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Project Description

TOOLS FOR SKILLS (short for "Tools for integrated training of language and ECVET defined vocational skills in mechanised forestry") was a project financed by the European Commission under the Lifelong Learning program, subprogram Leonardo da Vinci (Project number: 2012-1-SE1-LEO05-11672).

The project aimed to improve the level of professional skills and language skills among European Forest Machine Operators, and thus increase their chances of employment. It was built on the work of two previous Leonardo projects.

The main outcomes of the project are:

  1. A Multilingual, multimedia glossary of technical forestry terms to assist Forest Harvesting operators in foreign countries to communicate. The glossary also helps non-native English speakers to understand English Forest Machine Manuals and Parts catalogs
  2. An integrated, interactive learning tool for training, including the development of:
    1. professional skills with comprehensive test-yourself questions and case-studies, and
    2. language skills for non-native English speakers to be better prepared to communicate in a work environment
    This material is based on the published book 'Working in Harvesting Teams, Part 1 & 2' (in English).
  3. Agreed learning outcomes for the training of forest machine operators in UK, Germany and Sweden

The duration of the project was 24 months: from October 1, 2012 until September 30, 2014.

 

Tools for skills (Verktyg för färdighetsträning) är ett projekt finansierat av Europakommissionen under programmet Livslångt lärande, och delprogrammet Leonardo da Vinci. Projektet syftar till att öka yrkes- och språkkunnandet hos Europas skogsmaskinförare. Det bygger på resultatet från två tidigare Leonardoprojekt.

De viktigaste resultaten av detta projekt är:

  1. En flerspråkig ordlista med tekniska skogstermer som syftar till att hjälpa skogsmaskinförare som inte arbetar i sitt hemland att göra sig förstådda och för de som inte har engelska som sitt modersmål att få bättre möjligheter att tolka bruksanvisningar och reservdelskataloger.
  2. Ett integrerat läromedel för att utveckla
    1. yrkesskicklighet med omfattande testa-dig-självfrågor och fallstudier
    2. språkkunskaper för de som inte har engelska som sitt modersmål i syfte att vara bättre förberedda att kunna kommunicera i en arbetssituation.
      Materialet bygger på de nyligen publicerade böckerna 'Working in Harvesting Teams, Part 1 & 2'.
  3. Utveckla en gemensam plattform för kunskapsmålen för skogsmaskinförarutbildningarna i Storbritannien, Tyskland och Sverige.

Projektets varaktighet är 24 månader, från den 1 oktober 2012 till 30 september 2014.

 

Проектът TOOLS FOR SKILLS е финансиран от Европейската комисия в рамките на Програма “Учене през целия живот”, секторна програма “Леонардо да Винчи”. Проектът е насочен към повишаване на професионалните и езикови умения на операторите на машини, използвани в горското стопанство в Европа. Проектът е разработен на основата на резултатите от два предходни проекта по програма “Леонардо да Винчи”.

Основните резултати от проекта са:

  1. Многоезичен терминологичен речник, съдържащ технически термини от областта на горското стопанство, улесняващ комуникацията между операторите на машини, използвани в горското стопанство от различните страни. Речникът е от полза и за хората, за които английският език не е роден, за по-доброто разбиране на ръководствата за експлоатация и поддържане на машини, използвани в горското стопанство, както и на каталози за резервни части.
  2. Интегрирани материали за обучение, насочени към усвояване на:
    1. професионални умения, посредством разработване на специализирани тестове за самостоятелна подготовка и казуси;
    2. езикови умения, насочени към улесняване на комуникацията в работна среда между хора, за които английският език не е роден.
      Тези материали са разработени въз основа на книгата Working in Harvesting Teams, Part 1 and 2 (на английски език).
  3. Съвместни материали за обучение на оператори на машини, използвани в горското стопанство, във Великобритания, Германия и Швеция.

Продължителността на проекта е 24 месеца: от 1 октомври 2012 г. до 30 септември 2014 г.

При необходимост от допълнителна информация, моля, свържете се с нас.

 

Το TOOLS FOR SKILLS είναι εκπαιδευτικό έργο που χρηματοδοτήθηκε από το πρόγραμμα Δια βίου Μάθησης, υποπρόγραμμα Leonardo da Vinci, της Ευρωπαϊκής Επιτροπής. Το έργο είχε σκοπό να αυξήσει το επίπεδο των επαγγελματικών δεξιοτήτων, αλλά και το επίπεδο ξένων γλωσσών σε χειριστές δασικών μηχανημάτων από τις Ευρωπαϊκές χώρες. Το έργο στηρίχθηκε σε δύο προηγούμενα έργα, που χρηματοδοτήθηκαν επίσης από το υποπρόγραμμα Leonardo da Vinci.

Τα κύρια αποτελέσματα του έργου είναι:

  1. Ένα πολύγλωσσο γλωσσάρι τεχνικών δασικών όρων, ως βοήθημα επικοινωνίας χειριστών δασικών μηχανημάτων που εργάζονται σε άλλες χώρες, και δεν ομιλούν την τοπική γλώσσα. Το γλωσσάρι επίσης βοηθάει όσους δεν έχουν την Αγγλική ως μητρική γλώσσα να καταλάβουν τα τεχνικά εγχειρίδια και τους καταλόγους ανταλλακτικών δασικών μηχανημάτων που είναι γραμμένα στα Αγγλικά.
  2. Ολοκληρωμένο επιμορφωτικό υλικό για ανάπτυξη:
    1. επαγγελματικών δεξιοτήτων, με τη μέθοδο της αυτοδιδασκαλίας, χρησιμοποιώντας περιεκτικές ερωτήσεις και μελέτες περιπτώσεων, και
    2. γλωσσικών δεξιοτήτων για άτομα που δεν ομιλούν την Αγγλική ως μητρική γλώσσα, και βελτίωση της επικοινωνίας σε εργασιακά περιβάλλοντα.
      Το υλικό αυτό βασίζεται στο βιβλίο Working in "Harvesting Teams, Part 1 and 2" (στα Αγγλικά).
  3. Τα αποτελέσματα του έργου έχει συμφωνηθεί να χρησιμοποιηθούν για την από κοινού επαγγελματική κατάρτιση χειριστών δασικών μηχανημάτων στο Ην. Βασίλειο, στη Γερμανία και στη Σουηδία.

Η διάρκεια του έργου ήταν 24 μήνες: από την 1 Οκτωβρίου 2012 μέχρι τις 30 Σεπτεμβρίου 2014.

Για περισσότερες πληροφορίες, επικοινωνήστε μαζί μας στην παρακάτω διεύθυνση.

 

TOOLS FOR SKILLS bol projekt financovaný Európskou úniou prostredníctvom programu Celoživotné vzdelávanie, podprogramu Leonardo da Vinci. Cieľom projektu bolo zvýšiť stupeň profesionálnych a jazykových zručností operátorov lesných strojov v európskom priestore. Vychádzal z výsledkov dvoch predchádzajúcich projektov v rámci programu Leonardo da Vinci. Hlavné výstupy projektu sú:

  1. Viacjazyčný glosár technických lesníckych výrazov pre operátorov lesnej ťažby s cieľom zlepšiť ich komunikáciu v zahraničí a tiež pomôcť porozumieť odborným anglickým príručkám a manuálom tým, pre ktorých angličtina nie je rodný jazyk.
  2. Integrovaný študijný materiál na precvičovanie
    1. odborných zručností s obsiahlymi samotestovacími otázkami a prípadovými štúdiami
    2. jazykových zručností používateľov angličtiny ako cudzieho jazyka s cieľom uľahčiť im komunikáciu v rôznych pracovných situáciách. Tento materiál bol vytvorený na základe publikácie vydanej v angličtine pod názvom “Working in Harvesting Teams, Part 1 & 2”.
  3. Schválené študijné výstupy pre vzdelávanie operátorov lesných strojov vo Veľkej Británii, Nemecku a Švédsku.

Projekt sa realizoval 24 mesiacov v období: 1. október 2012 - 30. september 2014.

Viac informácií získate na nižšie uvedenej adrese.

 

TOOLS FOR SKILLS war ein Projekt, dass die Europäische Kommission im Rahmen des Programms Lebenslanges Lernen, Unterprogramm Leonardo da Vinci finanziert hat.

Ziel des Projektes war es, die beruflichen und sprachlichen Kenntnisse der europäischen Forstmaschinenführer zu verbessern. Es baute auf zwei früheren Leonardo da Vinci Innovationstransferprojekten auf.

Die wichtigsten Ergebnisse des Projektes sind

  1. Ein mehrsprachiges Wörterbuch mit technischen forstfachlichen Begriffen, das die Kommunikation zwischen den Forstmaschinenführern im Ausland unterstützen soll. Das Wörterbuch hilft besonders denjenigen beim Lesen und Verstehen von Bedienungsanleitungen und Ersatzteilkatalogen von Forstmaschinen, die Englisch nicht als Muttersprache sprechen.
  2. Integrierte Lernmaterialien
    1. zur Verbesserung der Fachkenntnisse mit ausführlichen Fragen für die Selbstkontrolle und mit umfangreichen komplexen Übungsaufgaben
    2. um die englischen Sprachkenntnisse zu verbessern, damit man sich am Arbeitsplatz im Ausland besser miteinander verständigen kann.
      Diese Lernmaterialien bauen auf den beiden Bänden des englischsprachigen Fachbuches "Working in Harvesting Teams, Part 1 and 2" auf.
  3. Aufeinander abgestimmte Lernergebnisse für die Ausbildung von Forstmaschinenführern im Vereinigten Königreich von England, Deutschland und Schweden.

Das Projekt dauerte 24 Monate vom 1. Oktober 2012 bis zum 30. September 2014.

Wenn Sie mehr über dieses Projekt erfahren möchten, besuchen Sie uns auf unserer Internetseite: www.toolsforskills.eu

 

The Consortium

Stora Segerstad och Värnamo Naturbruksgymnasium (Sweden)
Stora Segerstad, 33021 Reftele, Sweden
www.lj.se/segerstadvarnamonaturbruk
Contact person: Håkan Hulebo
email: hakan.hulebo@lj.se
phone: +46 703471946

Responsible for Lessons:  1.6.1 - 1.7.1, 1.13.1, 2.6.1 - 2.6.2

Team members: Håkan Hulebo, Bernt Andersson, Per-Erik Persson, Jessica Edfeldt

 

University of Forestry (Bulgaria)
10 Kliment Ohridski Blvd., 1756, Sofia, Bulgaria
www.ltu.bg
Contact person: Prof. Veselin Brezin
e-mail: brezin@abv.bg
phone: +359 2 962 5997

Responsible for Lessons:  1.8.1 - 1.12.1

Team members:  Prof. Veselin Brezin, Tanya Pancheva, Petar Antov

 

OikoTechnics Institute (Greece)
50 Kefallenias St., A. Helioupolis 16342, Greece
www.oikotechnics.org
Contact person: Photeinos Santas, PhD
email: info@oikotechnics.org
phone: +30 -210- 899-5623

Responsible for Lessons:  1.1.1 - 1.5.2, 2.2.2, 2.2.3

Team members:  Photeinos Santas, Athanasios Stavropoulos, Emmanuel Papazoglou, Spyros Stavrou, George Papakitsos, Regas Santas

Acknowledgments: Prof. Elias V. Voulgaridis, Director of the Laboratory of Forest Utilization, Chairman of the Faculty of Forestry and Natural Environment (2011-13), Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, proofread and made corrections to the Greek terminology of the Forest Workers Glossary, and contributed to matters of his expertise.

 

National Forest Centre (Slovakia)
Národné lesnícke centrum Zvolen
T. G. Masaryka 2175/22, 960 52 Zvolen, Slovak Republic
www.nlcsk.sk
Contact person: Dagmar Sélešová
email: selesova@nlcsk.org
phone: +421 45 5202391

Responsible for Lessons:  2.7.1 - 2.9.3

Team members:  Dagmar Selesova, Jana Luptakova

 

Barony College (UK)
Parkgate, Dumfries, DG1 3NE, United Kingdom
www.sruc.ac.uk
Contact person: Gordon Hill
email: gordon.hill@sruc.ac.uk
phone: +44-01387-860251

Responsible for Lessons:  2.1.1 - 2.1.7

Team members:  Gordon Hill, Paul Fotheringham, Tom Karas

 

NFBZ (Germany)
Niedersächsische Landesforsten, Niedersächsisches Forstliches
Bildungszentrum (NFBz)
Sautalstraße 5
D-38723 Seesen, Germany
www.nfbz.landesforsten.de
Contact person: Dr. Karl Schumann
email: Karl.Schumann@nfbz.niedersachsen.de
phone: +49(0)5381/985012

Responsible for Lessons:  2.1.1 - 2.5.1

Team members: Dr. Karl Schumann

 

 

 

 

Products

Award-winning training tool

Participation, Presentation, and Product Poster in the 4th International Conference of Forestry Training Centers

The ToolsForSkills product was presented in the 4th International Conference of Forestry Training Centers, in Buchenbühl, Germany, on 2-4 June 2014. The Conference is organized every other year and gathers participants from forestry vocational training institutions in the EU and other countries. This year, a total of about 70 representatives from 15 European countries, plus the US, representing a wide range of interests, such as tertiary education institutions, vocational training schools, national professional associations and counseling bodies, representatives to the decision-makers at the national and European level, forestry machinery manufacturers, etc. attended the Conference.

The ToolsForSkills set of training tools was voted as the most innovative product of the Conference by peers of 15 EU countries. Many participants expressed interest in transferring the concept to their own vocational training centers.

This is perhaps the most relevant International Conference to the TfS project on European territory for dissemination purposes, networking with other forestry professionals, exchange of information and ideas, and obtaining expert feedback on vocational training tools.

Get a free evaluation copy of the e-book "Working in Harvesting Teams"

You can download a copy of the e-book for free from http://mieab.se/en/tfs-2016/ and follow the instructions.

For copyright purposes, the pictures in the e-book have been partly masked by a "watermark".

To order a fully functional hardcopy of the book with the masks removed, please visit http://mieab.se/en/order/.

Part 1, Basic Knowledge

Part 2, Practical Production

How to navigate the Forest Worker's Online Training Tool

  • From the main screen of the tool (cd.dictyon.net), click on FWOTT to go to the Home Page of the Forest Workers Online Training Tool.
  • In the upper right corner of the Home Page, select your language from the drop-down menu Current Language.
  • Click on the button Basic Knowledge or Practical Production on the left hand side of the screen to unfold the list of Chapters in the respective part. 
  • From the drop-down menu of Chapters, click on the appropriate Chapter. Each Chapter is comprised of one or more Lessons, and a Chapter review part including a Vocabulary Review, a Test Yourself and a Reference section.
  • Navigate to the appropriate Lesson.

Listening Practice

 

If you need to practice on your own when no human help is around and you don't mind the robotic voice(s) of a computer, here is what you can do:

On Windows computers

Webpages

Use any of the many free "text-to-speech" extensions for your web browser. For the Chrome web browser, for example, some of the most popular text-to-speech extensions include Select and speak, Text to speech, Read Aloud: a Text to Speech Voice Reader, Speak and text, etc.

To download and install, for example, the Select and speak extension on your Chrome bookmarks bar:

  1. Click on the Apps icon to go to the Chrome App Store or go directly to the address: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/category/extensions
  2. Search for Select and speak, download it and install the extension on your Chrome browser. You may wish to download and install more than one extensions and select the one to your liking.

To listen to some text on a webpage converted to speech:

  • If you want to listen to text directly from a webpage, the only available option is the Select and Speak - Text to Speech extension for the Chrome browser, with US English only. To use it:
    1. Select the text you are interested in on the respective Forest Workers Online Training Tool (FWOTT) webpage, and
    2. Click on the Select and Speak - Text to Speech icon on your Google extensions bar to listen to the text.
  • If you want to listen to the text in UK English:
    1. Select and copy (Ctrl+C) the text you are interested in on the FWOTT webpage
    2. Click on the Text To Speech icon on your Chrome extensions bar
    3. In the opening tab, Paste (Ctrl+V) the selected text in the Copy & Paste Text To Synthesize (or enter URL) box
    4. In the Click to Choose a Voice dropdown menu, select the appropriate voice (e.g. Google UK English Male)
    5. Make other necessary adjustments, such as Rate and Pitch, and
    6. Click on the Speak! button on the page

text

If you would like to have some text in a text file converted to speech watch the tutorial at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U25vhhE50kI. Alternatively, search the Web for tutorials on how to convert text to speech.

.pdf files

To listen to text in .pdf files, use the Read Out Loud facility of the Adobe Acrobat Reader.

If you do not have the Adobe Acrobat Reader installed, you may download it for free from: https://get.adobe.com/reader/otherversions/ and install it on your computer.

Once installed:

  1. Open your .pdf file with Adobe Acrobat Reader
  2. Go to Edit > Preferences > Reading
  3. In the section Read Out Loud, make any necessary changes; for example, uncheck the button Use default voice to select a voice suitable to your taste, or uncheck the button Use default speech attributes to select the Pitch and/or the Words Per Minute attribute to increase or decrease the reading speed
  4. Click OK to save your selection
  5. Go back to the .pdf document in Acrobat Reader, click View > Read Out Loud > Activate Read Out Loud
  6. Click again on View > Read Out Loud > Read This Page Only or Read to End of Document

 

On Mac computers

The text-to-speech facility is installed by default on your Mac computer.
To customize it, press System Preferences > Accessibility > Speech and make your selections including System Voice, Speaking Rate, etc.

Webpages

To listen to text on webpages:

  1. Open the FWOTT page containing the text you are interested in
  2. Select the text that you want to listen to
  3. Right click on the page (Control+Enter), press Speech > Start speaking

.pdf files

To listen to .pdf files:

  1. Open the .pdf file in macOS Preview
  2. Click Edit > Speech > Start Speaking

 

On cell phones

iPhone

To select a UK English voice:

  1. Go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Speech > Voices > English > ENGLISH (UK) > Daniel (or dowload any of the voices available in iCloud)
  2. Go back to Settings > General > Language & Region > iPhone Language and select the English of your liking (e.g. English U.K.)
  3. Click on Done to save your choice

To have each word highlighted on screen while it is pronounced:

  1. Go to Settings > General > Accessibility and select Speech
  2. Turn on Speak Selection and Speak Screen
  3. Turn on Highlight Content
  4. Select Words or Sentences or Words and Sentences
  5. In the HIGHLIGHT COLORS section, select your choice of Word Color highlight
  6. Return to the Speech screen, and adjust the SPEAKING RATE to your liking
  7. Click on the Pronunciations link at the bottom of the Speech page, and then click on '+'
  8. On the Replacement screen, you may optionally type in a sentence you want to listen to and press Play for testing
  9. Make adjustments to the Languages and Voices sections according to your taste
  10. Close Settings

To listen to text on a webpage:

  1. Open your browser
  2. Go to the FWOTT webpage you are interested in
  3. Select the text you want to listen to
  4. Press Speak on the emerging menu, and
  5. Listen to each pronounced word while it is highlighted on screen

 

Android

  1. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Text-to-speech
  2. Select GoogleText-to-speech Engine
  3. Adjust the Speech rate and Pitch rate to your liking
  4. Verify by clicking on the Listen to an example link
  5. Open your browser, go to the FWOTT webpage of your interest, select the text of your interest, and listen to each pronounced word as it is highlighted

Enjoy!

And keep in mind:

 

You learn best by playing!

 

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