In vocational training, but also for general economic growth needed for employment, European policies are catalysts for innovation, according to Cedefop Director James Calleja.
Mr Calleja was a key panellist during the 3rd international conference on industrial technologies research and innovation, held in Athens from 9 to 11 April. The conference attracted over 1 000 delegates from 50 countries as well as 150 speakers in plenary and workshop sessions. More...

Green skills, that is, skills needed in a low-carbon economy, will be required in all sectors and at all levels in the workforce as emerging economic activities create new (or renewed) occupations. Structural changes will realign sectors that are likely to decline as a result of the greening of the economy and workers will need to be retrained accordingly. The successful transition to a low-carbon economy will only be possible if workers can flexibly adapt and transfer from areas of decreasing employment to new industries. This paper suggests that the role of skills and education and training policies should be an important component of the ecological transformation process. Greener Skills and Jobs. More...

 Italy has high numbers of young people participating in initial vocational education and training compared to the EU average. According to indicators compiled by Cedefop (the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training), in 2012, 60% of all upper secondary students in Italy were vocational students, above the EU average of 50.3% and higher than in Germany (48.6%) and France (44.6%).
There is growing evidence that young people on high-quality apprenticeships and internships are more likely to acquire useful skills and attitudes to find suitable work and it seems from the data that upper secondary vocational graduates have better job prospects than general education graduates. The employment rate of upper secondary vocational graduates aged 20 to 34 in Italy is 74.6%, some 7.8 percentage points higher than for upper secondary graduates of the same age from general education. More...

 Although around 45% of employees participate in continuing vocational training courses provided by enterprises, adult participation in lifelong learning in 2012 in France was only 5.7%. This is well below the European average of 9.0% and a long way from the European target of 15% to be reached by 2020. According to indicators compiled by Cedefop (the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training), adult participation in lifelong learning in France is also below Spain (10.7%) and Italy (6.6%), but slightly above Germany (7.9%).
In contrast, France is making some progress in reducing early leaving from education and training towards its target of 9.5% or below by 2020. The percentage of early leavers from education and training in France was 11.6% in 2012 compared to 12.6% in 2010. In 2012, fewer young people were found leaving education and training with low educational attainment in France than in Italy where the figure is 17.6%, the UK (13.5%) and in the EU as a whole (almost 13%). However, France does not do as well as Germany where the percentage of early leavers from education and training in 2012 was 10.5%, or Poland where the figure was only 5.7%. More...

In Germany, students in initial vocational education and training (IVET) accounted for 48.6% of all upper secondary students in 2012, close to the EU average of 50.3%, but below Italy’s 60% according to indicators compiled by Cedefop (the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training). The main difference between Germany’s IVET students and other countries is that 88.2% are enrolled in combined work- and school-based programmes, compared to only 27% in the EU as a whole.
There is growing evidence that young people on high-quality apprenticeships and internships are more likely to acquire useful skills and attitudes to find suitable work and this appears to be the case in Germany. The employment rate for upper-secondary IVET graduates aged 20 to 34 is 83.9%, some 26.2 percentage points higher than that of general education graduates of the same age. More...

By rondavies-eprs. Since the beginning of the financial and economic crisis, high rates of unemployment have been one of the most pressing problems of Member States in the European Union (EU). By matching job-seekers with employment opportunities, including vacancies in other Member States, public employment services (PES) can help to reduce unemployment, increase intra-EU mobility of workers and combat social exclusion. They can contribute to reaching the Europe 2020 employment target and to implementation of the Youth Guarantee by making available information on training as well as work opportunities. More...

By Peter. The European Union (on the basis of article 167 TEU) supports the goal of online accessibility for Europe’s cultural heritage by helping to create the conditions for digitisation, accessibility and preservation of cultural content. It fosters collaboration between Member States and cultural institutions, and also between these cultural institutions and other stakeholders. Thus it helps consolidating Member States’ strategies and targets, the organisation and provision of funding for digitisation and improving the framework for online accessibility of cultural material. It does that mainly by contributing to the further development of Europeana as the single point of access and by monitoring the process with the help of a Member States Expert Group. Europeana provides access to over 30m objects (18m images, 12m texts, 489k sounds, 228k videos, 15k 3D objects) from more than 2,300 European galleries, museums, archives and libraries from 36 countries. As of November 2013 Germany is the largest provider of objects with a share of 15%, followed by France with a share of 11% (see Europeana facts & figures page). At the same time (Europeana traffic & usage section) the site has 872k visits with 715k unique visitors and almost 3m page views per quarter of a year. More...

The past few years have been a time of fast-paced change in higher education in England. Shifts in some areas have been more pronounced than in others.
Download the main report. Get the data used in these reports.

The report available with these pages aims to provide an overview of recent shifts and longer-term trends, building a picture of publicly-funded higher education in England in 2014 and a sense of how it got to where it is. It also considers possible further changes and continuities in the year ahead.

We hope that it will stimulate debate and discussion to inform future directions for higher education providers and for students. This page gives some highlights – a wider range of analysis is available in the reports.

Entry to higher education
There is a strong recovery in the numbers of UK and other EU full-time undergraduate entrants to higher education institutions (HEIs) and further education colleges in England, which grew by 8 per cent in 2013-14 compared to 2012-13. According to UCAS application data, growth appears set to continue next year. Falls of around 21,000 in UK and other EU entrants to undergraduate courses that are not first degrees made up 60 per cent of the one-year dip in numbers of entrants to full-time undergraduate courses in 2012-13.
Since 2011-12 more full-time entrants to undergraduate courses other than first degrees have been studying in further education colleges than in HEIs.
For part-time undergraduate courses at HEIs and further education colleges, falling numbers of UK and other EU entrants to courses other than first degrees make up most of the recent decline – they decreased by 84,700 between 2010-11 and 2012-13 (see the chart below).
The number of UK and other EU students starting full-time postgraduate taught courses has shown a small increase in 2013-14.
Part-time UK and other EU postgraduate taught entry continues to decline, but at a lower rate compared with previous years. The larger decline in entrants to part-time postgraduate taught courses between 2010-11 and 2012-13 is almost wholly attributed to a fall in entrants (18,600) in the subject area of education.

Student characteristics
Recent trends in improvements to widening participation and fair access continue, but the gap between the numbers of students entering from advantaged and disadvantaged areas of England is still very large.
Young women are more likely to apply for, and be accepted to, higher education than men, but further analysis in this area indicates that the progression rates of young men and women to higher education are similar when attainment at A-level is taken into account.
High-achieving A-level students tend to progress to university or college irrespective of the subjects they study, but students with lower grades are more likely to progress if they have studied ‘facilitating subjects’ (see the chart below). Facilitating subjects are mathematics and further mathematics, English literature, physics, biology, chemistry, geography, history, and classical and modern languages.

Provision of higher education
Recent changes in recruitment trends seem to have favoured particular types of institution and disadvantaged others.
The chart below shows that specialist institutions and those that tend to recruit students with higher prior achievement have fared best.
The overall increase in further education colleges reflects broader shifts away from provision franchised from HEIs, with colleges now offering more higher education directly.

Get the data from the report
Dataset for the Higher Education in England 2014 report
Download the Dataset for the higher education in England report as MS Excel Spreadsheet (165 KB). More...

‘Higher education in England 2014: Analysis of latest shifts and trends’ highlights some of the changes affecting students, courses, and universities and colleges.
Findings outlined in the report [Note 1] in relation to UK and EU students at publicly funded universities and colleges include:

• Confirmation of a strong recovery in the numbers of students entering full-time undergraduate courses in 2013-14. This is 27,000 more than in 2012-13, an increase of 8 per cent.
• But full-time undergraduate modern foreign language entrant numbers are in decline. Numbers of entrants to full-time modern foreign language first degrees fell by 22 per cent (1,200) between 2010-11 and 2012-13, with UCAS data suggesting that this decline is continuing in 2013-14. However, modern foreign languages were the most popular subjects in 2012-13 for UK students pursuing their studies in France and Germany.
• High-achieving A-level students tend to progress to university or college irrespective of the subjects they study, but students with lower grades are more likely to progress if they have studied ‘facilitating subjects’ [Note 2]. At A-level grades EEE, 60 per cent of those that have three facilitating subjects at A-level go on to higher education, compared to 42 per cent of those that have none.
• The number of students on undergraduate courses other than first degrees [Note 3] is in significant decline. This group makes up 60 per cent of the dip in numbers of entrants to full-time undergraduate courses in 2012-13. 
• Numbers of part-time undergraduate entrants fell by 93,000 between 2010-11 and 2012-13. Entrants to undergraduate courses other than first degrees made up 91 per cent of the decline.
• There were 23,000 fewer part-time postgraduate entrants in 2012-13 compared to 2010-11. Of these, 18,600 (84 per cent) were studying education and related subjects.
• Wider international comparisons show that between 2010 and 2011 part-time enrolments declined in around half of the OECD [Note 4] countries for which data are available. Analysis of data on higher education part-time enrolments in England and other OECD countries, suggest that changes in part-time education are connected to a mix of economic and policy factors that have played out differently in different countries.
• As a result of the decline in undergraduate courses other than first degrees, in 2012-13 there were just 14,000 full-time entrants to such courses taught in higher education institutions, compared with 25,000 taught in further education colleges. There is also data showing that 18,000 students from England and the EU who are accessing student support were enrolled on HND courses at alternative providers in 2012-13.

The report also covers:

• Differences in entry to higher education by gender, by whether students are young or mature, and by ethnicity.
• Overall undergraduate and postgraduate student trends.
• Differences in entry to higher education between students from more advantaged and less advantaged areas.
• Latest trends in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects.
• Shifts in where students are studying.
• Latest trends in research and knowledge exchange, and the financial health of higher education institutions.

Professor Madeleine Atkins, HEFCE Chief Executive, said:

‘Higher education in England is undergoing significant change. This report draws on a wide range of evidence to provide a robust and authoritative overview of recent developments. Its aim is to spark debate and discussion, and to inform future directions. HEFCE will continue to collect, assure and analyse the evidence in order to expand understanding and inform decision making.’

Notes

1. The publication ‘Higher Education in England 2014: Analysis of latest shifts and trends’ (HEFCE 2014/08) is on the HEFCE web-site. A summary report, ‘Higher Education in England 2014: Key facts’ (HEFCE 2014/08b), is also available.
2. ‘Facilitating subjects’ are mathematics and further mathematics, English literature, physics, biology, chemistry, geography, history, and classical and modern languages.
3. Undergraduate courses other than first degrees include foundation degrees, certificates and diplomas of higher education, HNDs and HNCs, and study for institutional credit.
4. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. More...

HEFCE is fully committed to working with universities, colleges and others to ensure as far as possible that when these changes to the DSA come into effect in 2015-16, those students most in need are properly supported and are able to succeed in their studies and in future employment.
The Government has asked us to review provision and support for disabled students in the higher education sector. We will be doing this over the coming months, working closely with institutions, the NUS, and others.
Read the written ministerial statement on changes to DSA. More...