Eurofound publishes new comparative research on restructuring in SMEs in Europe: Understanding restructuring in SMEs in Europe
Small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) make up more than 99% of European businesses and account for about two thirds of private sector employment. SMEs are subject to change as large businesses, but public and policy discussions on restructuring is mainly focused on large-scale restructuring because of the greater immediate effects, often neglecting specific characteristics and needs of SMEs. Eurofound has carried out comparative research to highlight the challenges facing restructuring in SMEs in Europe, specifically in the area of policy and support measures.  This package of research, which includes a database of 85 company case examples, is presented to members of the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, today.
Restructuring in SMEs is less visible and less publicised than that in larger firms, which makes headlines almost on a daily basis. Yet, SMEs are the backbone of the European economy, accounting for more than 99% of European enterprises and about two-thirds of private sector employment. Restructuring is likely to have different manifestations in SMEs than in larger firms and until recently little has been known about the details of restructuring in SMEs and its outcomes.
Eurofound has now carried out an EU-wide research study which investigated the relevance of different forms of restructuring for SMEs, the drivers of change, the main characteristics, success factors and constraints of SME restructuring as well as the effects of restructuring on companies and employees. The research found that internal restructuring, business expansion and (avoiding) bankruptcy/closure are the most common forms of restructuring in SMEs, and restructuring in SMEs tends to be carried out in a reactive, unplanned way and without formal restructuring plans.
Restructuring in SMEs is driven by a combination of company external and company internal factors, hardly ever by a single event. While company external factors are in general the same as for large firms, the company internal factors are very specific for SMEs. These are related to the strong role of the owner/manager in the firm, and the limitations in terms of human resources and financing, and the often prevalent dependency on a few key clients and suppliers.
Common for SMEs is that once restructuring is underway, decisions are taken quickly and flexibly. The owner/manager has a core role in SME restructuring, supported by various internal and external stakeholders. It is not common for staff representatives to be involved, however, as the majority of SMEs have no formal staff representation structure.
The research findings suggest that policymakers should consider improvements in the support services to SMEs, by offering more comprehensive packages, easier access through one-stop-shops, reframing eligibility criteria; and prioritising access to finance, and the anticipation of change within the company.
An overview report, with an executive summary, national reports from all 27 EU Member States and a database with 85 company cases, are available at http://bit.ly/12upDZA.
For further information, contact Måns Mårtensson, media manager, on email: mma@eurofound.europa.eu, telephone: +353-1-204 3124, or mobile: +353-876-593 507. Read more...

Le Fongecif Languedoc Roussillon est un lieu d’accueil pour tout salarié ou demandeur d’emploi (ex-CDD) qui a la volonté de changer le cours de sa vie professionnelle.
A l’occasion de ses 30 ans, le Fongecif Languedoc Roussillon organise 3 journées Portes Ouvertes les Mardi 11, mercredi 12 et jeudi 13 juin de 8h45 à 18 heures en continu. Télécharger les CAHIERS DU FONGECIF - FPSPP pour les 30 ans.
Vous souhaitez évoluer, changer de métier, vous vous posez des questions sur votre avenir professionnel, venez nous rencontrer.
Nous pourrons vous accompagner dans l’élaboration d’un plan d’action vous permettant de construire un parcours professionnel adapté: stratégie d’évolution, reconversion professionnelle, repositionnement sur le marché du travail, création d’activités…
Vous êtes en cours de formation, vous souhaitez des précisions sur les modalités de remboursement, venez nous rencontrer.
Chaque année, le Fongecif Languedoc Roussillon accompagne des salariés et des demandeurs d’emploi (ex CDD) dans leurs questionnements, les différentes étapes de mise en oeuvre de leur projet. Télécharger les CAHIERS DU FONGECIF - FPSPP pour les 30 ans.
En 2012, près de 5 000 personnes ont bénéficié d’un accompagnement personnalisé.
Tous les collaborateurs du Fongecif Languedoc Roussillon se mobilisent dans le cadre de ces journées pour vous accueillir, vous orienter et répondre à vos questions sur les formations, les métiers, les financements…
Plusieurs pôles seront à votre disposition selon la nature de vos interrogations ou de votre situation.
- J’ai besoin de conseils sur ma situation professionnelle,
- J’ai un projet : changer de métier, évoluer, créer une activité…
- J’ai des questions sur les financements, sur les modalités de mise en oeuvre de mon congé individuel de formation, sur le suivi financier de mon dossier…
- Comment choisir une formation? Comment me renseigner sur les métiers?
Télécharger les CAHIERS DU FONGECIF - FPSPP pour les 30 ans.

INVITATION : ENTREPRISES ET PARTENAIRES DU GROUPE SECURISATION DE PARCOURS
ATELIER: Le compte personnel de formation
L’Accord National Interprofessionnel du 11 janvier  2013 pour un nouveau modèle économique et social au service de la compétitivité des entreprises et de la sécurisation de l’emploi et des parcours professionnels des salariés prévoit, dans son article 5, la création du compte personnel de formation. Le dernier texte (26 avril 2013) de retranscription législative de l’accord reprend et précise dans son article 2 ce que pourrait être le compte personnel de formation, mais de nombreuses questions se posent encore quant à sa mise en œuvre.
Le compte personnel de formation est porteur d’une réforme structurelle qui va au-delà de la formation professionnelle, impacte et englobe les champs de l’orientation et de l’accompagnement des personnes.
Il a vocation à être universel (toute personne dispose d’un compte personnel de formation dès son entrée sur le marché du travail et jusqu’à son départ à la retraite), Individuel (le droit est attaché à la personne, qu’elle soit salarié ou demandeur d’emploi) et intégralement transférable (la personne garde le même compte tout au long de sa vie professionnelle et quel que soit son parcours professionnel).
L’UPR PROVENCE ALPES COTE D’AZUR VOUS INVITE UN ATELIER DE REFLEXION
VENDREDI 7 JUIN 2013 - 9 H 45
UPE 06 – CAP VAR C2 – AVENUE GUYNEMER - 06700 SANT LAURENT DU VAR
* Comment s’articule-t-il avec le dispositif de formation qualifiante différée ?
* Comment modifie-t-on les règles de portabilité du DIF ?
* Quelles sont les modalités d’accès pour les salariés, les demandeurs d’emploi, les jeunes sans qualification ?
* Quelle traçabilité des individus dans le temps et l’espace ?
….. Et enfin, quels financements ?
Animation: Olivier ROBERT, Coordinateur Régional de la Formation Professionnelle, MEDEF Paca
Inscription obligatoire. Vous inscrire.

Is the European Union's youth policy up to the job in today's difficult economic and social climate? Can the European Union do more to help sports organisations tackle doping? Will the proposed EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership affect the EU's commitment to cultural diversity?
These are just some of the issues which will be in the spotlight at the Council for Education, Youth, Culture and Sport on 16-17 May. The European Commission will be represented by Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou (Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth), and Vice-President Joaquín Almunia (Competition), who will participate in an exchange of views on the planned new State aid rules for cinema. Ministers are expected to adopt conclusions on maximising the impact of youth policy for growth and jobs.
"Equipping young people with the skills they need to improve their employability is our top priority. Education in all its forms is the basis for these skills and high-quality youth work can make a real difference. We are supporting Member States with funding from a variety of EU programmes. Our new education and youth programme, Erasmus for All, will enable nearly 4 million young people to gain valuable international experience and skills by providing grants to study, train or volunteer abroad," said Commissioner Vassiliou ahead of the meeting.
Education, Erasmus for All and Youth
On 16 May, the Council is expected adopt conclusions on the social dimension of higher education. Many countries share the Commission's concern about high drop-out rates and the need for a better alignment between what is being taught in higher education and the diverse learning requirements of students. The Council will invite Member States to adopt national measures to ensure that people from all social groups can access and successfully complete higher education. These measures include improved financial support and counselling for students, providing more opportunities to transfer from vocational training to higher education, and increasing the flexibility of courses to make it easier to combine work and studies. The Irish Presidency will update Ministers on the negotiations between the Council, European Parliament and Commission on Erasmus for All, the new programme for education, training, youth and sport, due for launch in January. The programme is expected to have a budget of around €14.5 billion for 2014-2020 - 40% more than the current programmes.

Am 16. Januar startet der deutschsprachige MOOC Maker Course #MMC13. Der Open Online Course richtet sich an alle, die überlegen, diese offene Lehr-Lernform zukünftig anzubieten, die eigene MOOC-Erfahrungen miteinander auswerten wollen oder die sich für Trends im Bereich Open Education interessieren.
Die MOOC-Woche beginnt immer mittwochs. Am Abend vor der neuen MOOC-Woche (also am Dienstag Abend) stellen die ImpulsgeberInnen Ihre jeweiligen Beiträge online.
Am Mittwoch in der Früh gibt es hier auf den Eröffnungspost der GastgeberInnen zur Einstimmung in das neue Wochenthema. Freitags von 17 bis 18 Uhr diskutieren wollen wir live in einem Google+ Hangout mit ein bis drei ExpertInnen on Air verschiedene Aspekte des Wochenthemas durchsprechen. Die begleitende kritische Reflexion und Evaluation übernehmen die MMC-ReflektorInnen, die verbindlich jeweils am Ende einer MOOC-Woche öffentlich über den Verlauf des MOC nachdenken.  Zum Abschluss soll ein offenes Online-Handbuch für MOOC-Maker entstehen. Veranstaltet wird der Kurs von Dörte Giebel, Monika E. König und Heinz Wittenbrink. Hier geht’s zur Webseite des Kurses.

Patrick McAndrew, professor at the UK’s Open University and author of the article “Learning from Open Design: Running a Learning Design MOOC”, published in the latest issue of eLearning Papers, talks to us about his experience with Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs).
Strongly involved in Open Education (OE) for the last 10 years, professor McAndrew believes MOOCs “are only a part of what's happening” in this field and there are still “lots of interesting developments to see”. He also points out that universities are currently feeling the pressure “to change”, but there is no doubt that they are also being “innovators”, trying to find new ways to “help learners and engage with people.”
Regarding the OLDS-MOOC (Open Learning Design Studio-MOOC) project which he introduces in his paper published in eLearning Papers 33, professor McAndrew says it has been a “rather stressful” but “rather exciting” nine-week rich experience, and invites the OE community to explore the material used to run this initiative, available online under a Creative Commons license.

The World Information Society Day, also known as Internet Day, is observed every year on 17 May since 2006. The main objective of the day is to raise global awareness of the possibilities offered by new technologies and promote widespread Internet access, reducing the digital gap.
This year, the day will be celebrated throughout Spain with conferences, training sessions, competitions, online games and many other activities.
Universities will invite middle and high school students to virtually visit their premises and ask questions about their academic future.
The main event of the day will be held in the Spanish Senate in Madrid, where a high level panel debate will discuss about sustainable creativity and several awards will be handed.
All activities will be promoted and commented in Twitter with the hashtag #DiadeInternet.

Learning outside schools, universities and vocational training establishments  – both non-formal and informal learning – needs to be made visible, appropriately valued in society, and granted recognition and parity with formal learning outcomes. Two important milestones in this process are the 2009 European guidelines on validating non-formal and informal learning and the European Council Recommendation on the validation of non-formal and informal learning of 20 December 2012. In addition, the European Inventory on the validation of non-formal and informal learning charts progress in individual countries.
On 9 and 10 April, a seminar was organised by the European Commission, together with the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP) and in association with the Irish Presidency of the European Union with the aim of gathering inputs to support the first review of the 2009 European guidelines which is planned for Spring 2014. The themes addressed in the form of workshops at the seminar provided invaluable inputs for implementing UNESCO’s own Guidelines on the Recognition, Validation and Accreditation (RVA) of the Outcomes from Non-formal and Informal Learning (UIL, 2012). UIL will continue its cooperation with CEDEFOP in future,  particularly in regard to UIL’s forthcoming online RVA Observatory on recognition practices world-wide. PowerPoint presentations from the workshops:
Workshop one – Access and Use of Validation.
Workshop two – Professionalism of Practitioners.
Workshop three – Assessment and Methods.
Workshop four – Quality Assurance.
Plenary recommendations (pdf).

At its 19th session in 1976, the UNESCO general conference adopted a Recommendation on the Development of Adult Education, based on an impetus from the third International Conference on Adult Education (CONFINTEA III). This Recommendation continues to form UNESCO’s most important set of standards on adult education for member states.
Visionary in its broad set of objectives and adoption of a rights-based approach to adult learning, the original 1976 document nevertheless requires an update to more accurately reflect developments in the discourse of adult education and its relationship to literacy as a continuum and to lifelong learning, among other topics. In July 2012, an expert group met at UIL to discuss necessary revisions to the Recommendations, which was followed by an online consultation with over 300 participants from more than 30 countries.
The revision process has continued in April with a meeting of the UNESCO Executive Board to discuss proposed amendments. UIL will continue to coordinate the revision process, with an expected outcome expected to be adopted by UNESCO's General Conference in Autumn 2015.

Over the past year, the UIL Taskforce for the establishment of the International Platform for Learning Cities (IPLC) has strived to develop a set of Key Features of Learning Cities (Features) as a self-assessment tool and ‘to-do list’ for cities wishing to promote lifelong learning.
UIL was invited to attend the final Xploit conference on 11 and 12 April in Girona, Spain to present the IPLC Features and to receive feedback from participants. Xploit is sponsored by the Lifelong Learning Programme of the Education and Culture Director-General of the European Commission. It explores how European project and funding resources might be more efficiently applied in Member States and communities for community learning.
UIL Programme Specialist Peter Roslander presented the draft set of the features at the conference and received many useful comments. It was suggested that the features must be simple and should build on a basic set of existing data, which would be applicable in all development contexts. Furthermore, the features should measure change; i.e., Features should be process-oriented rather than result-oriented. Based on the suggestions at the conference, the UIL task force will further fine-tune the Features.