Team Academy: how to evaluate without exam?

No exam, but an evaluation?

4 months after the launch of the first Team Academy in Switzerland, it's time for the 17 teampreneurs (students of the Team Academy) to take stock of the skills they have developed during this semester. In the Team Academy program, teampreneurs are evaluated on two aspects :

• the "learning path" which should reflect and measure the quantity and type of actions carried out
• the "skills portfolio" which should reflect and measure the progress of the teampreneur on the 21 skills targeted by the Team Academy programme.

No exams but a 360° evaluation which includes the self-evaluation of the teampreneurs, the peer evaluation as well as the coaches of the program evaluation. The aim is not to award a sanctioning mark, but to recognise the development of teampreneurs' skills. Each of them must demonstrate in a pragmatic way the actions they have taken to develop the 21 competencies targeted by the Team Academy programme.

An individual portfolio?

Each teampreneur has set up his portfolio. This is a summary of all the actions and learning that took place during the semester with various tools, in particular:

• Coaching sessions: Twice a week all the teampreneurs and their team coach meet for three to four hours to exchange knowledge and experiences.
• Training sessions: teampreneurs plan and organize training sessions during the semester (accounting, marketing, English, project management, etc.).
• Learning journey: every year, the teampreneurs carry out a 3-week trip / exchange within the international network of the Team Academy.
• Applied projects: teampreneurs must carry out projects in teams that push them to contact the market and real customers.
• Individual readings: about 8 books related to business management must be read by each teampreneur during the first semester, then shared with the other team members.
• Reflective articles: individual document that shows the scope of learning achieved through different training sessions, individual readings, projects, coaching sessions and learning trips.

Evaluations? Yes, how does it work?

For evaluations, teams of 4 to 5 teampreneurs are formed. The first step is the presentation of the portolio, the learning of a whole semester, to the other members of the team. This is followed by a question and answer session. During the second half of the morning, the teampreneurs exchange between themselves on their skill levels according to an evaluation grid defined in advance by the program.

In the afternoon, each teampreneur discuss with the 3 coaches of the program as well as an external expert. The objective of this is double. First, it's the moment to take stock of the situation  by highlighting the progress of the teampreneur on the 21 competences targeted by the programme. Secondly, the coaches guide the teampreneurs on the learning paths that will be carried out during the next semester.

After this instructive and intense day, the teampreneurs draw up their learning contract for the semester to come. It's a document that defines precisely the competencies that will be developed the next semester and the actions that will be taken to reach the targeted level.

More information about the Team Academy program: http://www.teamacademy.ch