Statement by Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, during the policy debate on 'Education and Skills for Jobs, Stability and Growth', at the Education Council.
"We have to offer more direct and immediate support to the people who need help now.
We have to work harder to improve people's skills and competences so that they have a better chance to find a good job – this is exactly the policy message that we are giving in our 'Rethinking Education' Communication.
This year is decisive when it comes to the Member States' plans for how to spend the next generation of Structural Funds. In the current programming period Member States are spending € 35 billion from the Structural Funds on education, training and lifelong learning. As you know, the bulk of the funding comes from the European Social Fund (€ 28 billion), but more than € 7 billion will be spent on education infrastructure through the European Regional Development Fund. These amounts can make a difference, if they are used effectively and for the right purposes.
The legislative framework for the period 2014 – 2020, which will soon be agreed among the EU Institutions, gives a prominent role to investment in education and training. It is now up to you, Ministers of Education, to ensure that your plans for the modernisation of education benefit from adequate funding."
U-Multirank
"I cannot finish without mentioning in your presence, President, the work we are doing to bring to fruition the U-Multirank project, the multi-dimensional and global ranking initiative supported at EU level.
This is actually our plan to complement the existing university rankings, which are almost exclusively based on universities' research functions, with a tool which will provide a better, more rounded picture of the performance of our universities and colleges.
The launch conference in Dublin two weeks ago was a great success and I want to thank you, President, for you strong personal commitment. I want to invite all of you, dear ministers, to join Minister Quinn in becoming advocates for this project with your higher education institutions.
U-Multirank has the potential to increase transparency, and to highlight excellence in all the different missions of our universities, in teaching and learning, in knowledge transfer and regional development and in internationalisation, as well as in research. This will increase the visibility and attractiveness of all our universities, not just the big league universities. It will also be based on a strong input from the different national actors."

At a Presidency conference hosted by the Teaching Council, the professional body for teaching in Ireland, policy-makers and education practitioners discussed how policies in support of teacher educators can improve school education.
The quality of teacher educators has been identified by the EU Member States and the Commission as an important contributor to the overall quality of education systems. The aim of the conference was to contribute to more clarity about the kind of policies that can support the selection, induction and further professional development of teacher educators.
Speaking at the conference, Xavier Prats Monné, Deputy Director-General for Education and Culture at the European Commission, said: "The time to support the teaching professions in Europe is now. Developing the competences of teaching staff and school leaders - including those who have been in the profession for a long time – must be a continuing and increasingly urgent priority in all EU Member States."
For conference results, speeches and background reading, visit the conference website: "Integration, Innovation and Improvement - The Professional Identity of Teacher Educators", Dublin, 18-19 February 2013.
More information: Opening speech by Xavier Prats Monné, Supporting the Teaching Professions for Better Learning Outcomes.

This article was originally published by Kate Borthwick and Alison Dickens on the online Journal of e-Learning and Knowledge Society, volume 9, issue 1.
The Community Café: creating and sharing open educational resources with community-based language teachers ran from 2010 – 2011 and was a collaboration between Southampton City Council and two universities in the UK. The project’s aim was to create, publish online and share a collection of open access digital resources for community-based language teachers in the Southampton area.
The project addressed a particular problem: the scarcity of up-to-date, online resources for community languages. These languages are often learnt in informal situations, and teachers are often reliant on creating their own materials but have limited access to training. Engaging with open practice offers this group the potential benefits of improving their access to resources, enhancing digital literacy and practice, and gaining insights into alternative pedagogical approaches through using existing online repositories.
Additional documents: BorthwickDickens.

Elearning Salon (Salon distance learning and online). 26, 27 & 28 March 2013 - Paris Porte de Versailles - Hall 5.
A word that often decide the aisles of eLearning Expo 2013...
A word that evokes the approximation of what was hitherto separate ... A powerful word, therefore, up to the new possibilities of e-learning. convergence of supply and demand, obvious to most experts committed to field. These two agree better and better. The offer continues to innovate, it helps to draw the contours of future landscapes training professional. Above all, it endorses the requirements very current demand: training schemes versatile, simple to build and deploy, meeting the needs of operational staff and managers. demand precisely: we appreciate the daily progress that companies have made ​​in the management of their e-learning projects and the implementation of a strategy. convergence of content and distribution channels, yet. There was a time, not so long ago, when studios or publishers of e-content learning on the one hand and shelf technology providers on the other hand is merely a kind of community property ... Compliance with standards AICC, SCORM and others enough for their happiness. That time is over: the content creators are always determined to make usability and efficiency of assembly technologies and disseminating existing and technology providers (LMS, eg, authoring tools) to make them more closely constraints attached to content. Convergence which users are the primary beneficiaries, as seen in projects combining harmoniously blended learning content, technologies and services. Another convergence, noisier, is underway that training and talent management in new platforms called unified. Can only be welcomed, even if the application is still far from him all the space it deserves. Training feeding all major HR processes, there is no reason to separate the two. One example among others: a training is often necessary where we measure a negative performance between desired and actually obtained. We enter the era of management platforms integrated learning and talent ... no doubt that e-learning Expo 2013 will welcome visitors and Programming Performance & Talent, a new exhibition which will be held on the same dates the same enclosure ... These convergences underway: an inspiration to businesses, which we want to carry out their initiatives decompartmentalization. Training and HR functions have everything to gain by reducing the borders of another time ... Michel Diaz Fēfaur Associate Director, Editorial Board of e-learning Expo & Sylvain Arquié, CEO Infopromotions.

I Encontro Internacional da Casa das Ciências - A aprendizagem não é um produto da escolaridade, mas da tentativa ao longo da vida para adquiri-la
Uma das alterações mais significativas dos modelos de Comunicação e Informação deste início de Século XXI que se repercutiram de forma clara e substantiva no processo educativo, foi a do uso mais ou menos indiscriminado da Internet.
O aumento quase exponencial da velocidade de transmissão de dados através das redes de comunicação com a omnipresença da Internet num contexto global e, por arrastamento, educacional, alterou de forma radical o conceito de acessibilidade à educação, dando corpo à ideia peregrina de Albert Eisntein de que "A aprendizagem não é um produto da escolaridade, mas da tentativa ao longo da vida para adquiri-la."
Com efeito, todos aqueles que desejam aprender possuem hoje uma panóplia de instrumentos, recursos e modelos, acedíveis à distância de um "clique".
Só para referir alguns elementos marcantes, desde 2001 que o MIT possui cursos livres disponíveis na internet. Berkeley seguiu o exemplo e tem hoje uma das maiores coleções de palestras presenciais gravadas do mundo, tendo sido já realizados mais de 120 milhões de downloads. Yale e Stanford fizeram o mesmo, e até mesmo Harvard lhe seguiu o exemplo, bem como a maioria das Universidades por esse mundo fora.
Nas escolas do ensino não superior, proliferam as plataformas de interação e conteúdos (em Portugal a mais comum é a plataforma MOODLE), usando recursos livres ou disponibilizados pelas estruturas educacionais.
Os cursos on-line são hoje uma realidade, discutível por vezes, é certo, mas presente na sociedade e acedível por qualquer cidadão.
Todo este ambiente digital que envolve a sociedade, com relevo para as redes sociais e para os modelos digitais de comunicação de informação em contexto educativo, transformaram os processos de aprendizagem e aportaram aos sistemas educacionais um acréscimo de questões significativas sobre as quais importa refletir.
Qual a fiabilidade da informação científica disponibilizada na Web?
Como podemos aferir do valor e rigor dos recursos digitais ligados à Ciência?
Qual o peso efetivo que a Internet tem na aprendizagem dos alunos?
Até que ponto a utilização do digital evita ou potencia as conceções alternativas?
De que modo se alterou (ou não) a didática da experimentação?
A modelação e simulação computacional permitem, ou não, uma visão mais perfeita da realidade?
Estas e outras questões que com estas se prendem, são o suporte concetual que levaram à organização do I ENCONTRO INTERNACIONAL DA CASA DAS CIÊNCIAS, subordinado ao tema organizador:
A Utilização de Recursos Digitais em Contexto de Aprendizagem.
O recurso a individualidades com experiência nesta área em Portugal, e noutros países, para Lições Temáticas, realização de Workshops centrados sobretudo na prática educacional, bem como a apresentação de comunicações e posters partilhados por todos os interessados, dão corpo a esta iniciativa, que nos parece ser de relevância significativa como complemento de formação para os docentes em Ciência de todos os níveis de Ensino em Portugal.

Lisbon, Portugal. The IADIS Mobile Learning 2013 International Conference seeks to provide a forum for the presentation and discussion of mobile learning research which illustrate developments in the field.
Mobile learning is concerned with a society on the move. In particular, with the study of “…how the mobility of learners augmented by personal and public technology can contribute to the process of gaining new knowledge, skills and experience” (Sharples et al. 2007).
A growing understanding of the learning and instructional affordances of mobile technologies (alongside technological developments), have enabled the design and investigation of mobile learning experiences across contexts and dimensions of mobile learning. For instance, the literature in the field is rich in studies which investigate how learners move physical locations, utilising several devices/technologies, interacting with various social networks (perhaps across formal and informal learning settings), as they pursuit a learning path or event.
There is much appreciation of learning principles, such as contextual, situated, augmented and collaborative among others, particularly suited to mobile learning. There is a well of studies reporting on how these principles can be best applied in the field. There are also always new technologies being implemented in the context of mobile learning for example, ‘smarter’ phones, e-readers, tablet and augmented reality applications. However, the evaluation of mobile learning is an area that has lagged behind.
The mobile nature of mobile learners and the application of traditional evaluation strategies and tools, have often limited the scope of investigation to what can be observed by researchers or captured by external recording devices (such as video or sound). Thus, a challenge remains to understand what happens while learners are on the move.
The advent of cloud computing and learning analytics offer potential for exploring innovative mobile learning experiences and alternative evaluation strategies which may in turn, shade light into what learning happens in the move.

EXPOELEARNING es un Congreso y Exposición que permite estar al día sobre la planificación, diseño, dirección y la implementación del e-learning y RRHH.
EXPOELEARNING tendrá su Congreso central, con dos días de conferencias en los que intervendrán expertos en e-learning, representantes de la Aministración Pública y empreas, que presentarán iniciativas en e-learning con gran proyección internacional.
El XII Congreso Internacional de EXPOELEARNING contará este año con un programa de actividades renovado, con mesas de debate de alto nivel didáctico en el que se debatirá sobre diferentes implantaciones y visiones de e-learning y RRHH 2.0.
Bajo la temática central de "SOCIAL LEARNING", el miércoles 13 hemos estructurado mesas de debate en la que participarán reconocidos expertos, representantes de la Administración Pública y empresas, en las que se aportará una reflexión fresca, actual y experiencias concretas sobre las siguientes temáticas:
§   Tendencias en Social Learning: Contenidos abiertos, Gamificación y MOOCs
§   Content Curators: La reconversión de los formadores internos
§   Formación por competencias, experiencial y situada:  Aprender haciendo y Comunidades de práctica
§   Aprendizaje informal y PLEs para todos
El bloque de la mañana del jueves 14 estará dedicado a #CONVERSACIONES20 en el que se conversará, bajo un formato de mesas de debate, sobre la nuevas formas de gestión del talento y herramientas para nuevas organizaciones 2.0

On the occasion of the European conference "Filling the gaps: e-Skills and Education for Digital Jobs", the Commission is planning the launch of a Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs.
This European high level Conference will be hosted by:
Neelie Kroes, Vice President of the European Commission in charge of the Digital Agenda for Europe
Antonio Tajani, Vice President of the European Commission in charge of Industry and Entrepreneurship
Androulla Vassiliou, Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth
Laszlo Andor, Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion
The Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs is an EU wide multi-stakeholder partnership seeking to address the shortfall in the number of professionals with the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills that are highly demanded by the industry. The goal is to increase the supply of ICT professionals by 2015, so as to ensure a sufficient number of them in Europe by 2020. In order to achieve this, the European Commission is offering to forces with industry associations and is inviting Member States, regions and concerned stakeholders (from industry, education, public employment services, various national platforms and others) to engage in this partnership.
The Grand Coalition mandate is expected to run from 2013 – 2015 with a review foreseen at the end of this term. The Grand Coalition shall pursue the developments made in recent years in the context of the e-skills strategy and give life to the Commission's announcement of the creation of multi-stakeholder partnership in the Employment Package of April 2012 to tackle the linked issues of a lack of ICT skills and several thousands of unfilled ICT employment vacancies in Europe.
The Conference will mark an important milestone on the promotion of multi-stakeholder partnerships on ICT skills and jobs with the official launch of the Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs. In addition, commitments of actions and pledges from stakeholders and a shared roadmap will be presented.
Top-level participation, by invitation only, is expected at this high profile event.

The chair, Mr Anton Rombouts, invites you to attend the commission's 17th meeting, to be held at the Committee building, 101 rue Belliard/Belliardstraat, 1040 Bruxelles/Brussel (room JDE 52) on Monday 25 February 2013 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Website: http://cor.europa.eu/en/activities/commissions/educ/work-in-progress/.
10.30 a.m.–11 a.m. The political coordinators' meeting will be held in camera (room JDE 70).
The draft agenda is as follows:
11 a.m.–1 p.m.
1. Adoption of the draft agenda (CDR2382-2012_00_01_TRA_CONV-POJ)
2. Approval of the minutes of the 16th meeting (CDR2381-2012_00_00_TRA_PV), held on 22 November 2012 in Brussels
3. Statement by the chair
4. Organisation of future work
For decision:
- Appointment of rapporteurs
- Renunciations: Decisions not to issue an opinion
- Proposals for own-initiative opinions
For information:
- Ongoing work programme (CDR1674-2012_00_02_TRA_TCD)
- Follow-up of opinions (CDR244-2013_00_00_TRA_TCD)
- EDUC work programme for 2013 (CdR 2144/2012 rev. 1)
5. Opinion on Unleashing the Potential of Cloud Computing in Europe
COM(2012) 529 final
EDUC-V-026 – CDR1673-2012_00_01_TRA_PA
Rapporteur: Gábor Bihary (HU/PES)
- Presentation of the draft opinion by the rapporteur
- Statement by a representative of the European Commission (tbc)
- First discussion and adoption of the draft opinion
- Adoption foreseen for the plenary session of 11-12 April 2013
6. Opinion on Enhancing and Focusing International Cooperation in Research and Innovation
COM(2012) 497 final
EDUC-V-027 – CDR2076-2012_00_01_TRA_PA
Rapporteur: Paolo Valentini Puccitelli (IT/EPP)
- Presentation of the draft opinion by the rapporteur
- Statement by a representative of the European Commission (tbc)
- First discussion and adoption of the draft opinion
- Adoption foreseen for the plenary session of 11-12 April 2013
7. Opinion on Cultural and Creative Sectors for Growth and Jobs
COM(2012) 537 final
EDUC-V-029 – CDR2391-2012_00_00_TRA_PA
Rapporteur: Anton Rombouts (NL/EPP)
- Presentation of the draft opinion by the rapporteur
- Statement by Ms Marie-Thérèse Sanchez-Schmid, Member of the European Parliament and rapporteur for "Promoting cultural and creative sectors for growth and jobs in the EU"
- Statement by a representative of the European Commission (tbc)
- First discussion and adoption of the draft opinion
- Adoption foreseen for the plenary session of 30-31 May 2013
1–2.30 p.m.: Lunch buffet reception, hosted by EDUC chair Mr Anton Rombouts
2.30–4 p.m.
8. Opinion on Rethinking Education
COM(2012) 669 final
EDUC-V-030 – CDR2392-2012_00_00_TRA_PA
Rapporteur: Fiona O'Loughlin (IE/ALDE)
- Presentation of the draft opinion by the rapporteur
- Statement by a representative of the European Commission (tbc)
- First discussion and adoption of the draft opinion
- Adoption foreseen for the plenary session of 11-12 April 2013
9. Opinion on Closing the Innovation Divide
EDUC-V-031 – CDR2414-2012_00_00_TRA_DT
Rapporteur: Markku Markkula (FI/EPP)
- Presentation of the working document by the rapporteur
- Statement by a representative of the Council of the EU (tbc)
- First discussion and adoption of the draft opinion by EDUC on 25 April 2013
- Adoption foreseen for the plenary session of 30-31 May 2013
10. CoR conference "An agenda for new skills and jobs" (28 February-1 March 2013, Dublin). Preparation of the second CoR conference on the Europe 2020 flagship initiatives
- Presentation of preliminary findings of the Europe2020 platform survey
- Discussion
11. Any other business
Confirmation of the date of the next meeting: 25-26 April 2013 in Espoo, Finland.
Interpreting: 15/13 BG/DA/DE/ET/EL/EN/FR/IT/LT/HU/NL/PL/SK/FI/SV
(participants may speak in their own language) – to be confirmed
BG/DE/EL/EN/FR/IT/LT/HU/NL/PL/SK/FI/SV
(participants may listen in) – to be confirmed
Amendments must be submitted through the online tool for tabling amendments (available on the Members' Portal: http://cor.europa.eu/members) no later than midnight (Brussels time) on Wednesday 13 February 2013.
N.B.: Only members of this commission and alternates appointed to attend the meeting will be entitled to travel and subsistence payments.
Members are asked to use the online system for delegation of presence and voting rights in order to confirm their presence at the meeting or to notify the secretariat of any delegation of presence to another member or alternate under Rule 5(2) of the Rules of Procedure. The online system is accessible through the Members' Portal on the CoR main website. The deadline for submitting a delegation of presence is at midnight on 24 February 2013 (midnight before the meeting).
The Helpdesk (+32-2-546-9697; email: helpdesk@cor.europa.eu) is at your disposal to provide you with any assistance you may need.
Observers wishing to attend the meeting are asked to confirm their presence by sending an email to the commission secretariat at the following email address: educ@cor.europa.eu.