AKI-App

An international tool

Origin of the project

The AKI tools are meant to help you highlight transversal competences (soft skills) acquired in international youth mobility projects.

They were developed between March 2015 and March 2017 by FGYO, BIJ, LOJIQ and OFQJ as well as the Walloon Business Union (UWE) with cofinancing from the Erasmus+ Youth Programme of the European Union, protected under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.

The AKI-App tool emerged as a follow-up to this European partnership between OFQJ-DFJW, BIJ, INSUP, LOJIQ and OFQJ in the form of a digital and free access version of the AKI evaluation kit.

Recognising competences

Participants having gone abroad step out of their comfort zone as they change their habits and make discoveries. They thus tend to develop certain competences.

The technical and linguistic skills can be formalised thanks to existing trade-specific frames of reference or the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). The task gets harder when it comes to recognising the acquisition of soft skills such as the ability to adapt or enter a group.

The initial AKI partnership started from this observation to eventually devise a guidebook describing 5 competences typically acquired in an international mobility experience:

open-mindedness,
adaptation to change,
interpersonal relations,
sense of responsability,
self-confidence.

These 5 competences were specifically chosen with the help of participants gone abroad, youth professionals and representatives of the business world in Europe and Quebec (Belgium, France, Germany, Quebec)

The 5 AKI competences

Self-confidence

Open-mindedness

Interpersonal relations

Sense of responsibility

Adaptation to change

Having self-confidence reflects the ability to believe in one’s potential (knowledge, abilities, qualities, values) and to act with assertiveness in a specific context (professional, personal, social).

Open-mindedness allows a person to have a wider look at their surroudings, at others and how to adapt their behaviour and speech to individuals and context. In other words, to be open-minded means to welcome cultural and diversity of opinions and to adapt accordingly

Having a sense of interpersonal relations allows a person to adequately communicate with others in order to build relationships, to engage in a group by being actively involved in the pursuit of a common goal and to maintain a network of acquaintances or contacts with people from all backgrounds.

Having a strong sense of responsibility allows a person to respect their commitments, taking into account the resources and constraints of their environment, to account for their actions and to be accountable for the consequences. A responsive person is reliable and trustworthy.

Adaptation to change allows a person to cope with unforeseen and diverse situations in a constantly evolving society

The questionnaire and the AKI competences recap sheet

The guide is completed by an assessment kit. It provides tools to help the participant to reflect upon their international mobility experience (questionnaire for the participant, follow-up sheet for the tutor, AKI competences recap sheet).

AKI-App was devised on the initiative of FGYO to facilitate access to the evaluation kit by the automatic generating of the questionnaire and AKI competences recap sheet.

Any organisation can now help its participants to highlight the acquired competences.

Also, any participant can, of their own initiative, benefit from the tool.