

Need of familiarization with Community Mechanism basis and general contents, as the Community Mechanism is still unknown to the most part of Civil Protection professional in Europe, except to those which are involved in the training process

Better specification of the Target Groups, as it is sometimes still unclear the selection process of courses participants

Verify the cross-relationship with International Assistance as there is overlap of contents and it would be appreciated a clarification on these aspects

Think about a process aimed at customizing the Community Mechanism for different countries and political context for a better understanding of it

Knowledge exchange about involved organizations‟ mission and activities

2.1.2 Open issues

The following open issues were also highlighted:

3 Training programme and Community Mechanism, available curricula, curricula development, skills

assessment, case history, learning object, recruitment criteria, lessons learnt on training, trainers competencies, attendants pre-competencies, accreditation of prior learning, adaptation to industrial/technological change, training for volunteers, certification of quality systems, continuous training, certification and validation of qualifications (competencies), evaluation of vocational training,

in-service training, language training, training modules, new job profiles, open and distance learning – e-learning,, training of trainers, university/industry co-operation, information to the population, international assistance, co-operation between enterprises, development of networks, development of training programs, training activities, life-long learning, training on prevention,



• CMIC curriculum is consolidated: how much we can further detail the content and organizational aspects?

• Could it be useful to define a format/process (such as a quality system certification) as a support for evaluation and design of a prototype-training course?

• How many and which are the ongoing courses at national and international level related to the Community Mechanism?

• There is an up-to-date programme to train the trainers?

• Are there available training packages (modules/methodologies) to be used for a better integration among the teams at local, national and European level?

• Recruiting and selection procedures and policy: define new methodologies depending on the course target.

• Explain how the differences in geographic, risk analysis, previous experiences can be important for the exploitation of training content, training methodologies, target‟s trainees typology in the CMICs‟ courses

2.2 Training on International Assistance

Focus on the present policies and procedures on International Assistance with respect to organizational aspects as well as educational implication.



Better understanding of the content on this topic and consequences related with training performances, standards, learning methodology;

Verify how this topic compares and overlap with the one about the Community Mechanism

Increase knowledge exchange about Civil Protection organizations‟ mission and activities

2.2.2 Open issues


• Policy and procedures at European level: analysis of the context and implementation of them

• Do specific courses exist in different schools on international assistance? How are they organized depending on the different target groups? How they integrate with the Community Mechanism?

• Policy and Procedure in International assistance: how exercises contribute in their test and application?

• Available material: curricula, criteria, best practice, evaluation and assessment practices in the Civil Protection‟s School

• Do they exist Measurability of the International Assistance Intervention in terms of appropriateness, general criteria, consolidates practices?

• Links and overlapping with Mechanism‟ Courses

http://www.evanetwork.net/Thematic-Areas/International-Assistance



• How a tool like EVA portal can contribute in solving some of the before mentioned open issue?

2.3 E-Learning

Make a research on the use of e-learning platform in Europe as a tool to facilitate networking and support remote educational programs in different areas and for different targets.



• Can e-learning tools be proper solutions for the Community Mechanism courses implementation?

• How e-learning tools can contribute to do a strong Cross fertilization between partners curricula

2.3.2 Open issues


• Identify criteria to find out as much as possible best practices, technology platform, e-learning methodologies

• Coherence with training target and different courses typology

• Manage possible synergies with the Eva Portal

• Identification of standard and criteria to be adopted ate EU level for different kind of e-learning platform use:

– community management

– social interactions

– peer to peer communication

• Learning evaluation customer satisfaction and a technological system to do that

• Statistical Data on how many platform exist and how they are used

• ICT Technology: Community for peer-to-peer ex-students´ communication in CMIC, volunteers and other training project interaction

2.4 Training on Prevention

Training on the present prevention policies applied to the different risk categories and their relevant training curricula and courses, in Europe.



• It seems urgent to build up Innovative Training with IT mechanisms embedded

• A better definition to bound the area in order to guarantee a global and open approach: it should be necessary to know each partners‟ countries requirements

http://www.evanetwork.net/Thematic-Areas/E-Learning

http://www.evanetwork.net/Thematic-Areas/Training-on-Prevention



• To check overlapping with strategy for information population

2.4.2 Open issues


• Definition about prevention and training: how many areas do exist?

• Classify the risks categories where prevention policies are foreseen

• Prevention levels: planning, operative, technical, political

• What‟s the goal of prevention?

• Local and Territorial Governance: competencies, roles and right and charges

• Technology from the training content point of view: criteria, guideline to build training curricula, evaluation tool and learning methodology.

• Technology as a support of experimental exercises.

• Law, procedures and protocol at European level

• Best training prototype and samples to be studied

• Open an interactive platform to discuss the subject at European level

• Trainee target „s analysis

2.5 Training on Information to the population

Information strategies and tools for addressing to the general public prevention policies applied to the different risk categories and their relevant training curricula and courses, in Europe



• Define the right criteria to recruit experienced trainers and at the same time favourite a quite frequent turnover of them in order to up-to-date their competencies and encourage interdisciplinary environment;

• Build up best practices in order to design a minimum training system basis by implementing in different European contexts;

• Evaluate the efficiency and efficacy of the existing training courses in this area and propose innovative tools to design, build up and disseminate information to the general public.

2.5.2 Open issues


• Verify any possible overlap with existing training material at EU Commission level Communication

• Pull out strategy: knowledge, experiences and competencies throughout the involvement of technicians, strategist, politicians and experts.

• Communication flow chart: actors and policies

http://www.evanetwork.net/Thematic-Areas/Training-on-Information-to-the-population



• Information for prevention and information for imminently disaster event: highlight differences and similarities

• Evaluation and assessment of training content: effectiveness, focus, critical aspects

• Match outstanding knowledge and measurable and concrete aspects

• Partitioning of information depending on the target population and the type of information

• Information policies related to the different kind of risks

• New Technologies for information to the population

2.6 Training for Volunteers

Analyze the Volunteers‟ phenomena in Europe under the training and educational policies. Focus in particular on present training offers, organizational aspects and international coordination.



• Define a common understanding of Volunteers Meaning: categorize, identified the existing content about it

• Finding the best practices and performances that have been created and experienced in order to have common criteria and consolidate meaning;

• To deal with the main interesting issue about consistency, comparability of existing curricula in the different Project‟s Schools and the consequently exchange of material;

• To search existing models and create a set of models to make a training needs analysis for volunteers.

2.6.2 Open issues


• Which are common criteria to identify a shared understanding of the meaning of volunteer? Who volunteers are?

• How to use a classification to identify different kind of volunteers?

• How to design a volunteer training path? From the risks analysis to training need analysis?

• Which strategies should be found to collect the much more effective curricula about recruiting, selection and train of volunteers?

• Organization and coordination aspects: data collection

• Which kind of criteria can be used to collect information?

• Is it possible to define a list of entities and stakeholder to ask for the data?

• Multidisciplinary: how to design a path that take in account this item?

http://www.evanetwork.net/Thematic-Areas/Training-on-Volunteers



• Which will be time for training? Which kind of trainers will be? Which kind of path, scheduling, planning, up-to-dating

• Target trainees typology identification

• Minimum requirements necessary for the recruitment of volunteers for a kind of Degree/certification also basing on previous experiences and knowledge

• On-going experiences inside European Commission about Volunteer‟s UE projects and Training Volunteer Projects

• Connections between Mechanism training courses and volunteers‟ training

2.7 Study Groups Activities

Once identified the before mentioned aspects for each Thematic area, the Core Group members started the work from remote, mainly using the web platform, for exchange and comparing material, and audio conferencing for discussing on specific topics.

Figure 1 shows how the work was organized among different active Core Group Members is provided by the hereunder scheme:

Figure 1 - Opera tive organiza tion among involved partic ipants

2.8 From 6 to 3 Thematic Areas

Considering the importance of the selected Thematic Areas and the cross correlation among them, after a first explorative work phase where all the identified topics were examined, in order to provide a pragmatic result and avoid overlapping among different topics, a selection has been done which brought the Study Groups to focus only on 3 of them:

1. Community Mechanism Training Programme (with emphasis on the international assistance)



2. Training on Information to the population

3. Training for Volunteers

Discharged Thematic Areas were abandoned due to the hereunder reasons:

1. Training on Prevention.

Analysis on Training on Prevention is very broad as it can be faced taking into account any kind of potential risk and its relevant policies. It was decided not to focus on it anymore because it can be included, under some aspects, in the Thematic Area Information to the Population.

2. E-Learning

A first analysis was carried on concerning the existence and present use of e-learning platforms for national and international training activities. As a general outcome it appeared that there are different e-learning platforms mainly used for training activities at national level, usually within specific Civil Protection Agencies.

It was preferred not to continue on this theme as it was recognized not strategic for the present project objectives.

3. Training on International Assistance

This Thematic Area was recognized due to be inserted in the general framework of the Community Mechanism Programme, for which, therefore, special attention will be addresses on this aspect.

Data analysis and achieved results of the remaining Thematic Areas are provided in Section 4.

http://www.evanetwork.net/Thematic-Areas/Training-on-Prevention



3 EVA Portal Platform

3.1 Platform description

EVA Platform is the online portal built within the EVA project as the main to for creating and maintaining alive the network among Civil Protection professionals in Europe.

At the present moment it counts 550 pages.

The portal has been realized in full respect of the requirements establish by the Italian “Legge Stanca - Legge 9 gennaio 2004, n. 4” in which are defined the guidelines “… to allow disabled people accessing to informatics instruments” also in accordance with the WAI W3C guidelines accessibility rules. Digital Divide bridging

The portal also accomplishes the 2 following main topics:

ensuring graceful transformation, which means to guarantee that the web pages content remains comprehensible even when the accessing devices used by the users are different (Laptop, PDA, mobile phone,…)

making content understandable and navigable to everybody which means to let the contents and the navigation structure be comprehensible for different users categories.

3.2 Features and functionalities

The portal is based on Harmonia, a Content Management System (CMS) specialized to be fully accessible (in the sense of Web-accessibility) to editors and users.

Harmonia, and therefore even the EVA Portal, allows to create logic entities (lists, modules, news, links, pages, ...), hosting and logically presenting them (accessible) on the web.

Each entity can be published into any point of the portal‟s logic structure, giving to the content managers an unparalleled flexibility.

3.2.1 Access to information and security

The management of the portal, the contents editing and the access to reserved/private areas is based on specific entities called "user", " profile " and " permission ". These 3 entities are related in accordance with the following schemes:

Figure 2 - EVA Portal ma in entities relationship

The framework includes, by default, some basic users, profiles and permissions represented in the hereunder graph:



Figure 3 - EVA Portal tree-struc ture

The web portal administrator can, at any time, create and add to the tree-structure showed in picture Figure 3. It is during this phase that he can also assign one or more profile to the same user providing him/her with the requested level of visibility to the portal contents.

Administrator and users with similar rights have the possibility to define/modify login and password for each user. Also each final user can modify his/her own password accessing from the home page.

Managing different level of permissions, the portal allows to divide users in clusters for each of which only a subset of the pages of the portal would be allowed. In such a way, with a unique resource, it is possible to manage multiple groups in parallel and categorize material in order to be visible of the entire community of users or just to a part of them..

3.3 Multimodality

EVA portal maintains all the features of the CMS it is based on. In the following a short list of the main assistive technologies it implements:

1. Skip Navigation

Links, visible to screen readers and textual browsers, guide users within each page, directly to the where the contents start

2. Tab Navigation

Sequential navigation, by means of simply two keyboard keys

3. Access Key

Shortcut Keys, to rapidly access to specific functions



4. Characters and colors

In order to adapt the navigation to different type of partially-sighted disabilities, it‟s possible to customize characters and colors and the chromatic contrast. This information is profiled to the users. [see Figure 4 as an example]

Figure 4 - Examp le of adaptability of the portal depend ing on disab ilities

5. Accessibility and multichannel

It is possible to access the service from different channels and by means of different media (PC, PDA, Smart-phone, text-reader, etc.).

To summarize, the main platform advantages are:

1. Use of Standard Technologies

All the server components are written with Java and compliant to all the standard W3C web specifications: XHTML, XML, XSLT, CSS, XPath, XQuery…

2. Extensibility of services and functionalities

The platform easily supports functionalities and base services extensions, through the use of proper Harmonia API (Application Program Interface) which can be customized in accordance with the end-users needs

3. No licensing costs

All the used components do not foresee any licensing cost for free usage. Since its version 1.4, CEFRIEL released Harmonia under the license OSI BSD (open source, no royalties, free usage for private and business usage, free modifications of sources) for all the web site designers and final users and for those willing to modify sources. This means that it is a no-cost solution with no fee or license cost.



Figure 5 - EVA Portal Home Page



3.4 Services for the users

3.4.1 Documents and multimedia

Eva platform can publish any kind of document formats, including multimedia ones, with pictures and videos. To each file it is possible to associate a set of information like keywords, author name, language, title, abstract, size, publication year, source, and any other kind of information which could be necessary for classifying the file and allow a quick recover by mean of an internal search engine.

3.4.1.1 Links and documents download

A section is available with a series of links of interest for the Civil Protection community. Also several documents, in .pdf format, are available for download in different sections depending on the profile of the logged user.

[http://www.evanetwork.net/Links ]

Also more documents, in .pdf format, are available for download in different sections depending on the profile of the logged user. Files are classified in different categories:

Meetings and Conferences Segretariat Documents

National Training Coordinators Documents Alumni Courses Documents

Figure 6 – Links page EVA Portal

http://www.evanetwork.net/Links



Figure 7 – An example of doc ument page EVA Portal

Downloadable files are provided with a number of information which specialize them favoring the search and classification of the document by mean of key-words:

Title

Abstract

Category

Publication date

Authors

Source

Target

Language

Keywords

File type

File size

[http://www.evanetwork.net/Documents ]

Today they are available for downloading 1070 files.

3.4.1.2 Multimedia

Multimedia area is divided in two sections: Photo Gallery and Videos. Photo Gallery includes pictures related to different events whereas. Video section makes available video streaming.

[http://www.evanetwork.net/Multimedia]

http://www.evanetwork.net/Documents



Figure 8 – Eva Porta l Photo ga llery

They have been published an overall amount of 188 pictures referred to different events.

Figure 9 – Video EVA Portal

Video are available in streaming and can be seen by different users at the same time.



They have been published an overall amount of 9 videos.

3.4.2 Calendar of events

EVA Portal Calendar contains the plan of events related to Training within the Community Mechanism System and to other relevant events. Information visible on the Calendar is different depending on the logged user profile.

[http://www.evanetwork.net/Events-Calendar ]

Figure 10 –EVA Porta l Ca lendar

At the project closure they were present in the calendar 211 events.

The Calendar allows a differentiate access to the information, in accordance with the different profile which is assigned to the user. It allows the visualization of spot events or extended in time events.

The Event description pop-up window associated with a single event includes:

title

abstract

event description

event generator signature

event starting date

event closure date

color differentiation to classify and distinguish different typologies of events

3.4.3 Forum and blog

Blog and forum are 2 different services.

Blog allow the collection of comment on a single stream, so that contributions coming from different editors are listed in accordance with the posting date in the same page.

http://www.evanetwork.net/Events-Calendar



The forum is implemented in 2 different levels so that parallel discussion on the same topics can be present starting from a main stream.

At the moment there are different active blogs reserved to the specific clusters of users hereunder listed:

- Ex-Alumni - E-Learning - EU training centres - EVA Workshop 03-04 october 2007 - International Assistance - Training for Volunteers - Training on Information to the Population - Training on Prevention - Training Programme and Community Mechanism

[http://www.evanetwork.net/Blogs ]

Figure 11 – Blog EVA Portal

3.4.4 European Civil Protection Schools Database

EVA portal includes a DataBase which intends to collect information about the EU Civil Protection Schools and Training Centers. For each country schools and training centers have been classified in accordance to the following criteria:

http://www.evanetwork.net/Blogs



- Public sector - Voluntary association - University and Centre of Research - Private sector

Moreover, a distinction was done in terms of activities impact at three different level:

- National - Regional - Local

-

Figure 12 – EU Training c entre page EVA Porta l



To collect necessary information it was created an information sheet which was sent to the National Training Coordinators. The sheet template is reported in Annex D.

An overall amount of 92 schools is for the moment available on the portal, belonging to 10 different countries. Among these 92, just 10 are provided with detailed information on the training offer.

3.4.5 Acronym and Glossary

This section of the EVA Portal contains the explanation of the most common terminology used within the Community Mechanism Training system and the explanation of most common acronyms used in the field of Civil Protection.

Figure 13 – EVA Portal Ac ronyms page



Figure 14 – EVA Portal Glossa ry

[ http://www.evanetwork.net/Acronym-and-Glossary ]

At the moment we have a total amount of 112 acronyms and 18 definitions in the Glossary section.

3.4.6 Online News

On July 2006 the “Online News” service was activated on EVA portal. It consists in the collection and publication of information about activities concerning training and education in Civil Protection in Europe. For the moment news are classified according to the following criteria:

Class of news Identification Criteria

Call News about open calls in Europe for project proposals, papers submissions, mainly related to training and education

Course News about international courses (announcement on new ones or report about the old ones) within the Community Mechanism

http://www.evanetwork.net/Acronym-and-Glossary



framework or offered by a specific institution

E-learning Information about available e-learning platform or new ones

EVA Information about events and other activities related to the European Virtual Academy by CEFRIEL and Italian Department of Civil Protection and the EU Virtual Academy led by THW in partnership with CEFRIEL and SGSP

Exercise News about planned or carried on exercises

Generic

Information concerning any topic/activity related to the training and education for Civil Protection in Europe

Latest news appears in the home page whereas the overall amount of published news is available in a “News Archive”.

Figure 15 – News a rc hive EVA Portal

[http://www.evanetwork.net/News-Archive ]

During the project length an overall amount of 124 news have been published.

3.4.7 Multibrowser/multiplatform

The framework handles XHTML1.1 pages in order to have similar layouts on different browsing platforms as much as possible. Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Firefox, Opera, Lynx, and so on.

3.4.8 Restricted Access to the Portal information / Users profile

A number of EVA Portal information can be accessed freely without logging in. Nevertheless many are the services and information available only after the registration, and for which access is allowed only by the use of a personal login and password.

http://www.evanetwork.net/News-Archive



An ad hoc Registration Form was developed and implemented (visit it at http://www.evanetwork.net/cmd-register ) divided in the following main sections:

1. User details, containing personal information 2. Contact details, containing contact information as address, telephone,

e.mail, … 3. Job Information, containing professional information 4. Education and Training Information, containing information concerning

attended courses, exercises… 5. EVA Service Program – Subscription of Weekly News and Newsletter service 6. EVA Portal access, which is the area where to insert login and password 7. Consensus to the Treatment of personal data

Depending on the data collected in the Registration Form, participants are assigned to a specific profile which makes accessible and visible to them sub-groups of information. The following profiles are active for the moment:

Registered

Community Mechanism Ex-Alumni

Core Group Members

National Training Coordinators

Extra-projects events members

Registration also allows EVA Secretariat to have a picture of the EVA portal visitors in order to better customize services.

Figure 16 show the growth of the number of registered users during the project life.

Figure 16 - Registered users p lot during the p rojec t life

Figure 17 shows registered users‟ distribution in Europe.

We have for now over 370 registered users with, on average, an increment of 10 users per week.

http://www.evanetwork.net/cmd-register



Figure 17 - Registered users na tiona lity

3.4.9 Weekly news service

Starting from March 2007, with a weekly periodicity, it was active a service of e-mailing to the registered users which subscribed the service, a bunch of news on the latest facts in Europe and in the world concerning Civil Protection training, events and similar activities.

At the moment there are 217 subscribers to which they have been sent 19 editions of the newsletter.



3.5 Services for the editor

EVA Portal supports an editorial staff model suited for different needs and requirements (frequency, editors limitations, geographic distribution, …) which would allow the activation of a cooperative model for the EVA portal prosecution. In the follow the main features of the system.

1. Content Editing

The portal allows creating, modifying and publishing web contents through a single web WYSIWYG interface. There is no difference between browsing and editing of web contents and there simple and specific instruments to define the navigation tree

2. Distributed Editors

Different editors, simultaneously, can work on the site from different places.

3. Multilanguage support

The CMS editor interface is available in the chosen user language making is simple to manage the content editing.

4. Distributed editorial staff

Several editors can simultaneously edit the site content from different locations.

5. Reserved areas/users profiles

There are security zones where only specific users‟ profiles can access.



3.6 Statistics

3.6.1 General information on the EVA portal registered users’ profile.

In the following a series of plots referred to the community of registered users.

On the 15th

of January 2008 we have almost 400 registered users.

Figure 18 - Da ta on the Job position of reg istered users

Figure 19 - Belonging Organiza tions of reg istered users



3.6.2 EVA Portal users and the Community Mechanism Training Programme

Only the 38% of the EVA portal registered users participated to the Community Mechanism Training Programme.

Figure 20 - EVA Porta l reg istered users vs. pa rtic ipation to the CM t raining Programme

Figure 21 shows how this 38% distributes among the different Courses of the Community Mechanism.

Figure 22 shows the participation of EVA portal registered users to different Exercises, both in absolute value and percentage whereas Figure 23 shows the same information referred to Exchange of Experts programme.



Figure 21 - Sc a tter of the pa rtic ipants among the different Community Mec hanism Training p rogramme courses

Figure 22 - EVA portal users vs. Exerc ises pa rtic ipation



Figure 23 - EVA portal users vs. Exc hange of Experts Programme partic ipa tion

3.6.3 EVA Portal subscribers and the use of the web services

Figure 24 shows how many people subscribed the Weekly newsletter.

Figure 24 - Statistics on the Weekly news servic e subsc ribers



Figure 25 - Distribution of user p rofile

Figure 25 plots the distribution of users among the different categories identified. We have a prevalence of generic users, whereas the group of Ex-Alumni represents the 27% of the overall number of registered people.

Figure 26 and Figure 27 show the data relevant to the monthly accesses to the portal in 2006 and 2007 respectively.

As a fact of relevance it is due to be noticed that the portal reached a peak of unique visitors of more than 2.000 in October 2007, in correspondence of the Final Workshop.



Figure 26 - Monthly accesses to the EVA porta l in 2006

Figure 27 - Monthly accesses to the EVA porta l in 2007



4 Thematic Areas Guidelines & Recommendations

As a general structure of the contents of the present Section it is highlighted that each Thematic Area will be presented highlighting three main knid of aspects:

1. General Issues about the specific Theme

2. Special focus on Training activities in that Area

3. Final remarks and future perspectives

4.1 Training Programme and Community Mechanism (with particular emphasis on the international assistance)

The final objective of this Thematic Area changed a lot in respect to the original plan due to progresses done jointly by the EU Commission and the Community Mechanism courses organizers in the last Cycles. Because of this, the new defined primary scopes are:

1. Disseminate the Mechanism to everybody

2. Evaluate the opportunity to create the community of the Mechanism Trainers and Lecturers

3. Create a series of guidelines in support to the courses organizers

4.1.1 General Issues

The following items come out form the Study Group work as general needs concerning the Community Mechanism Training Programme. For each open issue a series of suggestions for operative actions follows.

4.1.1.1 Know more about the Community Mechanism

An information package should be defined by the EC in collaboration with the EU Member States

The information package should be translated into the language of each EU member State and participating Country

The responsibility of spreading the information package should be given to National Civil Protection authorities

The information package should reach governmental and no-governmental organizations, including volunteer organizations, at all levels

The EU Commission should lay down guidelines aimed at the introduction of Community Mechanism modules into the existing national courses curricula

4.1.1.2 Specify target groups profile

An updated database of EC trained experts should be accessible

The database of experts should include the curricula of the experts

The EC should release information concerning the professional profiles of experts trained

http://www.evanetwork.net/Thematic-Areas/Training-Programme-and-Community-Mechanism

http://www.evanetwork.net/Thematic-Areas/Training-Programme-and-Community-Mechanism



The EC should indicate, within the quotas, the professional profiles needed

4.1.1.3 Identification and selection procedures and policy for identify the participants to the Community Mechanism training Courses

It is suggested to set up precise guidelines for the selection of participants, including very few criteria, in support to the national Training Coordinator job. Criteria should include:

o Age limits.[Could it be considered as a discrimination factor?]

o Health conditions;

o Knowledge of English (according to EU standards)

o Knowledge of other languages could be considered as an asset (Spanish, French and Portuguese);

o Starting from OPM: field experience (exercises and/or missions at national and international level);

o Duration of field experience

The NTC should provide the participants with relevant information on the Mechanism and on the training course.

4.1.2 Training Activities

In respect to the specific activity of training, the following recommendation and guidelines are provided

4.1.2.1 Be familiar with curricula of the different courses

The curricula and the general information sheets of each training courses should be made accessible to all civil protection operators, independently from their direct involvement in the Community Mechanism training system

4.1.2.2 Training of trainers

The EU Commission should include a training course done by its staff and addressed to the trainers/lecturers, exercises organizers and supporting staff that will be involved in the Mechanism training programme

Courses for lecturers/trainers should last for not more than 3 days and accommodate 40 to 50 participants

A database of accredited trainers/lecturers should be made available by the EC

Accredited trainers/lecturers should be yearly provided with updating about the courses

The possibility of using lecturers not accredited should be however kept as a last resource

4.1.2.3 Training centers networking

To improve and increase the networking among the training centers involved in the Community Mechanism training Programme



To organize a flexible training programme with meetings similar to those organized for NTCs also for the directors of the training centres involved in the EU Mechanism and/or also for the responsible of the courses organization,

To promote information sharing among training centres

4.1.2.4 CM curricula

The EU Commission should pay more attention to the practical sessions included in each Community Mechanism training course

The EU Commission should issue guidelines on how to organize exercises

The HLC exercises should last for not less than 2 days

More attention should be paid to participants‟ suggestions/evaluations

Courses evaluation reports should be made available to National Civil Protection authorities or to the NTCs

The EC should provide basic training materials to be used by all lecturers and complemented with their personal materials

4.1.2.5 Training courses organization and management

To set up quality standards (experience, facilities, methodologies etc.) to be met by private organizations which apply to the calls for tender concerning training courses

To give more importance to the evaluation of the course as a whole instead of as a system made of single lectures: as an example a coordination head (”technical mentor”) should be involved for the whole duration of the course

To foresee entry and verification tests aimed at evaluating the knowledge of participants at the beginning and at the end of each course

To foresee very simple tests at the end of each lesson

4.1.3 Future Perspectives

4.1.3.1 Guidelines and recommendations for the courses organizers

The EC should issue guidelines on the organization of training courses. These guidelines should be as specific as possible and should include checklists (i.e. logistic information, letters of invitation etc.)

Very detailed guidelines and checklists should be made available for exercises organization and running

4.1.3.2 Guidelines and recommendations for Training centers

To create a system for certificating the training centres according to fixed and shared criteria

To pay attention to the quality level of the management of the school in charge of the course organization

To configure an alternative way to offer and implement courses compliant to the features of not residential training centres



To adopt the OSOCC standards concerning tools and equipment (ICT equipment, software etc.)

To revise the policy concerning the assignment of training courses through calls for tender by mean of a procedure which, for example, the call for tender could be made every two or three years and anticipated by a call for expression of interest where a first selection of applicant can be done

4.2 Training on Information to the population

As a general objective of the Thematic Area the following items have been identified:

• To identify common guidelines throughout different policies in reference to information to the population for prevention and during emergency situations

• To provide recommendation on the use of traditional and new technologies for information to the population during the different phases of Civil Protection activities (i.e. prevention, intervention, emergency,…)

• To analyze the human behavior and reaction in emergency from the operator and victim side


Whenever there is the need of communicating something in the context of Civil Protection, special care and attention must be put on a number of factors for which they are hereunder specified the main features.

1. [WHEN] – The time to which the action is referred, specifying if it is referred to

– Before a critical even: communicate to prevent

– During a critical event: communicate for a better management of the intervention

– After a critical event: communicate to improve the reconstruction process

• [WHO] – The public to which the communication is targeted. Different languages, tools, media, words, modalities will be used depending if the target of the communication are

– Children

– Young people

– Families

– Old people

– People with disabilities

– Immigrants

– Minorities

– Vulnerable groups

– Professionals: teachers, journalists,

http://www.evanetwork.net/Thematic-Areas/Training-on-Information-to-the-population



• [HOW] –The most appropriate tool for educating for each kind of target public in a specific situation should be selected among the following indicative lists. In any case, whatever the tool is, it should be in some way trusted, recognizable and “certified”

– Traditional: radio, television, official documents (emergency plan), newspapers, booklets,

– New tools: internet, public portal, online repository, forum, Territorial focused SMS delivery, blog, FAQ, mailing system

– Social Tools like Events: meeting, periodical events (annual celebration,…), open days, exercises

– Technical solutions: sirens, speakers, …

• [WHAT] – The object of the communication strongly depends on the situation, as in case of

– General risks

– Localised risks

– Ongoing emergencies

– Recovery

It should be possible to choose to communicate either Facts (rules, rights, obligations,…) or behaviors

• [WHY] – A clear understanding of the final objective of the communication to inform the population is fundamental. A communication can be done

– To mitigate the risk

– To prevent

– To save life, property, environment, health, ….

– To prepare them on how to react

– To assist during recovery

• [WHERE] – The way how communication is also affected by the size and location of the target group in terms of

– Local, regional, national, international

– Generalistic events


A series of suggestions and recommendations are provided which can be used in support to the training activities for Information to the population. They can be helpful both at EU level but even at local level in a national agency, school or training center.

4.2.2.1 Elaborate new tools

• Build up on line tools to be used as instruments for operators for easily exchange information before, during, after an event

– A certified portal where to get immediately information about what is going on and how it evolves (i.e. EVA portal)



• Promote and encourage a 2-way communication with the general public, providing tools to allow them to easily reach the Civil Protection professionals

• Build up Databases with information on how face different risks, in different countries, in different ways and possibly with the Commission supervision

4.2.2.2 International training

• To organize EU training activities focused on communication tools and techniques for Civil Protection operators to be used mainly during an international event

• To promote the implementation of multi-language summary reports in order to make contents accessible to everybody, without any linguistic barrier

• To take into account cross boarders issues

4.2.2.3 Effectiviness of strategies

• To identify and specify tools and proper indicators to be used by the relevant authorities to measure the effectiveness of the communication process

• To promote surveys using one-shot questions

• To encourage comments and suggestions by public

4.2.2.4 Round table

• To promote the creation of multi-disciplinary discussion tables where specialists, authorities, CP operators, scientists, technicians,… can agree on the best way to inform the population about “potential” risks


4.2.3.1 Good Practices for improving communication in Civil Protection

• To train Civil Protection Communication operators by assistance of specialist in the communication area

• To use external companies which help Civil Protection in defining the most appropriate strategy

• To train the trainers in all relevant institutions like schools, hospitals, volunteers groups

• To train the public on how behave in case of emergency

4.3 Training for Volunteers

As a general objective of the Thematic Area the following items have been identified:

• To identify common definition universally recognized for the volunteer role

• To identify all the elements and features relevant for a well balanced and significant analysis of the training activities for volunteers in EU

http://www.evanetwork.net/Thematic-Areas/Training-on-Volunteers



• To identify first action to move towards a joint approach to manage the volunteers world


4.3.1.1 Definition of Civil Protection volunteerism and volunteer

• To provide a common official definition (laid down by the EU Commission) as it appears the minimum condition to share and agree on further actions. In some countries there are volunteers that operate as professionals [e.g. Norway] whereas in countries like Italy volunteer is not a job. One of the discriminate factor today is the presence or not of a financial gain

• EU-should led initiative for providing minimum criteria for official recognition to be later recognized by the Member States.

4.3.1.2 Clear identification of Rights and Duties of the Civil Protection Volunteer

• To give volunteers the same rights and duties of paid staff and to clarify the rules that must drive interactions between volunteers and paid staff. This is related to a clear definition – on national basis - of roles and skills to operate in emergency.

• To promote action to recognize volunteers rights for Pension schemes

• To define a Protocol at EU level on volunteers group that work on emergency events regulating insurance in case of accident and injury.

4.3.1.3 Define a Code of conduct for Volunteers

• Two are the possible alternative solutions

• to adopt the ICRC code at EU level

• to lay down a brand new EU code.

• To promote national debate on this issue aimed at defining a common EU code of Civil Protection Volunteers Organizations that should take into account the code of conduct of other bodies.

4.3.1.4 Rights and duties of the Civil Protection volunteer

Volunteers usually do not have the same rights of paid staff and cannot benefit from a clear definition of their duties. There are no clear rules driving the interaction between volunteers and paid staff.

• To give volunteers the same rights and duties of paid staff and to clarify the rules that must drive interactions between volunteers and paid staff


4.3.2.1 Training levels and admission criteria

Training levels and training structure notably vary in the different European Countries. This causes, in many sectors, a lack of parallelism among personnel belonging to different organizations in terms of skills as well as of roles played on the field. Similar



courses held in different Countries or simply by different organizations foresee inhomogeneous admission and selection criteria.

• To set up a EU common core training plan by providing guidelines or a structured strategy concerning training levels and admission criteria

4.3.2.2 Training objectives

• Training objectives widely vary among courses. Even basic training for volunteers shows inhomogeneous contents and means. Possible solutions could be

• To define the objectives and levels and courses curricula at national level in a EU perspective.

• To promoting joint training courses and exercises with trans-national volunteers teams

• In general, to identify common training objectives for different courses and levels

4.3.2.3 Training methodology

Formal training and Informal training [especially with exercises] are both key to develop skills and competences in the field. There are other tools [e.g. e-learning] that can be considered as means to acquire information but that cannot substitute both traditional front lessons and exercises.

• To promote training programmes that use both formal and informal approach. To promote exchange training and exercises activities between countries.

• To promote tools [e.g. web based] to allow people to be updated and share experiences and knowledge.

4.3.2.4 Courses curricula

There a need of a transversal analysis of courses curricula. It is necessary to define commons guidelines in order to ensure the common background but taking into account the national framework and needs.

• To lay down common curricula for at least a limited number of training courses, if possible according to a basic-advanced-refreshment structure

• To promote through EVA a networking group between all the actors involved at national and transnational level to define a common course programme on international intervention.

4.3.2.5 Management skills

Volunteers work increasingly requires at least some basic management skills. In order to improve the quality and effectiveness of volunteer organizations‟ contribution to Civil Protection and emergency management operations, the provision of minimum standards in this field should be considered as a crucial issue to be answered in the appropriate way

• To set up and promote a portfolio of Skills Knowledge & Attitudes, focusing on competences - not only on technical skills - and develop tools to raise awareness on and asses SKA acquired/need both in formal and informal training.



• The setting up of a shared recognition system of SKA should lead to the definition of roles [e.g. job role/ job description].

• The new approach should enhance differences between volunteers: skilled volunteers vs. volunteers.

• To include management among the subjects taught to Civil Protection volunteers, and to set up minimum standards

• To give value to skills acquired in other job and volunteers experiences.

4.3.2.6 Courses language

The most part of courses is taught in the local language. Almost no course foresees that a part or all lessons are held in English. There is a growing need of promoting the knowledge of English among volunteers, while proficiency in English should be considered as a minimum requirement for all courses that involve, or may involve, participation of volunteers to international activities.

• To promote the use of English among volunteers, to foresee proficiency as a minimum requirement for courses that involve, or may involve, participation to international activities

• To focus the language training programme on “Civil Protection”.

• To promote the exchange and the participation in national and European exercises.

• To promote the publication of English booklet [e.g. travel guide] for Emergency Operators.

4.3.2.7 Standards

Courses for volunteers that participate to international missions do not foresee the acquisition of an adequate knowledge of international procedures and standards (EU Mechanism, UN: Awareness, OSOCC; CM Coordination, NATO: CEP, CRM, Red Cross: Safety and Security)

• To train volunteers that can be called to participate to international missions on international procedures and standards [EU Nechanism. EU Hand book, INSARAG guidelines and Methodologies; UN-OCHA ans OSOCC Guidelines; ICRC Code of Conduct; SPHERE Project]

4.3.2.8 Knowledge of the Mechanism

Almost no courses foresee an introduction to the European Civil Protection Mechanism to volunteers. There is an evident lack of information on this topic across the volunteers‟ community, while knowledge of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism should become a basic element of the cultural background of any Civil Protection volunteer, and a strong point of all volunteers participating to international initiatives.

• To include modules focusing on the EU Civil Protection Mechanism in all training courses and to provide volunteers which participate or may participate to international activities with an in-depth knowledge of the Mechanism.

• Train volunteers on the EU Mechanism as part of a training programme focused on International emergency management.



4.3.2.9 Interoperability

Interoperability with foreign European counterparts is not foreseen at all by courses aimed at training volunteers. There are no official operative standards concerning field organization and operations, mainly because the most part of Civil Protection volunteer organizations responds only to the needs and directions of their national Civil Protection authority.

• To foster interoperability among civil protection volunteers by laying down common operational standards, i.e. after the SPHERE Project

4.3.2.10 Employers

The lack of a common policy is particularly evident when support to volunteers in dealing with their employers is concerned. Some Countries have a legal framework that helps volunteers in leaving their workplace in order to attend training courses.

• To support volunteers in dealing with their employers when living the workplace to attend training courses

4.3.2.11 Costs

Not all courses are supplied on a cost-free basis. Volunteers are usually charged a fee in order to attend training courses. From another point of view, this is necessary to reduce training costs, especially for small-sized organizations.

• To grant financial support to those organizations setting up training courses for Civil Protection volunteers structured according to the future EU standards, in order to make training courses for Civil Protection volunteers free of charge

4.3.2.12 Certificates

Only a limited number of Countries currently certify courses attended by Civil Protection volunteers. In these cases, certifications may involve employment opportunities and/or may be considered compulsory or preferential for professional growth. A similar policy should be adopted at EU level in order to fill the gap currently existing with Countries that do not officially recognize training certificates released to volunteers and to promote recognition of certificates by employers and by the academic community.

• To provide volunteers attending Civil Protection training courses with certificates recognized in the world of employment and by academic communities.

• To identify methods to assess and evaluate skills and competences acquired during exercises and emergencies interventions.

• To ensure that training institutes and centres have equal access to the recognition system.

• Certify expertise.

4.3.2.13 Training of trainers

The most part of EU Countries do not have an official policy concerning training of trainers related to courses for Civil Protection volunteers.

• To set up a specific plan focused on training for trainers. This plan should be aimed at creating a “European Training Standard” in the field of Civil Protection training



for volunteers in order to foster the application of the most known international standards. This should go together with the identification of benchmarks and with a continuous monitoring of the quality of training.


4.3.3.1 Volunteers’ motivations

More attention should be paid to motivations moving Civil Protection volunteers. Motivation could be a strength point and a weak one at the same time when it leads to self-assertiveness. It is the engine but at the same time a barrier to develop the effectiveness of volunteers: do it for free doesn‟t mean do whatever you want.

Only a few Countries have established mechanisms aimed at increasing volunteers‟ enthusiasm of working in the Civil Protection field.

• To increase people‟s motivations of becoming volunteer and to foster volunteers‟ enthusiasm

• Teach volunteers to better communicate to the public their experience, in case also foreseeing specific training programme on communications.

4.3.3.2 Financial support

Normally, Civil Protection volunteers participating to training courses have the responsibility to pay for accommodation, meals and transportation. This is necessary to reduce training costs, especially for small-sized organizations, but interferes with accessibility of courses.

• To provide volunteers that participate to training courses with a “support pack” including obligatory insurance, reimbursements of travel and living expenses and employers day-leave reimbursement

4.3.3.3 Networking among volunteer Civil Protection organizations

In general, it is perceived the need of doing a much stronger effort in the field of international networking among volunteer Civil Protection organizations. This is especially true when training is concerned, and in particular in the organization of joint exercises. In order to maximize returns, this kind of cooperation should not exclude the participation of public and/or private players involved in Civil Protection.

• To foster cooperation among EU Civil Protection volunteer organizations in the field of both national and international training, in cooperation with National Civil Protection authorities and with other public and private actors that play a role in Civil Protection.

• To promote at national and EU level the networking among associations and the actors involved to stimulate cooperation and knowledge transfer. The web could be the key tool to networking in an open Knowledge approach.

4.3.3.4 Training centers

Courses for volunteers are currently organized by a wide range of organizations. In such a situation it is not possible to verify that volunteers are provided with the right knowledge and to check that courses are not organized for the organization‟s own profit. In order to improve efficiency of the system of training for Civil Protection volunteers, it should be



foreseen some kind of certification of training centers by the National Civil Protection authorities.

• To promote the standardization and certification of training centers

• To promote the adoption of the guidelines [Local authorities, Training Centres, associations] in a EU shared perspective.

• To create User Generated Mapping : activate a process to map and organize training activities and centres, the content updating should be managed by the associations

4.4 ICT Tools in support to the three Thematic Areas

Guidelines and recommendations are also provided on the aspect of the use of ICT in support to the knowledge sharing and circulating within the 3 defined Thematic Areas.

• To promote the use of web giving some tutorials on how to use the platforms.

• To promote social networking as a resource.

• To promote and stimulate synergies between experiences similar to EVA Portal.

• To promote the sharing of contents by mean of a social networking approach.

• Test social web tools – e.g. EVA – Such a kind of tools can be key to promote and accelerate the overall process in creating common background in the field of training volunteers.

4.5 Remarks

Guidelines and recommendations cover a wide range of possible actions and suggestions to address to the EC, but also to the relevant actors, depending on the specific topic.

They are the result of sharing experience and knowledge among professionals coming from different countries and institutions.

Main of them are just the starting point for further elaborations and concrete actions.



5 Project follow up

5.1 A Sustainable Business model: EVA Portal future

As a fact, the project leader and its partner believe that EVA portal was a successful project and therefore it is worthwhile to continue it, maintaining the web site still operative.

During the project length we tested the use of the portal as a real portal where to advertise different kind of activities related to the Civil Protection Training like courses, conferences, seminars and similar ones. Moreover, for some of them we build up an ad hoc structure, with an advertisement page and a repository of all the presented material accessible only to the course participants. In such a way, EVA Portal intends to offer and sell a package service which includes:

- Dedicated public web pages customized on the specific course/event/…

- Private area for the documents downloads

- A set of services to create and maintain alive a restricted community of people (for example blog, forum).

More in general, we identify today three different possible services which we intend to put on the market and which can address a wide range of potential customers:

- Service A - Selling the “publication service of the course and of reserved area” to courses organizers in order to give them visibility at international level

- Service B - Selling the use of the portal, to the next editions of the Community Mechanism courses organizers. In such a way the Ex-alumni could have a unique reference point in which they could be even organized ad hoc surveys, offers, advertisement, and so on.

- Service C - Start offering spaces for advertising to private companies potentially interested to the sector

Figure 28 represents schematically the possible model of cooperation among the different potential actors which can be involved in the “EVA portal ecosystem”.

As a complementary source of financial support the lead partner also intends to look for other EU Commission funding opportunities mainly aimed at improving the capabilities of the portal towards the implementation of other advanced Web 2.0 services.

Further, considering the quantity of data and information already existing on the portal, and the increasing need of accessing to information by the Civil Protection operators, it is planned to improve and enrich the platform on the side of contents with the final goal of implementing the “Virtual Library” of the European Virtual Academy.



Figure 28 - Example of possib le collabora tive model for EVA Portal



Annex A List of registered users institutions

Civil Protection Agencies

1. Administration for civil protection and disaster relief

2. Administration for Civil protection and Disaster relief Republic of Slovenia, Member of Slovenia Rapid Reaction Unit

3. Administration of the RS civil protection and disaster relief

4. Brandweer Woerden

5. Centro Intercomunale della Valdera (PI)

6. Civil Contingencies Secretariat, Cabinet Office

7. Civil protection department

8. Civil Protection Directorate of Budapest

9. Corpo delle Capitanerie di Porto - GC

10. Corpo Forestale dello Stato

11. Cyprus civil Defence voluntary sar team

12. Danish Emergency Management Agency

13. DEMA Technical College

14. Department of civil protection and fire brigade of the city of Graz

15. Estonian Rescue Board

16. Estonian Rescue Board

17. Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance

18. Fire Brigade

19. Fire Department Bremen

20. Fire Department of Paris

21. French Civil Protection

22. General inspectorate for emergency situations

23. German Federal Agency for Technical Relief /THW)

24. Government of Tirol

25. Head of International Relations, Estonian Rescue Board

26. International Unit

27. Ministry of the interior Slovakia, office of civil protection

28. National Directorate General for Disaster Management, Department for International Relations

29. National operational coordination centre

30. National Operations Centre



31. National protection and rescue directorate

32. National Service for Fire and Civil Protection

33. Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK)

34. Portuguese Fire and Civil Protection Service

35. Regional Fire and Rescue Department

36. Spain DG Proteccion Civil y Emergencias

37. Spanish civil protection ministry of interior

38. State Fire Service

39. Swedish rescue services agency

Civil Protection Department / Agency

1. Beredskabsstyreisen Danish Emergency Management Agency

2. Crisis Management Department/ Regional Office in Banská Bystrica

3. DG National Civil Protection Service under the Ministry of State Policy for Disasters and Accidents

4. Dipartimento dei Vigili del Fuoco

5. Dipartimento della Protezione Civile

6. Fire and Rescue Service

7. Fire and Rescue Department

8. German Red Cross, Province Branch HQ Badisches Rotes Kreuz

9. Italian Civil Protection Department

10. Ministry of the Interior

11. National Civil Protection Department

12. National HQ of the State Fire Service

13. Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection and Emergency Planning

14. City Gelsenkirchen

15. State Fire and Rescue Service

16. Umbria Region

17. Swedish Rescue Services Agency (SRSA)

Civil Protection School

1. Civil Protection and Fire Fighters NCO School

2. Dept. Project Manager EVA

3. Ecole Nationale Superieure des Officiers Sapeurs Pompiers

4. Emergency Services College



5. Emergency Services College Finland

6. Estonian Rescue School

7. Institute for Fire Service NRW

8. Institute of Fire Service Northrhine-Westfalia

9. National Fire Service School

10. Natural risks department

11. Norwegian Civil Defense Training Centre, Trondheim

12. Public Service Academy, Rescue College

13. Rescue College of the Public Service Academy

14. RSFD Norway

15. Swedish rescue service agency

16. The Main School of Fire Service (SGSP)

17. The Special Secondary School of Fire Protection and the High Special School of Fire Protection in Frýdek-Místek

18. Working for Netherlands Institute for Safety Nibra

Governmental Body (i.e. Minister)

1. Austrian Armed Forces/Mininstery of Defense

2. Civil protection directorate

3. DEMA

4. Department of fire fighters, of minister of Interior

5. Department of Civil Protection

6. Department of Disaster Protection of the Styrian Government

7. Department of the /environment Heritage and Local Government

8. Disaster Management

9. Emergency Services College Finland

10. ENSOSP

11. Federal Ministry of the Interior

12. Fire and Civil Protection College

13. Fire and Rescue Department under the Ministry of the Interior

14. General Directorate of the Dire and Rescue Service of the Czech Republic

15. Government of the State of Vorarlberg / Austria - Department of Civil Protection and Disaster Relief Austria

16. Government of Upper Austria

17. Head of Unit

18. Health Emergencies Public Organization



19. Hellenic Ministry of the Interior, Hellenic Fire Service

20. HM Fire Service Inspectorate

21. Italian civil protection Department

22. Ministry of Interior - Fire Rescue Service of the Czech Republic General Directorate Civil Emergency Preparedness Department

23. Ministry of Interior - General Directorate of the Fire and Rescue Service

24. Ministry of the Interior

25. Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations

26. Ministry of the Interior, Department for the Rescue Service

27. Ministry of the Interior, Training Centre of Fire Protection Brno

28. MOD, NBC-Defence School

29. National Directorate General for Disaster Management

30. National Headquarters of the State Fire Service, Int. Coop. Office

31. Provincia di Arezzo

32. Provincia di Pisa

33. Regional (Regione Abruzzo) Civil Protection Structure

34. Regione Valle d'Aosta

35. Regione Campania

36. Regione Emilia Romagna

37. Regione Friuli-Venezia-Giulia

38. Regione Liguria

39. Regione Lombardia

40. Regione Piemonte

41. Regione Umbria

42. SARUV

43. SRSA

44. Taipei Representative Office for EU and Belgium

45. The Department of Governor´s Office, The Region Of South Bohemia, Czech Republic

46. THW- German Federal Agency of Technical Relief

NGOs

1. A.N.P.AS (National Association of Public Assistance)

2. Austrian Red Cross Department of Lower Austria

3. BSVH

4. Fire fighter



5. Global Fire Monitoring Center GFMC

6. International Rescue Corps

7. Johanniter-UnfallHilfe e.V.

8. The Johanniter International Assistance

9. THE JOHANNITER International Assistance Germany

Consultant 1. Emergency Disaster Management

University

1. CEFRIEL

2. CIRPS-Roma

3. Málaga

4. The Main School of Fire Service (SGSP)

Private organizations

1. Formez

2. Management and training of trainers lecturer and designer

3. Nokia Siemens Networks

Other organizations

1. ABC-Abwehrschule

2. Austrian Armed Forces / NBC Defence School

3. Bremen Fire Services

4. Catering

5. Comune

6. Defence Forces Ireland

7. Emergency Services College

8. EU Council Secretariat

9. European Commission

10. Fire and Rescue Department under the Ministry of Interior

11. Fire and Rescue Service

12. Fire department

13. Fire Department Wels

14. Fire Rescue Brigade



15. Fire service

16. Fire Service College

17. Fire brigade superior national school

18. General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations, Civil Protection Department

19. Greek Fire Brigade

20. Hellenic Fire Service

21. ICRAM

22. Inter-municipality civil protection

23. International Cooperation Dept. National HQ of the State Fire Service

24. Italian Civil Protection Department

25. Ministry of the Interior of Slovak Republic

26. Mountain Rescue Service

27. NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS OF THE STATE FIRE SERVICE

28. National HQ of the State Fire Service

29. Police

30. Police Academy of the Netherlands

31. Rescue service

32. THW / NPO / Fire & Rescue

33. Voluntary



Annex B Dissemination activities

The following events were organized by the Project leader, hereunder listed in chronological order:

# Date / Place Event Name Brief Description

1

16 March 2006

Brussels, Belgium

EVA Kick – off meeting

Project kick-off meeting in presence of EU Commission representatives, project partners and some of the Core-Group Members. The objectives of the projects were presented with a general vision of the forthcoming activities. Clarifications to the Commission on the work organization, methodology and partners involvements were provided to the participants.

2

3 – 4 July 2006

Brussels, Belgium

1st EVA Core-group members workshop

Thematic Areas were identified and discussed together with the Core-Group Members to create Operative Team focused on them. Each Operative Team has the task to work during the project length for:

- improving the quality of training, promoting convergence on the existing training programs and curricula on the selected theme for different levels of Civil Protection professionals and volunteers also favoring strong synergies among all the involved actors

- producing a series of guidelines and recommendations for the Commission.

3

20 October 2006

Revinge - Sweden

2nd EVA Core-group members workshop

Two days meeting on the Thematic Areas content and activities by the use of the EVA platform.

Definition of Thematic Areas contents, plan of activities and of the final objectives of the work for each topic.

4

3 - 4 October

2007 – Brugge, Belgium

EVA Final Workshop

Two days meeting on the Thematic Areas content and activities by the use of the EVA platform.

Definition of Final Guidelines and Recommendation as project outcomes

Moreover, as dissemination activities, EVA Project representatives (CEFRIEL and Italian

Department of Civil Protection) participated to the following events:

# Date / Place Event Name/ Organizer Brief Description

1 28 March 2006

Madrid, Spain

EUROMED Program - Network of Euro-Med Civil Protection Schools” - 1st Meeting / EUROMED

Presentation of EVA project to Civil Protection Training representatives in the EUROMED countries. A discussion on the Education and Training Capacities in the Euro-Med Countries was done, highlighting the potentialities of creating a similar project within the EUROMED Program.

2

19–22 May 2006 Ahrweiler, Germany

Workshop in the framework of the EU-project “European Virtual Academy for Civil Protection (EVA4CP)” / Siemens Business Solutions (SBS) & BBK

Participation to the Kick-Off meeting of the European Virtual Academy for Civil Protection (EVA4CP)” led by Siemens Business Solutions (SBS) & BBK and presentation of the EVA project to the participants.

3 29-31 May. 2006 Neuhausen auf

Workshop “Design of a Common Curriculum for

Participation to the Workshop organized by Siemens & BBK and presentation of the EVA



den Fildern, Germany

Train the Trainers” in the framework of the EU-project “Virtual Academy” / THW and SGSP

project to the participants.

4 20 June 2006 Revinge, Sweden

EFSCA (European Fire Service Colleges' Association Annual Conference / EFSCA

Presentation of the EVA project to the participants.

5

19 – 22 February 2007 Neuhausen auf den Fildern, Germany

Virtual Academy

THW/SGSP/CEFRIEL Training Coordinators Workshop. THW

Participation to the Workshop organized by THW and SGSP. Presentation of the project activities to the National Training Coordinators and discussion about potential use of the platform for internal exchange of information.

6 16 March 2007 Brussels, Belgium

EU Commission DG Environment Committee

Presentation of the EVA project main achieved results and future perspectives to the representatives of the EU Member States.

7

30 March 2007, Rome, Italy

City & Security – International Conference on Security and Civil Protection

Presentation of the EVA platform as an example of use of innovative technologies for improving networking activities among Civil Protection Institutions and operators in Europe.

8

19 – June 2007 Pisa

Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies of Pisa


9

19 October 2007 Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies of Pisa




Annex C EVA Final workshop in Brugge (B) on 3 - 4 October 2007 – List of Participants



Annex D Template Sheet for school / training centers data collection

Your Country

Insert here the list of all school or training centres of Civil Protection

present in your Country.

Example: “The National school of Civil Protection”

Example: “The Training Centre for Fire-fighters”

Example: Name …

Example: Name …

Complete the follow tables, entering the required informations.



Your Country

Example: The National school of Civil Protection

GENERAL CONTACT

ADDRESS

TYPE (1)

SPECIALITIES (2)

CONTACT

PERSON

CONTACTS

OFFERED

COURSES

GENERAL TRAINING OFFER

School objectives

Target group

Selection criteria

Teaching method

Duration

Periodicity

MAIN COURSE DESCRIPTION

Course Name

Type (3)

Duration

Target group

Language

Teaching method (4)

Periodicity (5)

Curriculum



Course Name

Type (3)

Duration

Target group

Language

Teaching

method (4)

Periodicity (5)

Curriculum

Course Name

Type (3)

Duration

Target group

Language

Teaching method (4)

Periodicity (5)

Curriculum