The primary aim of this TLA is to equip students to work together in task-oriented situations requiring cooperation and communication.

In order to develop their individual team-working skills, the students need to experience goal-oriented team work.

The reflection phase plays a major role in the implementation of the TLA. Self- and/or team-reflection and/or reflection in the large group are vital to ensuring the success of this TLA. During the reflection phase within the TLA, students can assess how effectively the goal of the TLA was achieved. Students can evaluate the previous situation and what they have learned.

The working materials and sheets help you easily to implement the reflection phase. You can, of course, adapt and extend these existing materials according to your individual needs.

At the lesson-planning stage, ensure that you link the development of professional competencies with that of social competencies. If the main objective of the learning unit is simply to develop professional expertise, it will be difficult to integrate elements that develop useful social competencies into the lesson.

Think about how you could implement the TLA, or parts of it, in your lessons.

There is no 'one size fits all' solution. This question is intended to help you to reflect on the current state of your teaching. Social competencies, particularly team-working competencies, are among the most important competencies for apprentices in VET.

The promotion of team-working competencies is one of the central aspects of the personal development of young people. As work routines increasingly need to be streamlined, the key skill represented by ‘team-working competencies’ is becoming more and more essential. Young people need to understand and internalise the concept of team-work in both their professional and their private life. The exercises in the TLA offer the students an opportunity to take responsibility, to delegate responsibility to others, and to arrange their responsibilities. With the help of the role cards, the students learn to fulfil the full range of their responsibilities. They also learn to develop strategies for meeting challenges both individually and as part of a team.

Situation:

In the toy market, more and more commercial representatives are coming forward  with new products. Your management would like to add a new toy item to its existing range. However, they disagree about which product best fits into the existing range. The store manager and marketing expert should jointly decide which new toy to adopt. Two commercial representatives have been invited to present their products.

Presentation of commercial representatives for toys:

1. The commercial representative for ‘wood products’ puts particular emphasis on the advantages of his product with regard to sustainability and environmental compatibility. He presents a set of 100 wooden blocks comprising 36 coloured and 64 natural wooden blocks. He points out that more and more parents now attach importance to sustainable toys.
2. The commercial representative for ‘dolls’ would like to introduce his new range of dolls. The range comprises a male and a female doll, made of plastic. The dolls wear modern clothing and have a speech function. The representative points out that dolls are a great gift for children and are in high demand during the Christmas season.

Role description:

The following roles are involved in the situation: the store manager, the marketing expert, the ‘wood products’ champion and the proponent ‘dolls’ champion.

1. Store manager:
   The store – which is a market leader – is particularly interested in providing a satisfactory range of products for the customers. The quality of the products is very important. The new product is intended to improve the commercial success of the store’s toy sales.
2. Marketing expert:
   The marketing expert knows exactly which products are currently in the toy market and which products will sell well. He can therefore advise the store manager with regard to pricing, advertising and sales opportunities.
3. ‘Wood products’ champion:
   Sustainable and environmentally friendly products are very important for the employee plaing this champion. He wants to assert himself in the team discussion.
4. ‘Dolls’ champion:
   Modern and contemporary toys are the key to success in the toy market. The employee playing this champion tries to put forward specific positive reasons for stocking the range of dolls.

There is no ‘one size fits all’ solution. Have you considered the extent to which you develop social competencies in your teaching and how you could possibly do so even more effectively? Even if you are tied to the schedule of your lesson plan, consider how you can integrate the TLA into your teaching design.

There is no ‘one size fits all’ solution. Take a look at the remaining three TLAs in the TTT (‘Dealing with criticism’, ‘Time management’ and ‘Self-evaluation of strengths and weaknesses’). Discuss these social competencies with your colleagues. You can also read more about social competencies in the literature.

Against this background, the question arises as to how you intend to plan and implement long-term learning process. 

Which concrete personal and social competencies should be promoted?
By which learning opportunities should this be done?
Which support systems should play a decisive role?
What obstacles have to be overcome?

Create a strategy plan and fix it in writing. This plan can provide you an important basis for the further lesson planning.