Report from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on the implementation, results and overall assessment of the European Year of Lifelong Learning (1996): submitted in accordance with Article 8 of European Parliament and Council Decision No. 2493/95/EC
European Commission
Luxembourg: EUR-OP, 1999, 21 p. (Documents COM, (99) 447 final) ISSN: 0254-1475, en
EUR-OP, L-2985 Luxembourg, or from its national sales offices, http://eur-op.eu.int/ en/general/s-ad.htm
Cat.nr.: CB-CO-99-452-EN-C
EN FR DE (Also: DA EL ES FI IT NL PT SV)
Since the initiative for the European Year of Lifelong Learning was implemented in 1996 the concept of “lifelong learning” has gained acceptance in public opinion and political discourse, stimulating policy de- bate on adapting education and training provision to an increasingly diversified demand. The Commission chose a dimen- sion which highlights the complementarity and continuity between education and vocational training in terms of personal development, integrating people, into society, employability and economic com- petitiveness. It can be concluded that the acceptance gained indicates that the Eu- ropean Year was a timely initiative which has helped fundamentally to change so- ciety and attitudes, and that it has been
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one of the more successful initiatives of this type.
Lifelong learning: the contribution of education systems in the Member States of the European Union
Information Network on Education in Europe, EURYDICE
Brussels: Eurydice, 2000, 163 p. ISBN: 2-87-116-294-8, en
EURYDICE European Unit, 15 rue d’Arlon, B-1050 Brussels, Tel.: (32 2) 2383011,
Fax: (32 2) 2306562, E-mail: info@eurydice.org, URL: http://www.eurydice.org
The learning society is not ahead of us but already with us. Lifelong learning is one of the central principles of the Euro- pean Union, which has undertaken to strengthen European cooperation in this area; this is the aim which ministers re- sponsible for education and training in European countries have chosen to guide their policies. However, how it should be implemented has not been settled once and for all. The notion of lifelong learning has been very rapidly taken for granted and lauded as a firmly established enterprise. What is at issue now, therefore, is how the concept should be institutionalized.The survey conducted by Eurydice between October 1999 and March 2000 takes stock of the measures and policies implemented by the governments of the 15 Member States so that anyone may have an oppor- tunity to become involved in lifelong learn- ing at any age. After looking back at how the concept was defined and developed, the survey analyses actions undertaken at all levels of the education system (pre- school, compulsory, upper secondary and higher education, as well as adult educa- tion). The results show that all Member States are using the aim of lifelong learn- ing to inject the necessary vitality and sense of purpose into the reforms they are now implementing. The way they have taken over the concept varies and largely de- pends on the specific nature of their sys- tems. Yet similar trends are observable re- gardless of the level of education con- cerned: improving, broadening and diver- sifying provision, fighting failure, making use of the new information and communi- cation technologies, developing coopera- tion within and outside the education sys-
tem, increasing flexibility and improving transparency, etc. The survey is based on information gathered from each country in the course of a working partnership between the National Units of the EURYDICE Network and the appropriate ministerial departments. Its appraisal is thus based on reliable first-hand data.
EN (Also: FR,PT)
http://www.eurydice.org/Documents/LLL/ EN/ENQUETE_2_EN.pdf
Downloadable document
Deregulation in placement services: a comparative study for eight EU coun- tries
DE KONING J (coord.); DENYS J; WALWEI U
European Commission - DG V Luxem- bourg: EUR-OP, 1999, 67 p.
ISBN: 92-828-6850-8, en
EUR-OP, L-2985 Luxembourg, or from its national sales offices, http://eur-op.eu.int/en/general/s-ad.htm
Cat.nr.: CE-21-99-860-EN-C EN
Until the 1990s job placement was seen as a public task in which the Public Em- ployment Service (PES) was to play the central role. Under the influence of the general tendency towards deregulation and privatisation, and more specifically due to criticism of the PES performance, this has changed. In many countries the PES monopoly in job broking was abol- ished in the first half of the 1990s. Often this change was followed by further lib- eralisation of the job services market. Based on national reports for 8 countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom), this summary re- port tries to draw a number of general conclusions about deregulation in place- ment services. The 8 countries were cho- sen because deregulation was an impor- tant or potentially important development in placement services. The main conclu- sion is that of the countries involved the market share of private agencies in job placement is only high in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom (and in the Flem- ish community in Belgium).
http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/dg05/ publicat/employment/
deregulation_en.pdf Down Downloadable document
CEDEFOP Survey into the socio-economic back-
ground of ERASMUS students
Commission of the European Communi- ties Luxembourg: EUR-OP, 2000, Docu- ments COM (2000) 4 final, 2000, 82 p. ISSN: 0254-1475, en
EUR-OP, L-2985 Luxembourg, or from its national sales offices, http://eur-op.eu.int/en/general/s-ad.htm
Cat.nr.: KT-CO-00-014-EN-C
EN FR DE ES (Also: DA FI IT NL PT SV )
As part of the negotiations for the budget revision of the first phase of the SOCRA- TES programme, the European Parliament requested the European Commission to present a report on the social and eco- nomic background of Higher Education students participating in the ERASMUS chapter of the SOCRATES programme. The Commission therefore set up, in co-op- eration with the ERASMUS National Agen- cies, a mechanism to collect information by means of a survey of a representative sample of ERASMUS students having par- ticipated in the programme in the 1997/ 98 academic year. It is shown how the scheme has grown from about 3,000 stu- dents when it first began in 1987/88 to over 1000,000 today, it is valued through- out the Higher Education world in Eu- rope and is now extending into many of the countries in Central and Eastern Eu- rope. The experiences available to mo- bile students are many and varied and are not merely educational. Many of the find- ings of the survey support widespread views about the strengths of a study pe- riod abroad and about the impact of the programme which confirms that the Com- munity programmes in the field of edu- cation, training and youth play an impor- tant role.
The European Employment Strategy: investing in people, investing in more and better jobs
European Commission - DG V Luxembourg: EUR-OP, 1999, 10 p.
EUR-OP, L-2985 Luxembourg, or from its national sales offices, http://eur-op.eu.int/en/general/s-ad.htm
EN FR DE ES (Also: DA FI IT NL PT SV )
Europe has not managed to meet one of its key objectives: to generate job oppor-
tunities for all. All Member States are con- cerned by the different facets of a com- mon problem: many people in Europe have no opportunity to create wealth and earn their share of it. 16.5 million people are looking for a job without success. Over half of those unemployed have been out of work for over a year, one third of them for more than two years. This re- duces a person’s employability while add- ing to the growing problem of social ex- clusion. Unemployment hits particularly hard those people who are often already at a disadvantage when it comes to com- peting on a labour market where competi- tiveness is the key word. Unemployment has a high social cost for the individual and a high economic cost for society.
http://europa.eu.int/comm/dg05/ empl&esf/empl2000/invest_en.pdf Downloadable document
Modernisation of Europe and the role of the social partners
LARSSON A
European Commission - DG V
Brussells: European Commission - DG V, 1999, 10 p.
Presidency Conference on the Social Dia- logue, Helsinski, Helsinski, 2/11/99
European Commission, DG V, 200, rue de la Loi, B-1049 Brussels
EN
During the Presidency conference on so- cial dialogue, which was held in Hel- sinki, the Director General of DG Employ- ment and Social Affairs spoke of the role of social partners. Social dialogue is about creating better conditions for managing change, in the private as well as the pub- lic sector. The wide range of changes and new conditions that govern working life - from technological innovation to con- sumer preferences, from demographic change to the new gender profile of the workforce - are roughly the same for the public and the private sectors. The social dialogue needs to rise to the challenge the European modernisation agenda is presenting to it if we are all to enjoy eco- nomic and social progress in the next century.
http://europa.eu.int/comm/dg05/ speeches/991102alb.doc
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Beleidsnota werkgelegenheid 2000 - 2004
Vlaams minister Werkgelegenheid en Toerisme
Brussels: Vlaams minister Werkgelegen- heid en Toerisme, 2000, 197p.
Vlaams minister Werkgelegenheid en Toerisme,Koolstraat 35, 1000 Brussel
This report on new policy is a concrete presentation of the basic options avail- able in the government agreement for the period 2000- 2004. The report on the most suitable policy sets out the major strate- gic choices and options in the field of employment and in the field of training for the duration of the government agree- ment. The report reflects the vision of the responsible minister and forms the basis for debate in the Flemish Parliament. In due course the implementing measures will be presented to the Flemish Govern- ment or the Flemish Parliament for ap- proval.
Oudereneducatie en lokaal beleid
Vlaams Centrum voor Volksontwikkeling, VCVOVorming (Brussels) 1, 2000, p. 10 - 11
ISSN: 0773-6150
This article refers to the Study Day, held on 14 December 1999, when the Group for the co-ordination of training courses and the Flemish Centre for Social Devel- opment organised a conference on the subject of education for older people and the relevant policy that needs to be im- plemented at local level, in collaboration with Forem. This form of education al- lows, inter alia, for the social participa- tion of older age groups and for their personal development, so that they can make a longer and better contribution to community life.
Arbeitsprogramm 1999 des Bundesinstituts für Berufsbildung
(1999 Work Programme of the Federal Institute for Vocational Training) BOTT P (comps.)
Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung, BIBB Bielefeld: Bertelsmann Verlag,
1999, 224 p. ISBN: 3-88555-663-4
In addition to a description of the Fed- eral Institute for Vocational Training (BIBB) as a research institution for voca- tional training, the annual report contains the 1999 research projects, which fall under three research areas. There are 43 projects, including eight externally funded international projects, and 59 planned projects. The publication provides infor- mation on focuses for research, research objectives, time frames and contact peo- ple at BIBB. An index and organisational diagram of the BIBB are also included.
Berufliche Eingliederung: zur Ent- wicklung einer erziehungswissen- schaftlichen Theorie des beruflichen Verbleibs
(Vocational integration: the development of a scientific educational theory on vo- cational progress)
ZIMMERMANN M
Munich: Hampp, 1999, IX, 281 p. + bibl. (Wirtschaftspaedagogische Studien zur individuellen und kollektiven Entwick- lung, 2)
ISBN: 3-87988-379-3
The author considers to what extent vo- cational training and continuing voca- tional training affect the kind and quality of jobs secured by graduates of training programmes. The focus is on developing and empirically testing a concept for the transition from school to work. The au- thor also makes recommendations for fur- ther research into the relationship be- tween vocational education and integra- tion into employment. The publication should be of interest to those in research, politics and practice who are engaged in the integration of young people into the workforce.
Note: Ph.D. thesis,
University of Mannheim, 1998