ECPAT
Competency e-Learning
The Background:
ECPAT UK (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography & the Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes) is a leading children’s rights organisation campaigning against the commercial sexual exploitation of children in the UK and on its international aspects. In particular, the charity focuses on the protection of trafficked children and children exploited in tourism and the prevention of such crimes. In relation to the child trafficking part of its remit, as set out in the Home Office's UK Action Plan on Tackling Human Trafficking, March 2007, is to: "ensure frontline staff have the right tools and expertise to identify child victims and offer them appropriate protection and support... "
The Challenge:
In 2007, ECPAT UK approached Academy Internet to develop an e-learning course aimed at social workers, immigration officers and other frontline professionals who come into contact with vulnerable children from abroad. In some cases best practice has not been followed and as a consequence, children have been exposed to greater risks of exploitation.
The challenge was to create a high-impact piece of learning that raised the profile of the issues and provided models of good practice that could be applied successfully in the field by practitioners to reduce the risks faced by these children. An online e-learning solution was chosen as it was easily accessible. This e-learning course is part of the National Strategy Against Child Trafficking and is Home Office funded.
The Solution:
The e-learning solution involved the creation of a mini-website to which users could access via the ECPAT UK site. The e-learning course consisted of three modules, each of which was treated differently.
Module one sets the context, provided the background to ECPAT UK and introduced the issues around the trafficking of vulnerable children from abroad. The informational content provided opportunities for a variety of graphic and interactive activities, including innovative use of video and animation.
Module two introduced the best practice process for working with vulnerable children from abroad through a scenario. Marie, a teenager from the Congo, has been stopped by officials before boarding a flight to Italy. The learner follows her story and is able to take key decisions and see their consequences. The treatment of the module includes many formative questions, with comprehensive feedback in the answers.
Once the learner has worked through the scenario, module three enables the learner to role-play interviewing Marie. The purpose of the interview is to encourage Marie to ‘disclose’ information about her situation and history so that the interviewer can make informed judgments about the risks she faces and how to mitigate them. Marie responds differently to the two questions available. If the learner predominantly chooses best practice questions, Marie will disclose more information and ‘open up’, and vice-versa if the learner chooses predominantly poor practice questions.
At the end of the interview, the learner receives summary feedback on how they handled the interview. The percentage of good and poor practice that they applied in encouraging Marie to disclose is provided. Learners are encouraged to ‘interview’ Marie several times in order to gain a good understanding of what constitutes best practice and improve their best practice percentage.
This kind of role-play is a very effective learning tool, performing a hearts-and-minds function by presenting learners with a ‘real-life’ story that exposes some of the risks and dangers that vulnerable children can face. Rather than simply telling the learner what to do, it enables them to construct their own model of best practice from the clues available. This kind of intellectual engagement with the content is a key factor in stimulating attitude and behaviour change.
As part of the solution, Academy Internet also created (and hosts) a mini-site in order to enable potential users to register for the (free) course. This includes an automated registration process and a weekly Excel spreadsheet with details of all registrants which goes to ECPAT UK staff member for monitoring. The registration process also allows the user to sign up to the ECPAT UK newsletter.
The Results:
The course has been received extremely well by the client, who commented:
“If I’d known what I wanted, then it would have been this”
User comments from the course so far include (in pilot phase, Jan 08):
“The key points to print off were really helpful, and Module 3 was excellent”
“The programme was user friendly and well laid out.”
“I liked the video interview sequence where it was possible to go back and see the effect of different approaches.”
Case studies
Digital Learning & Communication
- Deloitte
Employability Skills Workshop Conversion - National Trust
Customer Service Workshop Conversion - ECPAT
Awareness & Competency e-Learning - Kenwood
Product Knowledge e-Learning - National Trust
e-Induction and internal communications - The Department of Health
e-Induction e-Learning programme - Fish4
Online viral ad campaign – “The UKs funniest accountant”
- Coca-Cola Latin America
Managing Virtual Teams - virtual delivery - British Library
Writing for the web training course - eBookers
e-Profit workshops
- BITC responsible business case study
Academy Internet - Small Company of the Year