Tapio Koskinen, Director of the Editorial Board of eLearning Papers, has announced the research topics that will be covered by the online journal in the coming year. 
“We just completed a very successful year for eLearning Papers. We have very big audiences; some of the articles had close to 150.000 hits,” said Koskinen.
eLearning Papers is an online journal that enables the timely exchange of information on open education, open educational resources (OER), and ICT in education in Europe. More...

The UMEI (“Universités du Maghreb: Enseignement Inclusif" (Maghreb Universities: Inclusive Education) Tempus project consortium recently released its final report  under the title “Formulating inclusive education university strategies”. UMEI was an ambitious project aiming at the successful implementation of strategies promoting improved access to universities in the Maghreb for three target groups of students with special needs (related to economic insecurity, geographical origin or disability). The report especially highlights that the “level of exclusion differs according to the country and to the specific type of group of students” with each of the target groups resembling a different world. More...

Presenting Cedefop’s work at the European Parliament, the Centre’s new Director, James Calleja, said that all its activities ‘aim at emphasising the inescapable link between training, skills, qualifications and employability.’
‘Cedefop’s work is at the interface between education and training and the needs of the labour market,’ stressed Mr Calleja.
‘Employability is crucial for the future of the Union and it is necessary to ensure that the economic crisis is tackled through a responsive and skilled workforce,’ he added.
Mr Calleja noted that, when he was appointed Director in October 2013, he found ‘a vibrant European Centre, which is increasingly pivotal in the European Union’s mission to address high levels of unemployment, particularly among young people.’ More...

Erasmus+: the new EU programme for Education, Training, Youth, and Sport for 2014-2020.
The Erasmus+ programme aims to boost skills and employability, as well as modernising Education, Training, and Youth work. The seven year programme will have a budget of €14.7 billion; a 40% increase compared to current spending levels, reflecting the EU's commitment to investing in these areas.
Erasmus+ will provide opportunities for over 4 million Europeans to study, train, gain work experience and volunteer abroad.
Erasmus+ will support transnational partnerships among Education, Training, and Youth institutions and organisations to foster cooperation and bridge the worlds of Education and work in order to tackle the skills gaps we are facing in Europe.
It will also support national efforts to modernise Education, Training, and Youth systems. In the field of Sport, there will be support for grassroots projects and cross-border challenges such as combating match-fixing, doping, violence and racism.
Erasmus+ brings together seven existing EU programmes in the fields of Education, Training, and Youth; it will for the first time provide support for Sport. As an integrated programme, Erasmus+ offers more opportunities for cooperation across the Education, Training, Youth, and Sport sectors and is easier to access than its predecessors, with simplified funding rules.

Every unemployed citizen of Brussels can now learn French, Dutch, English and German online
The Brussels employment office Actiris launched a language learning platform which is accessible free of charge to anyone officially registered as unemployed in Brussels with a computer connection within the Brussels Region.
The platform is managed by Altissia International, which also developed Wallangues, a free online platform that has been accessible for several years to anyone with a computer located in Wallonia.
It is hoped that in Brussels, too, the restriction to the unemployed will be lifted, and that all citizens of Brussels will soon be able to access this important new tool.

Jeudi 16 janvier 2014, Mme Conway-Mouret, ministre déléguée auprès du ministre des Affairesétrangères, chargée des Français de l'étranger, a lancé le programme Erasmus +.
Ce lancement a débuté par un point presse, organisé au siège de l'agence 2e2f, avant de se poursuivre par une prise de parole à l'Iboat, devant une centaine de décideurs, professionnels de l'éducation et de la formation et partenaires de l'agence.
A cette occasion, ont notamment pris la parole  : Sandrine Doucet, députée de la Gironde ; Sonia Dubourg Lavroff, adjointe au maire de Bordeaux, chargée des relations avec l'Union européenne ; Anne-Marie Cocula, Vice-présidente du Conseil Région d'Aquitaine ;Vanessa Debiais-Sainton, Cheffe d'unité à la Commission Européenne.
Retrouvez le discours de Mme Conway-Mouret, ministre déléguée chargée des Français de l'étranger.

Depuis plus de 10 ans maintenant l'agence 2e2f organise le label européen des langues, pédagogiques d'excellence en matière d'apprentissage et d'enseignement innovants des langues étrangères. Le label langues concerne toutes les langues y compris les langues régionales, minoritaires, la langue des signes, et s'adresse à tous les publics et à tous types de structures.
Les critères de labélisation sont: l'innovation, la pertinence la transférabilité et l'excellence.
La cérémonie de remise des prix est l'occasion de faire connaitre et reconnaitre les projets recevant le label européen des langues 2013 aux décideurs politiques, enseignants, formateurs, apprenants et à tous les passionnés de langues.
Un cocktail déjeunatoire, offert par l'agence 2e2f, viendra clôturer la cérémonie dans la convivialité.
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Date limite d'inscription : 06/02/2014. Voir l'article...

A quelques jours du début d’une nouvelle année qui verra deux célébrations universelles importantes – le centenaire du début de la Première Guerre Mondiale et les 70 ans du débarquement en Normandie – succéder à un rendez-vous électoral majeur pour l’avenir de l’Union européenne, il me paraît indispensable de rappeler une vérité que beaucoup – et, en particulier, un nombre important de responsables politiques – n’ose plus proférer de peur d’apparaître trop simpliste ou oublieux des difficultés présentes : la construction européenne dans laquelle nous nous inscrivons sert d’abord à ne pas faire la guerre… 
Certes, presque 15 ans après les derniers affrontements dans les Balkans, les jeunes générations ont oublié les images tragiques d’Omarska, de Vukovar ou de Srebenica et sont plus enclines à redouter les impasses en termes d’emplois ou à applaudir les opportunités d’enthousiasme offertes par les Emergents, mais il en va de notre responsabilité collective de leur rappeler que depuis la fin de la deuxième guerre mondiale, notre continent a de très loin préféré la paix aux conflits et, cela, parce que les esprits ont été obnubilés non par la victoire ou la défaite mais par la mise en place d’outils bureaucratiques souvent complexes mais qui se sont révélés les meilleurs boucliers contre le déferlement de violence sans précédent que leurs grands-parents ont connu au début du 20e siècle. Suite...

HEFCE and OFFA wrote to all HEFCE-funded institutions in November 2013 to inform them that we would be publishing guidance for Strategies for Access and Student Success (SASS) on Thursday 23 January. HEFCE also previously said it intended to notify institutions of their provisional student number control allocations for 2014-15 on Friday 24 January.
We regret that, due to the delayed receipt of HEFCE’s grant letter from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, we have not been able to finalise our SASS guidance as originally planned and it will not be published on 23 January. HEFCE will also not be able to issue provisional student number control allocations on 24 January. We appreciate that this may cause some difficulties for your institution. More...