Annual Conferences

In the daily global challenges of educational and training activities, the importance to help students, mainly young Persons, to develop a personal resilience is paramount. Entrepreneurial, digital skills, and creative thinking are only some of the key competencies required in today’s, and the future, labour market as highlighted in recent EU policy documents, including the EU Skills Agenda in 2016.

As mentioned in the Skills Agenda, an ageing population will impact on European economic growth, increasing the need for higher productivity and higher skills (CEDEFOP, 2016). Global competition is dramatically affecting local markets and the sustainability of many enterprises. Technology is changing habits, consumption, production and ways of working (industry 4.0, internet of things): the future jobs of 65% of children starting their primary school today do not yet exist and will provide goods or services which are not yet requested (WEF, 2016). Innovation has become one of the key drivers for the future sustainability of both society as a whole and people’s daily life (Chatzichristou, 2017).

Skills are the keystone for the future. The need to rethink VET has come:

• Overcoming current dichotomies between theory and applied training, HVET and academic systems, formal vs. informal or non-formal training. Professional competences, literacy and numeracy and soft skills are all crucial.
• Incentivising a lifelong learning attitude in students and adults, promoting more flexible pathways. “One-size-fits-all” training can be neither effective nor sufficient for a whole lifetime career.
• Strengthening stakeholder engagement, in terms of business-education relationships for internships, apprenticeships, training needs assessment and for promoting “educational pacts”, is crucial to creating quality training for Learners. Stakeholders should include parents, voluntary organisations and institutions, to drive a cultural shift in the perception of VET.

2017 Thessaloniki Conference

The World Economic Forum, in its 2016 publication “The Future of jobs”, states we are at the beginning of a Fourth Industrial Revolution. This is not only a technological revolution, as there are also socio-economic, geopolitical and demographic changes influencing the new scenario.

Today’s job markets and in-demand skills are vastly different from the ones of ten or even five years ago, and the pace of change is only set to accelerate. Governments, businesses and individuals alike are increasingly concerned with identifying and forecasting skills that are relevant not just today but that will remain or become so in the future to meet business demands for talent. Skills mismatches are then not only about today, but between today’s skills and future skills requirements. Some studies forecast 65% of children in today’s primary schools will work in jobs not existing yet. So we must look to those skills people will need in order to face a rapidly changing labour market.

To tackle the future challenges, all stakeholders – governments, companies, education providers and others – have to work closely to develop the 21st century curriculum. It requires new and collaborative approaches – to support individual talent, innovation, and entrepreneurship and to facilitate new incentives and opportunities. The New Skills Agenda, launched in June 2016 by the European Commission, encompasses also a number of actions to ensure that the right training, the right skills and the right support are available to people in the European Union; reskilling and upskilling of our workers is critical too.

According to CEDEFOP’s Director, Mr. James Calleja, one of the priorities for the next years is “to look at the world of work and the world of education and to see how we can align them to build the right workforce for the future”. So what is better other, than to explore in our 26^th Conference in Thessaloniki how to bring closer those two worlds to face together this uncertain future?

Presentations

• Thursday 26 October
  • Video Message by Ms Marianne Thyssen, European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion
  • EU initiatives on VET: Empowering people with “skills for life” – Joao Santos, Deputy Head of Unit – DG Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion, European Commission – Download here
  • Promoting quality in VET Delivery – The way ahead presentation of Subgroup 2 “Learning Providers & EU Mobility”, Tina Bertzeletou Cedefop’s Senior VET Expert and Rasa Zymantaite, EfVET Secretary – Download Sub-Group 1 here and sub-group 2 here

• Friday 27 October
  • How training links to employee engagement and operational efficiency, Anna Mamalaki, Member of BoD of IVEPE- SEV – Download here
  • VET and work-based learning: international lessons from OECD, Pauline Musset, Policy Analyst, OECD DG for Education & Skills – Download here
  • CEDEFOP introduction session by James Calleja, Cedefop’s Director and Irene Psifidou, Cedefop Expert – Download here

Workshops presentations

• Workshop 1: Quality apprenticeship in work-based learning, Hans Lehmann & Hans Severinsen – Download here 
• Workshop 2: How to Establish bridges between VET and HE, Stavroula Bibila & Stylianos Mavromoustakos – Download here
• Workshop 3: Digital learning and how far we embraced? 1) Download here  & 2) Here
• Workshop 4: How to beat early leaving from education and training?, Irene Psifidou – Download here
• Workshop 6: Industry 4.0, are we ready?, Luca Boetti – Download here

Workshops feedback

• Workshop 1: Quality apprenticeship in work-based learning – Download here
• Workshop 2: How to establish bridges between VET and Higher Education? – Download here
• Workshop 3: Digital learning and how far we embraced? – Download here
• Workshop 4: How to beat early leaving from education and training? – Download here
• Workshop 5: The upskilling and reskilling of today’s labour force – Download here
• Workshop 6: Industry 4.0, are we ready? – Download here and here

Workshops reports

• Workshop 1: Quality apprenticeship in work-based learning, Download here
• Workshop 2: How to establish bridges between VET and Higher Education? Download here
• Workshop 3: Digital learning and how far we embraced? Download here
• Workshop 4: How to beat early leaving from education and training? Download here

Conference materials

• Roundtables descriptions – Download here 
• Conference programme – Download here

Conference pictures – see here

2016 Valencia Conference

Quality in Action: Putting the learner at the forefront of everything we do.

On 25th Anniversary Conference we celebrated the Quality of VET in action and explore how Quality can be further embedded in all aspects of our activities – both at strategic level and operational/delivery levels. Quality takes many forms and should form the driver for improvements in VET. Quality starts by putting the Learner first; at the heart of everything we do;

How do we raise the Learners experience?

There are so many aspects to this debate but all have an influence on quality; on perceptions; on learners motivation. Conference will encourage participants to share good practice in a range of areas.

Presentations

• Thursday 27th October
  • The importance of VET in Spain, Soledad Iglesias Jiménez, Deputy-Director General for
    Guidance and VET, Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport, Spain – Download here
  • How private companies can help deliver quality VET in practice. How can businesses and the different stakeholders assist each other in defining the skill needs in the short and in the long run? Locally, regionally and European level. Examples to co-operate with the VET schools and trainers as a model – Download here
• Friday 28th October
  • Vocational Education and Training: The OECD Perspective. Providing the right mix of up-to-date technical skills and generic skills, including literacy and numeracy, to support broader employability. The challenges of ensuring high quality teaching. Making the most of work-based learning, Mari Kiviniemi, Deputy Secretary-General of OECD Download here 
  • Learning in a Digital Age – the impact and opportunities of digital technology for quality in VET. How does VET address the challenges; the implications for both learners and teachers and trainers; a new pedagogy or just a tool?, Essi Ryymin, R&D Manager, Global Education, Principal Lecturer, Ph.D., HAMK University of Applied Sciences School of Professional Teacher Education, Download here

Conference materials

• Roundtables descriptions – Download here

Conference pictures here