Live&Learn Issue 32

ISSUE 32 – NOV 2014NEWS AND VIEWS FROM ACROSS THE ETF COMMUNITY

Live&Learn

Prats Monné leads education and culture at the Commission | 04

Vision for skills policies in South Eastern Europe and Turkey | 10

Tajikistan’s ambition to modernise vocational education | 14

Tunisia – a veteran in education reforms | 19

Entrepreneurial Communities

Seven communities that build skills, create jobs, and promote growth for all

Live&Learn November 201402

CONTACT US

Further information can be found on the ETF website: www.etf.europa.eu

For any additional information, please contact:

Communication Department European Training Foundation ADDRESS Villa Gualino, Viale Settimio Severo 65, I – 10133 Torino, Italy TELEPHONE +39 011 630 2222 FAX +39 011 630 2200 EMAIL [email protected]

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The European Training Foundation is an EU agency that helps transition and developing countries to harness the potential of their human capital through the reform of education, training and labour market systems in the context of the EU’s external relations policy.

ISSN: 1725-9479 @ European Training Foundation, 2014 Printed in Italy

Cover photograph: Some of the members of the entrepreneurial communities visited by the ETF.

Please recycle this magazine when you finish with it.

INSIDE04 Strategic investment in skills: an imperative for Europe

06 The Magnificent Seven

10 FRAME’ing future skills policies

14 Tajikistan’s ambition to modernise vocational education

18 Match fixing

16 Tajikistan – Schools reflect harsh realities of life in the provinces

19 Tunisia – a crawling revolution in vocational education and training

20 Progress through partnership

22 Publications & Digital update

Live&LearnNovember 2014 03

TO bE STrATEgIC, Or NOT TO bE

Xavier Matheu de Cortada Head of ETF Planning, Monitoring and

Evaluation Department

Photo: ETF/Alberto Ramella – EUP&Images

Editorial

The ETF is restructuring its operations around seven strategic projects, which will enhance the agency’s impact.

Hardly ever has there been so much certainty among policy makers about the importance of skills and vocational education and training (VET) for economic growth and social cohesion. The EU2020 strategy and the subsequent plans adopted by the ETF governing board reflect this consensus and set high expectations for our work.

Yet, where the ETF operates, certainty is a scarce commodity. Many partner countries suffer political instability and social strife. The EU struggles to recover from a historic economic downturn. Reduced budgets require the EU to further increase its efficiency. Finally, the year 2014, the EU elections year, has added another layer of changes: the new Parliament and the Commission. In times of uncertainty strategic planning becomes essential because we want to be ready for the unknown. Strategies give direction and purpose, deploy resources in an effective manner and coordinate people’s decisions. That is why we decided to reorganise ETF operations.

Until now our activities were organised according to plans for each partner country, as well as in regional projects and thematic communities of practice. This resulted in nearly 50 different projects. Even if the ETF consistently got high marks in performance evaluations, our in-depth review showed we could do

better. And so from 2015 we propose to deliver our intervention in seven strategic projects. This will improve coherence and coordination between activities in different countries and enhance their impact. The larger projects will have consistent approach and a critical mass of expertise and financial resources.

What will be the content of these new projects? Two strategic projects will take a system-wide approach: support to the EU policy and external assistance; and policy analysis and system-wide progress monitoring via the Torino Process. The remaining five will focus on qualifications and qualifications systems; skills and VET governance; VET provision and quality; employment, employability and mobility; and entrepreneurial learning and enterprise skills.

The themes are not left to chance. The list of needs is long, but our focus will be on the issues that we have already agreed to address, which match EU priorities and where the ETF can add value. Each strategic project will be planned in a multi-annual perspective and will include all the ETF’s activities in a given theme or function across all its partner countries. We strongly believe this structure will better use the wisdom, science and craft of ETF staff for the benefit of all our partners in and outside of the EU. ■


In an interview with Live&Learn, Xavier Prats Monné, the new director general for education and culture at the European Commission, speaks about the challenges for education and training during the current jobs crisis, the need for cooperation with EU neighbours, and his vision for the ETF.

For millions of people, especially young people, in the EU and across the world, there is one major concern today: jobs, decent jobs, jobs now. How does education and training help address this concern?

Economic growth is starting to return, but the crisis has left its mark. In the EU alone, more than 25 million people are out of work and unemployment among young people has soared. At this critical point, Europe must strategically invest in people’s skills as one of the prerequisites for higher growth, employment and competitiveness. Strong education and training systems are vital to building up a skilled

workforce that ensures long-term sustainable growth.

But indeed, it is not only young people that need support. Surveys confirm that we have to raise the level of skills across the whole population, to enable people to better cope with the ever changing labour market, with more and more varied career paths and with a growing impact of technology.

None of this can happen unless we work hard to modernise and improve the quality, efficiency and performance of our education and training systems, be it in Europe or elsewhere. The EU supports Member States in many

ways, for example on making learning environments at all levels accessible to all, oriented towards learning outcomes and linked with the reality in the labour market; it likewise gives guidance on how technology in learning can be brought to best use and how and why learning must be supported by skilled and motivated teachers and trainers.

Why should the EU help partner countries develop their human capital?

Excellence and innovation in education and training systems is of common interest to the EU and our partner countries. Our economies and societies are increasingly linked in a number

STrATEgIC INVESTMENT IN SKILLS: AN IMPErATIVE FOr EUrOPE

“Europe should push for the exchange of experience and cooperation towards a common international agenda for sustainable development focused on human capital development,” says Prats Monné.

Photo: European Union

Interview


of ways, we have common goals to reach higher growth, employment and competitiveness, and strong human capital is one of their essential elements. Evidently, demography plays a role too: in the Southern Mediterranean, for example, one third of the population is under 15 years of age, and the economies in the region will need to create between 2.5 and 5 million jobs a year if they are to absorb new entrants to the labour market and to reduce unemployment.

Europe and its partners in the world, and especially in the neighbourhood countries, need to tackle these common challenges in partnership and cooperation. This includes modernising education systems. Vocational education and training (VET) in particular can be instrumental in fighting youth unemployment and offering a smooth transition from education to work. This holds for Europe as well as for partner countries. And there, EU support, and notably the ETF’s expertise, can be particularly helpful.

EU cooperation in vocational education and training has made great progress in recent years, for example through the European Qualifications Framework. What is the relevance of these policies and tools for ETF partner countries?

Since 2002, we have indeed significantly progressed in developing European-wide approaches to support solid VET systems. The Commission has developed policy cooperation mechanisms and practical tools, notably in the area of skills and qualifications. We have put in place qualifications frameworks, quality assurance instruments, and credit systems, in order to make skills and qualifications easily understood and quickly recognised by employers and education institutions within and across national borders. We continue working on making this happen in an even more coherent and transparent way.

The principles underpinning these tools are highly relevant for ETF partner countries, including in the context of system reforms. And thanks to ETF support, implementation is already

underway. But we need to further strengthen institutional arrangements and infrastructure; we must develop and introduce new qualifications and invest in strong quality assurance systems that make qualifications frameworks more transparent.

We must do this hand in hand with systemic reforms of VET systems that would ensure that VET is attractive, provides excellent learning opportunities, has excellent labour market outcomes and is based on strong governance.

What is your vision for the ETF? What role should the ETF play for the EU and for partner countries?

We are in a privileged situation of having an EU agency, the ETF, which contributes to human capital development in the neighbourhood countries through the improvement of VET systems in a lifelong learning perspective.

Throughout its 20 years of existence the ETF has become a recognised and valuable source of quality knowledge and good practice in fields like evidence-based policy making; qualification developments; skills forecasting; and social dialogue in education and training.

In the future, we must use ETF expertise in an even more strategic way to support the implementation of efficient and successful policies that achieve measurable, impact-oriented results.

Your career at the European Commission spans over three decades. It has been a period of historic changes both within the EU institutions, in Europe, and in the world. What does your experience tell you about how the external dimension of the EU, particularly in education and training, will develop in the future?

If there is one clear lesson to be drawn from the recent past, it is that it’s extremely risky to make predictions about the future... But I would say that the real challenge for Europe is to improve the material conditions of the lives of Europeans through a model that

doesn’t rest on the illusion of naturally efficient world markets and plentiful natural resources – and this can only be achieved with a stronger engagement in international cooperation and governance.

In the field of human capital, education and training more than in many others, the crisis offers an opportunity to strengthen the Union’s sphere of influence in an increasingly interdependent and multi-polar world, and to shape globalisation in a sustainable manner. While recognising the differences in education systems, skills levels and socio-economic context, Europe should push for the exchange of experience and cooperation towards a common international agenda for sustainable development focused on human capital development.

The social sphere of learning everywhere is challenged by internationalisation, digitalisation and demographic change. This will continue and cannot leave education and training unchanged. Whilst undertaking reforms in Europe, we also work together with partners and support them in facing these challenges. The policy platforms in partnership with ministers of education from various regions – South Eastern Europe and Turkey, Eastern Europe, the Southern Mediterranean, etc. – are an excellent example. Our new programme, Erasmus+, offering more opportunities for intensified exchange between EU Member States and the rest of the world, is another.

These avenues open up a whole new realm of cooperation in education and training and by bringing together stakeholders, practitioners and learners from our Member States and from neighbouring partner countries, I am convinced that our cooperation will only become stronger and closer. ■

STrATEgIC INVESTMENT IN SKILLS: AN IMPErATIVE FOr EUrOPE


At the end of last year the ETF launched the Entrepreneurial Communities initiative and an open call to identify local communities that innovatively foster skills, entrepreneurship and job creation in the partner countries. In a competitive selection, the ETF, aided by the initiative’s advisory board, chose seven communities. Representatives of these communities, from Algeria, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, Belarus, the Republic of Moldova and Serbia, will come to Turin in November to draw policy lessons from their experience. In Live&Learn we tell their stories.

ThE MAgNIFICENT SEVEN

Project Entrepreneurial communities

A common theme stands out from among the diverse group of entrepreneurial communities presented here – the fundamental importance of relationships. Whether it is teacher and student, investor and startup, or government official and social activist, they demonstrate the power of partnership in enabling innovation. The one thing that precedes these relationships is an individual with the drive and determination to start something, the person whose idea the wider community comes together to support.

Using a French term that originally meant a director of musical or theatrical productions we call such people entrepreneurs, a word that did not enter popular usage with its current meaning until well into the twentieth century. Today the meaning of entrepreneur is shifting, away from a stereotype of profit-obsessed speculator towards a broader sense that includes people with different cultural, social, and economic aims.

It is not surprising that entrepreneurs are forming communities, and at the same time communities are actively organising themselves to become more entrepreneurial.

What these communities all share is a reliance on partnerships between actors in the business, education, civil society, and policy realms at local, regional, and national level. To facilitate the development of entrepreneurial communities these multi-level governance frameworks must source and support four basic enablers: talent, networks, infrastructure, and capital. While the proportions vary from place to place, all four are to be found in the communities described here.

Text: Ezri Carlebach


JOrDAN – AN EMErgINg ENTrEPrENEUrIAL ECO-SySTEM

Abdelmalik Al-Jabr and his wife Rania Ghosheh established MENA Apps in Amman to pursue their vision of promoting businesses that generate a return on investment while mobilizing social development. They are the focal point of the Amman’s entrepreneurial community. They met Rami Ejailat, owner

of a startup IT support company, Experts911, at an investor pitching event. Ejailat’s company has become the touchstone for their particular approach. They immediately saw his potential and offered to back him with the mixture that characterises this emerging entrepreneurial eco-system: angel investment, consolidated office hosting and support, mentoring, and access to potential partners and customers. MENA Apps, which has so far made several similar investments, focuses on ICT and cloud-based services, enjoying strong links with Int@j, the Jordanian IT trade body. They also work closely with the Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Information Technology, particularly in the area of their joint Graduate Internship Programme, which is a feeder of interns as subsidised employees to startups, supporting job creation in emerging businesses. Because of these partnerships, and through Al-Jabr’s high profile in the Jordanian business community, MENA Apps has access to, and some influence at national policy level. Their core message to policy makers centres on the need for the type of flexible legal and regulatory framework that enables startups to flourish. The couple also created Arabreneur to consolidate their regional approach and take the principles of entrepreneurship beyond the ‘usual suspects’ in the startup world. As part of Arabreneur they established Murshedat, a women’s business mentoring network, offering female entrepreneurs support based on regional knowledge and understanding.

ISrAEL – hIgh-TECh SChOOL FOr STArTUPS

The Amal Group network of schools promotes democratic values of tolerance, mutual respect, and equal rights and prepares students for a high-tech world of work and business in the country dubbed ‘startup nation’. Visionary general manager Ravit Dom has built a strong coalition of partners from industry, academia, and policy by demonstrating the success of a project-based approach to learning that draws on valuable relationships with other actors in Israel’s startup community. The network established the second of a planned series of entrepreneurial centres in the Multi-Disciplinary High School in Hadera, north of Tel Aviv. Students there work with mentors from industry on real-life projects, and their academic results have so impressed the Ministry of Education that exemptions

from certain exam requirements were granted to support this style of learning. The Hadera centre focuses on software development, provides 3-D printing on site. Zvika Gendelman, Mayor of Hadera, and Oded Cohn, head of IBM’s Haifa research facility, are key players in the Amal Group’s plans to open further entrepreneurial centres in other schools. While Mayor Gendelman sees the model of the Hadera centre as an important part of his city’s urban development, Oded Cohn values the focus on innovation that equips Hadera’s young people with the proactive abilities and attitudes that will serve them well, either as entrepreneurs or as employees in a high-tech, multi-national company.

Rania Ghosheh is a partner and legal consultant at MENA Apps.

Photo: Cristian Afker

Ravit Dom is the general manager of Amal Group, a network of vocational schools that facilitates the entrepreneurial community in the town of Hadera.

Photo: ETF/Marcin Monko


Project Entrepreneurial communities

LEbANON – brINgINg wOrK AND LEArNINg TOgEThEr

In Lebanon a partnership of teachers, schools and businesses works under the leadership of Injaz, an educational non-profit organisation that helps young people develop ambition, motivation, and self-knowledge. Injaz Lebanon weaves work readiness, entrepreneurialism, and financial literacy into programmes that enable young people to create their own business or to seek work with an existing organisation. Leila Kabalan started with Injaz’s Student Company Programme when she was seventeen. Excited by the prospect of adding a free-wheeling group exercise to her structured and academically-oriented schooling, she was quickly hooked by the programme’s combination of private-sector mentoring, teamwork, and competition. She and her team-mates created a company selling pens and bumper stickers decorated with fun and socially-aware messages, and

successfully pitched for Injaz Lebanon’s Company of the Year award. Today Kabalan is a researcher at the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut, and continues her relationship with Injaz by mentoring students in the current cohort of the Company Programme. The programme in sponsored by local business and multinational companies based in Lebanon, and this high-profile private sector input is key in turning the tide of Lebanon’s high youth unemployment rate. Leila Kabalan acknowledges that she gained both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ skills from her involvement with Injaz; that is, specific knowledge-based skills which she uses every day at work as an employee; and the softer skills of communication, persuasion, and networking that apply across every area of her life.

Faiza Saad Mehanna is executive director at Injaz.


Rima Yepur is the director of Minsk Youth Business Incubator.


bELArUS – hOUSINg A MULTITUDE OF IDEAS

Functioning under the auspices of Minsk’s Youth Social Services department, this entrepreneurial community is a business incubator with a range of shared services on offer including IT, marketing, and legal advice. The local authority is the lead partner, keen to support more collaboration between government and young entrepreneurs. The private sector is a growing influence in Belarus, and one of the local authority’s goals is to promote local SMEs to the larger businesses based in the country so that their supply chain develops local roots, delivering local benefits. This is a key factor when prospective residents present their idea to the Expert Panel which is responsible for selecting entrants to the incubator. The Panel, made up of representatives from the local authority, local businesses, and the incubator’s management team,

assess potential businesses on three key criteria: whether they demonstrate leadership skills and an understanding of the responsibilities involved; the nature and quality of their business idea, including any possible competitive interests that might already exist in the incubator; and the social aspects of the idea, such as job creation, sustainability, and community benefit. Brothers Deniz and Anton Skripko brought their business idea to the Expert Panel about two years ago. They passed all three tests with their idea for an ‘extreme tourism’ business which promotes a combination of adventure, fun, and educational activities in the forests around Minsk. They are now both receiving and providing mentoring, an important element in maintaining the lifecycle of the businesses that the incubator seeks to hatch.

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Live&LearnNovember 2014

SErbIA – ACTIVE LEArNINg TO SAVE COMMUNITIESŽeljana Radojicic Lukic is a grassroots leader who, in bringing together a range of actors vital to rural development, has created a partnership that is viewed as a model for the whole country. Rural development is increasingly important to Serbia’s prospects. Research by the University of Belgrade’s Department of Agriculture shows that Serbia’s agricultural communities are declining in population and productive capacity, with serious consequences for rural employment, food security, and social stability. By founding Kreativa, a non-governmental organisation promoting creative education and local employment, Lukic is leveraging the combined influence of local government, vocational schools, academics, and the private sector in a partnership that drives change at national level. Kreativa runs a number of projects that serve the community, including ‘educational tourism’ sites such as the Magical Village in Vrujci. The Village gives visiting school children an interactive learning experience based on environmental and agricultural themes and creates employment for local women who did not have the opportunity to complete basic schooling. The high school in nearby Mionica supplies catering and hospitality students on

work experience to help out. Drawing on the active teaching and learning method pioneered in Serbia by educational psychologist Ivan Ivic, Kreativa’s projects put learners at the heart of the experience, enabling them to develop the skills and attitudes necessary for continuous learning throughout life. It also encourages greater self-reliance, a key goal of Serbia’s national education strategy and one of the links with national policy that makes current Education Minister a prominent Kreativa supporter.

MOLDOVA – INSPIrINg ThE rUrAL ECONOMy

The Entrepreneurial House in Ungheni, a town with a population of 35,000 on the border with Romania, features a business incubator established as part of an EU Tacis grant to Ungheni Town Hall. The project was set up and is run by a partnership of the city’s mayoral and regional authorities with business development, agricultural production, and trade agencies, along with an international NGO. The incubator provides its residents with preferential rents and access to shared services in IT, marketing, legal advice, and accounting, as well as training and mentoring in business plan development and management. The growing community of businesses in the

Entrepreneurial House draws strength from the sharing of ideas, contacts, and experience. More than 60 businesses have passed through the House since its establishment in 2002, with over 70% going on to be viable companies in their own right. One early product of the relationship between the various partners in the Entrepreneurial House and Ungheni’s local administration was the creation of a free economic zone in the city, with activities ranging from a bespoke furniture workshop and soft drink bottling plant to the manufacture of carpets and packaging for jewellery. Encouraging this entrepreneurial spirit in rural communities by offering tax breaks and other administrative support is an important policy intervention for the local, regional, and national authorities in Moldova, which has the lowest rate of

urbanization in Europe. It also provides a platform from which to build ties with the dynamic community of Moldovan migrants who are increasingly investing in economic, social, and cultural activity in their home country.

Željana Radojicic Lukic has founded Kreativa, a non-governmental

organisation promoting creative education and

local employment.


Dorin Budeanu is the deputy director of the Ungheni Chamber of Commerce.


ALgErIA – PLANTINg AN OLD SPIrIT IN A NEw gENErATION

The dominance of Algeria’s hydrocarbon industries has spread an image of salaried public-sector jobs as more attractive than manual outdoor work such as farming. Tough climatic conditions and constant pressure to keep food prices low also make it difficult to convey the rewards of the farming life, leading to a shortage of young people entering the agricultural sector. As a social entrepreneur Mohammed Brik has responded to this need in his local community of Laghouat, a rural area of Algeria bordering the Sahara desert. Brik established El Argoub as a network for like-minded agricultural small-holders to share experiences and best practice, based on the traditional mutual aid concept of touiza, in which private producers work together to help

each other. Sharing organic farming techniques is one of El Argoub’s main objectives, particularly in palm tree care, since organic produce commands a price premium in local markets and as an export. Members of El Argoub work closely with the University of Laghouat to provide field trips and work experience for agriculture students, who often find the practical application of the theoretical approaches they have been studying has a profound effect on their understanding of how farming really works. Laghouat parliamentary deputy Boubakeur Gueddoda acts as El Argoub’s voice, conveying the farmers’ concerns to policy makers in local and national authorities. This partnership is attracting young people into farming by combining the modern objectives of commercially-viable sustainable practices with touiza’s old values of solidarity, thereby promoting education, employment, and social cohesion. ■

Mohammed Brik has established El Argoub as a network for like-minded agricultural small-holders.

Photo: ETF/Marcin Monko

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10 Live&Learn November 2014

FrAME’INg FUTUrE SKILLS POLICIES

Photo: ETF/Gent Shkullaku – EUP&Images

The economic crisis and high unemployment have generated new expectations from education, training and employment systems. The pressure on policy making is enormous. All around Europe, ministers whose portfolios include human resources development and labour are expected to show quick results. This is the context in which the ETF completed the project called FRAME – Skills for the Future.

This EU-funded initiative supported Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo*, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey in developing more coherent and evidence-based policies for human resources development, using EU strategies as a reference and an anchor for reforms.

COUNTrIES wITh CLEAr VISIONS

The result of FRAME is that all countries now have strategic visions for skills policies to guide them until 2020. These visions were formulated using the foresight method (see opposite page) that involved all people and organisations with stake in the policy. To make the vision a reality all participating countries have a list of measures to adopt e.g., training of teachers on new curricula or systematic collection of graduate employment data.

The project also helped countries to understand better if the institutions charged with realising the vision have the financial means and human resources to do so. Each country now has a plan to enhance the capacities of public administrations and other partners. The project supported the countries in building an evidence-based monitoring and, at a regional level, helped them identify policy areas of common interest for sharing experiences and launching joint actions. ■

Project update FRAME

* This designation is without prejudice to position on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence.

A wOrD FrOM ThE PrIME MINISTEr

At the FRAME closing conference in Tirana on 6 Ocober 2014, Edi Rama, Prime Minister of Albania, had a few words to say about education and development in general and the project in particular:

“We experienced the exhaustion of a jobless model of growth, a model focused on exploitation of resources in an unsustainable way. We struggle to find new sources of growth in a model based on sustainability […] and in particular on manufacturing. And here our education model becomes crucial.”

“Countries don’t differ from each other in what they have but in what they know. Knowledge and institutions make the difference.”

“We have been teaching generations that life will be fine if you have a diploma. The fiesta is over, diplomas are not giving you the life you were expecting, if you don’t have skills. And young people are getting it.”

“This [FRAME] programme was very good for us. It’s helping us feed the new model of development that we are trying to build with people with skills in all sectors we think we will have in the future.”

11Live&LearnNovember 2014

1990 2000 2010 2014

1989Autumn of Nations. The communist systems in Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and Romania collapse. The fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 marks the disintegration of the entire communist bloc. The way to democracy and market economy in Central and Eastern Europe is open.

1991-1995The breakdown of the Soviet Union. By 1992 the USSR falls apart and its 12 republics become independent countries. Most of them turn to Europe for help and guidance in reforms.

War in Yugoslavia. A series of political conflicts among ethnic groups lead to violence, declarations of independence by Yugoslav republics and the war. Yugoslavia breaks up. The wars last four years and end in 1995.

1995Cooperation in the Mediterranean region. EU foreign affairs ministers launch the Barcelona Process in 1995 to turn “the Mediterranean basin into an area of dialogue, exchange and cooperation guaranteeing peace, stability and prosperity.” In 2008 it is transformed into the Union for the Mediterranean.

1997Start of the long road to EU accession. In December 1997, the European Council in Luxembourg launches the EU enlargement process, in which “each of the applicant States would proceed at its own rate, depending on its degree of preparedness.” Central and Eastern European countries start EU membership negotiations.

2004The Big Bang enlargement. On 1 May 2004 ten new Member States join the EU in an event that is widely seen as the reunification of Europe. The Union has now 25 members.

2007Romania and Bulgaria join the EU. In the second wave of the EU enlargement two more post-communist countries become members of the EU in 2007.

2008Economic crisis. The financial crash in the United States in 2008 spreads around the globe quickly, causing economic downturn, fiscal crises and rises in unemployment. In many countries youth unemployment becomes the most serious social issue. 2011

The Arab Spring. In 2011 popular discontent shakes the Arab world and young people lead a wave of revolts that sweeps through Tunisia and Egypt, partially touches Algeria, Morocco and Jordan, and ends in violent conflicts in Libya and Syria.

2012Nobel prize for the EU. The 2012 Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to the EU “for over six decades contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe”.

2013Croatia joins the EU. In 2013 Croatia enters the EU as the 28th Member State.

1989The origins of the ETF. Pascal Lamy, head of cabinet of Jacques Delors, president of the European Commission in 1989, said: “Among the big problems [in newly independent countries] were the discrepancies in productivity, in qualifications. And Delors, as a former trade unionist,always had very focused views on education and vocational training. In his political philosophy it’s a way to empower people.” At the Strasbourg Summit in December 1989 the European leaders take the decision to establish a training foundation to help vocational education and training reform in the new democracies.

1994The ETF becomes operational. The agency takes its seat in Turin’s Villa Gualino, and starts working in Central Europe. Later on it extends to all post-Soviet countries. Peter de Rooij, a senior Dutch civil servant, becomes the first director of the ETF.

1996The ETF starts working in the Balkans. One year after the end of the Balkan wars, the ETF extends its activities to the countries of South Eastern Europe.

1997Support to EU accessions. The ETF works in all accession countries, advising policy makers, building capacities and assessing reforms. Odile Quintin, former Director General for Education and Culture at the European Commission, who prepared social and employment aspects of the EU accession, said: “We decided to use the expertise of the ETF in producing reports on those countries, and in soliciting advice and support on the best way forward.”

1998The ETF expands south. The amendment to the ETF mandate in 1999 gives the ETF new tasks in the countries of the southern and eastern Mediterranean.

2004Muriel Dunbar, a UK expert in vocational education and training, is selected to lead the ETF. Her tenure until 2009 marks the completion of the ETF’s transition from “technical assistance body” to “centre of expertise in human capital development”.

2009A new mandate for the ETF and new director. The so-called recast regulation brings changes to the ETF’s area of activity, which is now defined as human capital development, and the geographical scope, which can now potentially include any country. Since 2009 Madlen Serban, former director of the National Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Romania, has been the director of the ETF.

2010Torino Process. The ETF launches its flagship activity in 2010. The Torino Process is a biannual review of vocational education and training in the ETF partner countries. Since then three rounds of the process have been carried out.

2014Xavier Prats Monné, Director General for Education and Culture, European Commission: “The EU, through the ETF, has become a recognised and valuable source of knowledge and good practice in evidence-based policy making; qualifications development; skills forecasting; and social dialogue in education and training.”

20 YEARS EUROPE AND THE ETF

November 2014Live&Learn12

1990 2000 2010 2014

1989Autumn of Nations. The communist systems in Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and Romania collapse. The fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 marks the disintegration of the entire communist bloc. The way to democracy and market economy in Central and Eastern Europe is open.

1991-1995The breakdown of the Soviet Union. By 1992 the USSR falls apart and its 12 republics become independent countries. Most of them turn to Europe for help and guidance in reforms.

War in Yugoslavia. A series of political conflicts among ethnic groups lead to violence, declarations of independence by Yugoslav republics and the war. Yugoslavia breaks up. The wars last four years and end in 1995.

1995Cooperation in the Mediterranean region. EU foreign affairs ministers launch the Barcelona Process in 1995 to turn “the Mediterranean basin into an area of dialogue, exchange and cooperation guaranteeing peace, stability and prosperity.” In 2008 it is transformed into the Union for the Mediterranean.

1997Start of the long road to EU accession. In December 1997, the European Council in Luxembourg launches the EU enlargement process, in which “each of the applicant States would proceed at its own rate, depending on its degree of preparedness.” Central and Eastern European countries start EU membership negotiations.

2004The Big Bang enlargement. On 1 May 2004 ten new Member States join the EU in an event that is widely seen as the reunification of Europe. The Union has now 25 members.

2007Romania and Bulgaria join the EU. In the second wave of the EU enlargement two more post-communist countries become members of the EU in 2007.

2008Economic crisis. The financial crash in the United States in 2008 spreads around the globe quickly, causing economic downturn, fiscal crises and rises in unemployment. In many countries youth unemployment becomes the most serious social issue. 2011

The Arab Spring. In 2011 popular discontent shakes the Arab world and young people lead a wave of revolts that sweeps through Tunisia and Egypt, partially touches Algeria, Morocco and Jordan, and ends in violent conflicts in Libya and Syria.

2012Nobel prize for the EU. The 2012 Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to the EU “for over six decades contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe”.

2013Croatia joins the EU. In 2013 Croatia enters the EU as the 28th Member State.

1989The origins of the ETF. Pascal Lamy, head of cabinet of Jacques Delors, president of the European Commission in 1989, said: “Among the big problems [in newly independent countries] were the discrepancies in productivity, in qualifications. And Delors, as a former trade unionist,always had very focused views on education and vocational training. In his political philosophy it’s a way to empower people.” At the Strasbourg Summit in December 1989 the European leaders take the decision to establish a training foundation to help vocational education and training reform in the new democracies.

1994The ETF becomes operational. The agency takes its seat in Turin’s Villa Gualino, and starts working in Central Europe. Later on it extends to all post-Soviet countries. Peter de Rooij, a senior Dutch civil servant, becomes the first director of the ETF.

1996The ETF starts working in the Balkans. One year after the end of the Balkan wars, the ETF extends its activities to the countries of South Eastern Europe.

1997Support to EU accessions. The ETF works in all accession countries, advising policy makers, building capacities and assessing reforms. Odile Quintin, former Director General for Education and Culture at the European Commission, who prepared social and employment aspects of the EU accession, said: “We decided to use the expertise of the ETF in producing reports on those countries, and in soliciting advice and support on the best way forward.”

1998The ETF expands south. The amendment to the ETF mandate in 1999 gives the ETF new tasks in the countries of the southern and eastern Mediterranean.

2004Muriel Dunbar, a UK expert in vocational education and training, is selected to lead the ETF. Her tenure until 2009 marks the completion of the ETF’s transition from “technical assistance body” to “centre of expertise in human capital development”.

2009A new mandate for the ETF and new director. The so-called recast regulation brings changes to the ETF’s area of activity, which is now defined as human capital development, and the geographical scope, which can now potentially include any country. Since 2009 Madlen Serban, former director of the National Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Romania, has been the director of the ETF.

2010Torino Process. The ETF launches its flagship activity in 2010. The Torino Process is a biannual review of vocational education and training in the ETF partner countries. Since then three rounds of the process have been carried out.

2014Xavier Prats Monné, Director General for Education and Culture, European Commission: “The EU, through the ETF, has become a recognised and valuable source of knowledge and good practice in evidence-based policy making; qualifications development; skills forecasting; and social dialogue in education and training.”

20 YEARS EUROPE AND THE ETF


Infographic Two decades of the ETF

Graphic design: Adrienn Moro, ETF


The Central Asian country’s labour surplus and an economy that depends on money sent home by migrants for almost half its annual GDP make it a unique challenge.

The colourful Green Bazaar in central Dushanbe has long been the bustling heart of Tajikistan’s capital city. Bursting with life, here buyers and sellers haggle daily over the price of fruit and vegetables, meat, spices, tea and a thousand and one of life’s everyday essentials.

A wizened old man, smiling a toothless grin, struggles by, bent under the burden of bulging burlap sacks; a cheerful bearded character sits in a narrow passage surrounded by buckets of ripe naturally salty tomatoes, happily filling customers’ bags with his fruit.

Modernisation set to sweep away traditional scenes

It is a timeless scene in a Central Asian country that retains much of its traditional colour and spark. But soon it will all be swept away.

Located on a valuable chunk of land between the Ministry of Education and fashionable Rudaki Avenue, the market’s days are numbered. Soon it will relocate to a massive, but soulless, new building on the outskirts.

Boasting scores of new buildings that have appeared in the last 15 years as the country struggled to put a bitter post-Soviet civil war behind it, the look of Dushanbe reflects the national drive for modernisation.

The Tajikistan economy has a low skilled workforce and massive labour oversupply – 740,000 people work abroad, mostly in Russia, sending home USD 3.5 billion (EUR 2.8 billion) a year, in 2012 equal to over 45% of GDP. In order to tackle these chronic weaknesses, the government has introduced new laws designed to improve initial and continuing vocational education and training (VET), lifelong learning and teacher training.

Country focus Tajikistan

TAJIKISTAN’S AMbITION TO MODErNISE VOCATIONAL EDUCATION


Some 23,000 full time students are enrolled in a network of 66 public vocational lyceums, 25 schools for continuing vocational education and 28 state adult education centres, supplemented by more than 250 private institutions. Still 85,000-90,000 young people enter the labour market annually without any vocational training and the unskilled account for around 80% of the country’s unemployed, according to the ETF’s 2014 Torino Process report on Tajikistan.

Progress faces many challenges

The ETF’s project on school development for lifelong learning in Central Asia, part of a capacity building and policy dialogue initiative in VET launched in 2009, is playing its role in supporting modernisation.

A key aspect of its recent approach has been the introduction of communities of practice.

CoPs – as they are known – are small, informal groups of VET practitioners who meet to share newly acquired knowledge, reflect on challenges and support each other in applying new solutions to management, teaching and learning issues.

Focused on topics including social partnerships, school planning, analysis of local environments, training of trainers,

school leadership and services and teaching and learning, it is hoped that CoPs will help improve professional skills from the grassroots up and – in the next phase – connect to policy makers to build greater synergy in VET system reforms.

In a country such as Tajikistan, where post-Soviet neglect of VET is only recently being addressed, CoPs are a fresh approach to improving management and teaching skills.

Worn out tractors in schools

A few key statistics give a clue to the challenge VET reform faces in Tajikistan.

The average salary for a VET teacher is just 340 somoni (EUR 52) per month – 33% less than that of secondary school teachers – meaning VET school directors struggle to recruit young qualified staff.

Nearly 67% of Tajikistan’s 2.3 million workers are employed in agriculture; just 4% work in industry. Many of the country’s VET schools are located in rural regions with poor infrastructure.

The ETF Torino Process report also surveyed vehicles and machinery used for teaching purposes. It found tractors and trucks dating back to the 1970s and 1980s, mostly worn out or beyond repair; only 20% of 328 tractors, 9% of 551 cars and 2% of combine harvesters were functioning, albeit it in a “time-worn but still technically sound condition.”

In such circumstances it is hardly surprising that many school directors are much more likely to ask international donors for money to buy new equipment rather than support for thinking about how to improve conditions.

Reforms beginning to bite

There are signs of progress. At Dushanbe’s Railway Machinists Lyceum, director Zokir Safarov says that although low salaries mean the school cannot attract full time qualified railway engineers to teach, they do use visiting lecturers drawn from railway staff.

“Apart from the difficulty of recruiting people with current skills, a major challenge we face is that, with rapid changes in technology, teacher qualifications need constant upgrading and the curriculum and textbooks are out of date almost as soon as they are introduced,” he adds.

To help combat this the two-year initial VET courses include practical training for students at railway depots and stations in Dushanbe – once a week in first year and twice a week in the second. The school also offers three-month short courses to help adults upgrade their skills.

The VET system in Tajikistan faces serious problems: outdated equipment and theoretical content of education, poor human resources, and inefficient management. Yet the process of reforming the system and recognizing its social and economic importance has been initiated. ■

Text and photos: Nick Holdsworth, ICE

Seller at the Green Bazaar in

central Dushanbe.

“ThE ETF SET UP COMMUNITIES OF PrACTICE TO hELP DEVELOP

VOCATIONAL SChOOLS.”


The challenge of reforming Tajikistan’s system of vocational education and training comes into sharp focus in provincial towns.

Far from Dushanbe, the harsh realities of life are evident in a country where per capita income is EUR 760 and the top monthly salary a skilled construction worker can expect is EUR 330, according to the 2014 Torino Process report.

In Khujand, 300 km north of Dushanbe, there are opportunities in local industries including black marble works, silk, carpet and canning factories, but much of the fertile plains stretching beneath the towering mountain ranges that frame the town is reserved for growing rice, cotton, vegetables and fruit.

In Ghafurov, 45 minutes drive from Khujand, VET school director Hasan

Karimov, a 61-year-old retired Soviet Army colonel who fought in Afghanistan and during the Tajikistan civil war, can barely conceal his frustration at the conditions he and his staff are forced to work in.

“We would like to use new skills and methodologies but first we desperately need to upgrade our equipment,” he says. The school’s dilapidated tractors and trucks were donations from Soviet times, Karimov adds.

Enthusiasm on the wane

After participating in an ETF workshop last year in Dushanbe his fresh flush of

enthusiasm for introducing change soon waned.

“I wanted to employ new strategies but there was no follow up. There is a lack of continuity,” he says.

“Our main problem is not so much professional development as lack of equipment. There are perhaps four schools in this region that work with the ETF and foreign organisations and they get all the support. We feel that more needs to be done to spread the help.”

Despite the difficulties, staff at the school – which like many in Tajikistan relies upon teachers often well beyond normal retirement age – are cheerful and do their best.

Most of the students profess a desire to work in Russia where they see opportunities to pick up more employable skills.

Horshed Umarov, 16, says: “I want to work in Russia as a specialist in car repair. My father works there and my nephew, in a paint-spraying shop. In Moscow it is possible to get better on-the-job training.”

Karimov is at pains to stress that his school is not a proxy trainer of cheap labour for Russia, but with more than 740,000 people from Tajikistan working as foreign migrants, the reality is hard to avoid.

Schools in urban areas tend to fare better. In Khujand a lyceum specialising

Country focus Tajikistan

SChOOLS rEFLECT hArSh rEALITIES OF LIFE IN ThE PrOVINCES

Dagmar Ouzoun, responsible for ETF activities in Tajikistan, works with her counterparts in the country.


in construction, has established a strong network of training partnerships with local companies after its acting director Huymairo Buzurukova attended a 15-day staff development programme in Germany jointly funded by the British government’s Department for International Development, the UNDP and Germany’s federal aid agency GIZ.

She immediately introduced a 3:2 ratio of school study and training days at local firms including a carpentry workshop, car repair business and accountancy firm.

Now Buzurukova is seeking support from foreign donors to upgrade equipment in school workshops. Asked why partner firms will not help, she says: “They are happy to accept our qualified workers but are not prepared to return the favour.”

Self help

In some regions VET school directors are trying to help themselves. In Kurgantube, school director Makhmadsaid Boyakov says an informal staff self-assessment exercise that

involved students voting for the best teachers, helped raise the institution’s profile. Last year it earned EUR 14,000 by enrolling 60 fee-paying students on top of the 250 free places it offers.

And in Khorog, in the spectacularly beautiful but poor mountainous region bordering Afghanistan, a newly established community of practice working on social partnership development provides vocational education in a dual form, organised by a cooperative of 12 VET institutions and companies. Learning is organised at two places that share responsibilities: the company and the school.

Dagmar Ouzoun, the ETF’s country manager for Tajikistan, who visited Khorog in early October, says that, compared with other parts of the country, education in the region is

more advanced. It was the first time an ETF representative visited this remote region.

“Forms of learning and teaching methodologies can be compared with those in central Europe; students who come to me ask very open-minded questions about life, about what I am doing here,” she says.

Ouzoun, who visited VET schools, including one of the only two schools catering for the disabled in Tajikistan, has highlighted the work of the Aga Khan Foundation, which in the past 15 years has been a key force in helping create Khorog’s Central Asian University with the school of professional and continuing education. ■

Text and photos: Nick Holdsworth, ICE

Facts & Figures � 8 million people live in Tajikistan � 53% of them are 24 years old or under

� Less than 4% of secondary education students are in VET

� Tajikistan’s economic output in 2013 totalled $19 billion

� Money sent home by Tajik emigrants was over 45% of GDP in 2012

Teachers and trainers do their best in difficult material conditions at vocational schools in Tajikistan.

Road from Khorog to Rushan in Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province.


The ETF brings together experts and policy makers from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine – six countries of the Eastern Partnership – to launch a support network on skills anticipation and matching.

“What these countries share is a momentum from fundamental changes to the composition of their economies,” said Lizzi Feiler, an Austrian specialist working on the ETF matching project. “They all feel the impact of the global economic crisis. They try to modernise their enterprises and are considering privatisation. A better system of skills identification, a better look into the future of skills is strongly needed.”

Amin Charkazov, an expert from Azerbaijan, who took part in the first meeting of the network in Turin in June 2014, confirms this. “We have many higher education graduates, they are over-skilled, they do the jobs that could be done by vocational school graduates,” says Charkazov. “Then there are a lot of people who enter the labour market without any specialisation, just graduating from secondary general education, they are under-skilled.”

Yet anticipation and forecasting, which could help adjust the flow of limited resources available for investment in education, is not an easy task. “There is a big mismatch, but we can’t see it in

detail,” says Charkazov. “We don’t have a coordinated approach to this. To anticipate skills needs you need data and this is usually not available or not reliable.”

Data – a weak point

All countries that take part in the project have some procedures or practices for skills anticipation and forecasting, but the problem is with the data, their quality, access to it, their integration into labour market information systems. “Even if we limit ourselves to ‘nowcasting’ not ‘forecasting’”, says Feiler, “there is also a need for reform of institutional setting to have a better coordination, clarify who is in charge of initiatives that often are already going on.”

“Quantitative forecasts are possible when you have good data going back at least ten years into the past,” says John McGrath from SOLAS, the Further Education and Training Authority in Ireland. “None of the countries here will be able to do quantitative skills forecasting. They are in a transition period and they need more qualitative methods. Quantitative forecasts should also be based on the vision of

where the country wants to go and where it has a natural comparative advantage.”

Need for government action

If governments struggle in doing it, could anticipation and matching simply be left to market forces? “Employers see skills needs, but they are not willing to allocate resources and time to anticipation and training,” says Charkazov. “They want government to fix it.” Feiler adds that employers don’t have a strong influence on the education system, which is government business. Therefore there is a need for government involvement, and for cooperation between government and civil society.

This is where the ETF’s project, included in the Eastern Partnership programme for the years 2014-17, comes in handy. It aims to improve coordination of stakeholders and the methodology of data in policy making. Systematic work with officials and experts is meant to increase their capacity and knowledge, and translate international expertise in the local context. ■

Text: Marcin Monko, ETF

Project update Skills matching

MATCh FIxINg

Anticipation and forecasting could help adjust the flow of limited resources available for investment in education.

Photo: ETF/Ard Jongsma


TUNISIA – A CrAwLINg rEVOLUTION IN VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TrAININgTunisia is no stranger to reforms of vocational education and training (VET). Twenty years ago the sector underwent a massive reform. At that time, it was the first country in the region to reorient its VET system away from a welfare function and towards business needs and economic development.

The revolution of 2011 in turn brought the attention to the needs of individuals and to the diversity of the country’s regions. A strategic document adopted in November 2013 sketched the lines of the new reform planned for the years 2014-18.

‘The overall objective is clear,’ says Mounir Dakhli, Director General at the Ministry of Vocational Training and Employment. ‘It’s to develop a national system for vocational education and training that not only responds to the needs of business, but also the individuals, society in general, and the regions.’

Dakhli, who also coordinates Tunisia’s self-assessment of VET in the Torino Process 2014, says this shift has to happen in accord with the changes in general education and higher education. The reform must follow the ‘Contrat social’, a tripartite document signed by the government and the main social partners – the Tunisian Union for Industry, Commerce and Handicrafts (UTICA) and the Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT). The document underscores the importance of skills promotion and VET, and an inclusive approach to the reform.

Three main challenges

So, what are the main problems that the strategy aims to solve? Dakhli gives an example from the construction industry. The demand for construction is high in Tunisia and abroad, in countries like Libya. Building companies ask for skilled people, yet they can’t find them. ‘We have an enormous system of training for construction, which runs on 40% of its capacity. In April a new training centre opened that cost 24 million dinars [12 million euros]. The system to supply training is big, but the trouble is with the image of the training and with the image of the trade.’

The reform strategy identified three main problems. The first is the lack of an overall vision for VET in the system of development of human resources. The second issue is the weak responsiveness and capacity to adapt the VET system to the needs of enterprises, individuals, society and the regions. Third is the question of governance, centralised and top-down, it doesn’t permit an effective and efficient participation of different actors – regional, professional organisations.

Some concrete measures have been taken already. The government is to set up an inter-institutional body to coordinate VET with general education and higher education. They will also put in practice a 2008 law on a qualifications framework, which will create pathways between vocational and higher education – an important factor in the attractiveness of VET. Training centres are to be equipped with an observatory of

local labour markets to respond better to local needs. Dakhli recognises that there is a need for better communication with students and their families.

Involving the end users of training

Finally there is the question of how to seriously involve employers and trade unions, which can make the VET system more responsive.

‘There is a good example from the pharmaceutical sector,’ says Karim Boumhallès from the Tunisian Agency of Vocational Training (ATFP), an executive agency of the Ministry of Employment and Vocational Training, and the largest provider of training in the country that runs 136 establishments.

In Tunis, Monastir and Sfax, the councils of the pharmacies work closely with schools. They define how many qualified pharmaceutical workers and technicians they need, they select candidates, take part in training, provide internship opportunities, evaluate students and ultimately give jobs.

‘In the pharmaceutical industry we have a genuine involvement of business, free of charge,’ says Boumhallès. ‘This is in the culture of this trade.’ He admits that the culture in the VET system is an issue – there is not much readiness to accept criticism or to allow employers in schools. So the pharmacies give an inspiring example, but other sectors have a long way ahead. ■

Text and photo: Marcin Monko, ETF

Torino Process in action Tunisia

From left to right: Mounir Dakhli, Director General at the Ministry of Vocational Training and Employment and the national coordinator of the Torino Process 2014, Karim Boumhallès, officer at the Tunisian Agency of Vocational Training, Kristien Van den Eynde, ETF project officer and Mariavittoria Garlappi, ETF country manager for Tunisia.

The Torino ProcessEvery two years, the ETF invites its partner countries to analyse progress in their VET policies and systems. This is called the Torino Process, whose first round was launched in 2010, followed by a second round in 2012 and the current one in 2014. On 3 and 4 June 2015 the Torino Process will culminate again in a major conference with representatives from all partner countries, EU Member States and the international VET expert community and international partners. The 2015 conference will be the forum for policy leaders, practitioners and stakeholders to reflect on the results of the 2014 Torino Process.


PrOgrESS ThrOUgh PArTNErShIP

Entrepreneurial learning and social partners

why IS ENTrEPrENEUrIAL LEArNINg gETTINg MOrE POLICy INTErEST AT EU LEVEL?

Friederike Söezen: Europe’s drive for sustainable growth requires a rethink on the role and contribution of education. Entrepreneurial learning has an enormous potential to stimulate economic growth and employment. Entrepreneurship as a key competence must be fostered across all levels of education and training.

Brian Cookson: Unemployment across the European Union, and particularly high youth unemployment, requires a thorough examination of existing education policies. Entrepreneurial learning needs to be better understood. It’s not only about business. The entrepreneurship key competence is about preparing people to meet life’s wider challenges and opportunities, particularly in uncertain economic times.

Brian Cookson is a national officer at the UK’s NASUWT – The Teachers’ Union, he teaches entrepreneurship and he is an entrepreneurship policy expert for the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC).

Friederike Söezen is an entrepreneurship expert at the Austrian Federal Chamber of Commerce and a policy advisor for the European Association of Craft, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (UEAPME).

WHY EMPLOYERS AND TRADE UNIONS ARE CRITICAL TO ENTREPRENEURIAL LEARNINgGetting entrepreneurship integrated into education and training has been an area of increasing policy interest for the European Union since 2000 when its Member States committed to the ten-year Lisbon growth and jobs strategy. Particular emphasis was given to entrepreneurship as a key competence and the need for education systems to help develop the entrepreneurial mindset, considered essential in building and sustaining economic growth and employment.

There are challenges though. Getting policies in place in each EU country to bring forward entrepreneurship developments;

and ensuring that teachers are prepared for curriculum change and innovative teaching methods to develop the entrepreneurship key competence. Both require cooperation between policy makers, business and the teacher community.

As part of an EU policy working group on entrepreneurial learning, Anthony Gribben from the ETF has had the opportunity to work directly with experts from the EU’s employers and teacher trade unions. He recently put four questions to Friederike Söezen (UEAPME) and Brian Cookson (ETUC).


whAT ArE ThE ChALLENgES FACINg EU MEMbEr COUNTrIES IN DEVELOPINg ENTrEPrENEUrIAL LEArNINg?

FS: A first challenge for each EU country is interfacing and coordinating economic and education policies. Increased coherence between education and enterprise policy on entrepreneurial learning at EU level is a good example of what is required at Member State level – a mutually supporting approach. A second challenge is that broader society needs to better understand what entrepreneurial learning is. This requires a strategic communication strategy.

BC: The changes necessary to develop a lifelong entrepreneurial learning framework require a cultural change. This takes considerable time to ensure that discussion, planning and development resources are available to see through the changes. School, college and university teachers must be engaged and supported to ensure that curriculum change and teaching approaches are both effective and sustainable. Governments also need to be aware that top-down models do not work. Policy must draw on the experience and know-how of teachers and learn from them. Teacher trade unions are therefore a critical resource for effective policy building.

whAT IS ThE rOLE OF SOCIAL PArTNErS IN ThE EU’S DrIVE TO CrEATE AN ENTrEPrENEUrIAL ECONOMy?

FS: Through their networks, employers’ organisations are important in raising awareness, understanding and acceptability of entrepreneurship and its potential for a more dynamic workforce and for economic competitiveness. And, very importantly, employers’ organisations have a vital contribution to make to curriculum, ensuring its relevance to an entrepreneurial economy.

BC: Trade unions are key to building understanding that an entrepreneurial economy is not just about business and wealth creation but also about developing a fair and just society. This is a pre-condition for an inclusive and stable economy. Teachers’ trade unions are vital in ensuring that education and training can play their full part in building inclusive economies.

whAT ADVICE wOULD yOU gIVE TO SOCIAL PArTNErS IN ETF PArTNEr COUNTrIES AS ThEy MOVE FOrwArD wITh ThEIr OwN DEVELOPMENTS IN ENTrEPrENEUrIAL LEArNINg?

FS: Employers organisations must work with governments in building smart, sustainable and inclusive economies. In this respect, their contribution to building lifelong entrepreneurial learning will be important, including working with the education system to determine its impact. Secondly, business organisations should step up efforts to foster more positive attitudes to self-employment and entrepreneurship. Thirdly, employers’ organisation should work with schools and universities as well careers guidance services to support family business transfer – from parents to the next generation.

BC: Teacher trade unions should be fully involved and actively contribute to entrepreneurial learning – from policy dialogue through to implementation of policies where teachers and schools are in the front line. How teacher organisations approach entrepreneurial learning will differ from country to country but sharing knowledge, know-how and good practice between countries will make for better efficiency and create opportunities for innovation. ■

The ETF defines entrepreneurial learning as all forms of education and training, both formal and non-formal, including work-based learning, which contribute to entrepreneurship spirit and activity with or without a commercial objective.


Off the press and on the web

DIgITAL UPDATEETF4yOUTh – FIrST-hAND OPINION FrOM ArAb yOUTh

The ETF has launched a social media consultation about vocational education, training, and jobs in the Arab countries of the EU southern neighbourhood. It’s part of the Torino Process. In this bi-annual analysis of education, training and jobs policies, the ETF has, up to now, only involved government officials, experts and sometimes social partners and NGOs. This time, however, young people’s understanding of the situation,

their experiences and opinions will feed directly into the process. The outcome of the online discussions from facebook.com/ETF4youth and twitter.com/etf4youth will be used as input at the Policy Leaders’ Forum in Turin in November, a meeting bringing together the ministers responsible for vocational education and employment from the Arab countries in the region. http://facebook.com/ETF4youth

CONTINUINg VOCATIONAL TrAININg (CVT) PrOJECT CONCLUDES IN EASTErN EUrOPE

The ETF project on CVT has come to an end. It had two main tracks. Armenia, Ukraine and Georgia focused on tools for validating non-formal or informal learning. As the idea of lifelong learning, including CVT, gains momentum, validation of such learning becomes essential. Azerbaijan, Belarus, Moldova and Russia worked

to involve business in education and training policy making by establishing sector skills councils. The ETF and the participating countries’ delegates concluded the project in Chisinau, Moldova, on 21-23 October. http://www.etf.europa.eu

EDUCATION rEFOrMS IN EU CANDIDATE COUNTrIES: whAT DOES ThE 2014 ENLArgEMENT PACKAgE SAy?

Better aligning education and skills with labour market needs is one of the key economic challenges in the Western Balkans, says the European Commission’s 2014 annual enlargement strategy paper. This year’s EU enlargement progress

reports devote considerable space to the assessment of reforms in vocational education and training. http://ow.ly/D6cBH

COMMISSIONEr VASSILIOU CALLS ETF “AMbASSADOrS OF ThE EU TO OUr NEIghbOUrS”

Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism, Sport, Media and Youth, paid a visit to the ETF on 26 September. The Commissioner gave a speech to ETF

employees and answered their questions. “You are the ambassadors of the EU to our neighbours, both east and south,” she said. http://ow.ly/D6cQO


PUbLICATIONSbETTEr QUALIFICATIONS: POLICy brIEFINg

Most ETF partner countries have national qualifications frameworks at one stage or another. This policy briefing summarises how partner countries are reforming their qualifications systems and provides some recommendations on how to make better qualifications. The document is based on a recent study on qualifications in the ETF partner countries. http://goo.gl/5royd7

yOUTh ENTrEPrENEUrS: POLICy brIEFINg

The ETF’s latest policy briefing on entrepreneurship has three key messages for policy makers in the partner countries. First, action is needed urgently to build more competitive, job-creating economies. Second, youth entrepreneurship must be central to the policy discourse. Third, nothing should be done about young people without young people: they must be part of the policy reform drive. http://goo.gl/mTSgJM

ACTIVE LAbOUr MArKET POLICIES wITh A FOCUS ON yOUTh

Confronted with sluggish economic development and staggering levels of precarious work, unemployment and inactivity, the ETF partner countries strive for better designed and funded active labour market policies (ALMPs). This working paper describes the role and typology of ALMPs in the ETF partner countries, analyses the effectiveness of the programmes under different conditions, suggests how countries can engage in a more systematic use and evaluation of ALMPs, and how the ETF can further support them. http://goo.gl/S9DyqB

SUMMEr SChOOL AT ThE ETF

Over 40 participants from 16 countries worldwide spent time at the ETF on 24 September as part of this year’s Turin International Summer School. Europe, migration and inclusive growth with a

focus on human capital was the theme of this year’s summer school. http://ow.ly/D6dce

NEw STUDy ShEDS LIghT ON hOw SENDINg COUNTrIES SUPPOrT ThEIr MIgrANTS

The ETF’s project “Migrant Support Measures from an Employment and Skills Perspective” has aimed to shed light on the measures deployed by sending countries to support their migrants’ integration into the labour markets of

receiving countries. The final technical seminar of the project was held on 29 and 30 September in Turin. http://ow.ly/D6dr2

rEAD ALL ETF STOrIES, COMMENT AND ShArE ThEM ON SOCIAL MEDIA

facebook.com/etfeuropa

twitter.com/etfeuropa

Online communities for education professionals at

http://ow.ly/ukLQk

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