Renewing vocational education and training
Renewing vocational education and training to tackle skill mismatch: work-based learning and apprenticeship for all? Cedefop conference 26 April 2013, Thessaloniki
Mismatch between skills people have and those wanted by the labour market is costly for economies and societies. Productivity is lowered and competitiveness lost. And unfilled vacancies coincide with high unemployment. Information, such as Cedefop’s pan-European skill supply and demand forecasts can help education and training to reflect more closely labour market needs to provide skills in demand and reduce skill mismatch. But how can such information be used and improved to adapt education and training for the benefit of individuals, society and the economy?
Many of our skills are acquired at work, including use of the latest technologies and processes. Can different forms of apprenticeship and work-based learning help to address skill mismatch, particularly among young people who often lack work experience to complement their qualifications? Cedefop has brought together policy-makers from the European Union, Business Europe, the ETUC, UNESCO, Germany, Greece and Ireland to discuss these issues. Join the debate see the conference link at: http://events.cedefop.europa.eu/VET-conference-2013/.
Sur les mentions et spécialités de Master: Lettre ouverte à Mme Geneviève FIORASO - PETITION
Sur les mentions et spécialités de Master: Lettre ouverte à Mme Geneviève FIORASO, Ministre de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche - PETITION
Nous hébergeons volontiers cette Lettre ouverte écrite par des membres de l’université Lille 3, concernant les mentions et spécialités de Master, que la ministre se propose de faire disparaître en grand nombre, et que vous pouvez soutenir grâce au module ci-contre.
Lettre envoyée à Mme Nicole MÉNAGER, présidente du comité de suivi Master:
Au motif de rendre l’offre nationale de formation plus « lisible » et plus « démocratique », il est envisagé de réduire de façon drastique le nombre de mentions et plus encore, de spécialités, de Master. Une liste limitative d’intitulés serait mise en place, dont dépendrait le processus d’accréditation qui remplacerait celui, actuel, d’habilitation des formations actuellement mises en place par les Universités et pensées, en amont, par leurs équipes pédagogiques, avec en principale ligne de mire l’insertion professionnelle des diplômés.
Si l’argument de l’absence de « lisibilité » de ces mentions peut éventuellement être avancé dans quelques cas, pour la grande majorité de nos formations, en particulier pour celles issues des anciens DESS, il ne résiste pas à l’analyse. Bien au contraire, l’affichage clair et détaillé de la mention, de la spécialité, voire du parcours (à inscrire d’ailleurs sur le diplôme) traduit précisément les compétences acquises par l’étudiant – cette précision est ce qui motive l’affluence de demandes d’inscription dans nos formations et explique les taux d’insertion professionnelle élevés, objectivement mesurés par les observatoires des universités.
Nous rappelons qu’un Master est une formation, un développement de compétences, dans une spécialité donnée, en deux ans (Bac + 5), avec adossement à la recherche universitaire, selon le cahier des charges du LMD, et qu’une spécialité de Master est tournée vers un ou des métier(s) clairement identifié(s) par les équipes, d’universitaires et de professionnels, qui la portent, la font vivre et évoluer, et défini(s) objectivement en lien avec une ou des fiche(s) du Répertoire National des Certifications Professionnelles (RNCP).
Nous rappelons et affirmons que ce qui fait la spécificité d’un diplômé de Master, ce qui signale ses compétences et signe son employabilité, ce qui est sa carte de visite, lisible et reconnue (dans bien des cas, depuis très longtemps, et ce, grâce au travail des équipes concernées) par les milieux professionnels pertinents, c’est, précisément, la spécialité clairement affichée de son diplôme.
Nous exigeons donc le maintien de nos spécialités de Master clairement identifiées et identifiables, qui sont un élément essentiel dans l’accès à l’emploi de nos diplômés et mettons solennellement en garde contre toute mesure qui nuirait à la réelle lisibilité des compétences professionnelles garanties par les diplômes auxquels nous préparons et contre toute décision dogmatique qui compromettrait l’insertion professionnelle de nos diplômés, à l’heure où tout, justement, doit être mis en œuvre pour la favoriser.
Notre mission est dans nos formations, que nous ne voulons pas voir nivelées dans des mentions de Master fourre-tout et par la disparition des spécialités. Nous souhaitons retrouver la sérénité indispensable à l’accomplissement de cette mission, par la levée des menaces qui pèsent aujourd’hui sur les actuelles mentions et spécialités de Master, dont l’effet délétère serait d’opacifier l’offre de formation des universités et de rendre proprement invisibles nos compétences. Les professionnels qui interviennent dans nos formations, nos diplômés et nos étudiants soutiennent et soutiendront cette légitime revendication.
Premiers signataires: Fabrice ANTOINE, Traduction, lexicologie, Lille 3, Bernard SÈVE, Esthétique et philosophie de l’art, Lille 3; Yves MACCHI, Linguistique Hispanique, Lille 3; Anne CARLIER, Sciences du Langage", Lille 3; Alain DEREMETZ, Langue et littérature latines, Lille 3; Françoise SAQUER-SABIN, Études hébraïques, Lille3; Michèle GUILLEMONT, Espagnol, Lille 3; Alexandra POULAIN, Études irlandaises, Lille 3; Rosa CARON, Psychopathologie, Lille3; Georgette DAL, Sciences du langage, Lille 3; Annie RISLER, Sciences du langage, Lille3; Paul-Henri GIRAUD, Espagnol, Lille 3; Christophe BATSCH, Hébreu, Lille 3; Maryla LAURENT, Langue et littérature polonaises, Lille 3; Anne-Catherine DE BOUVIER LOBO, Caen Basse-Normandie; Fiona MCINTOSH-VARJABÉDIAN, Littérature comparée, Lille 3; Philip MILLER, Linguistique anglaise, Paris 7; Marie BOLTON, Histoire américaine, Blaise Pascal (Clermont-Ferrand II); Serge ROLET, Russe, Lille 3; Christophe NIEWIADOMSKI, Sciences de l’Éducation, Lille 3; Christine HUGUET-MÉRIAUX, Littérature anglais, Lille 3; Vincent CARADEC, Sociologie, Lille 3; Daniel TOUDIC, Anglais, Rennes 2; Pierre LABROSSE, Linguistique anglaise, Paris IV-Sorbonne; Anne-Florence GILLARD-ESTRADA, Anglais, Rouen; Sarah HATCHUEL, Littérature anglaise, Le Havre; Guyonne LEDUC, Littérature anglaise, Lille 3.
Agus speisialtóireachtaí an Mháistir: An Litir Oscailte do Ms Geneviève FIORASO, an tAire Ardoideachais agus Taighde - ACHAINÍ
Táimid ag óstáil gladly an litir oscailte scríofa ag baill de chuid Ollscoil Lille 3, Máistir agus speisialtóireachtaí a bheartaíonn an tAire a imíonn siad i líon mór, agus gur féidir leat tacú leis an modúl thíos CONS. Níos mó...
Building an Infrastructure to Effectively Support MOOCs
By Mehdi Maghsoodnia. It’s no secret that universities across the nation are facing more challenges than ever before. Shrinking budgets are contrasted with higher costs and aging facilities. The government is getting more involved from a regulatory standpoint while decreasing its funding support for education. Demand is up, enrollments are all over the map and across the board, and graduation rates are down. It’s a roller coaster of peaks and valleys that leaves schools fighting for ways to cope, retain students, and help them graduate on time.So it comes as no surprise that schools are looking for a silver bullet to answer their questions and solve their problems. Today, and for the past year or so, that bullet has been MOOCs, massive open online courses offered by companies like Coursera, edX, and Udacity. These online courses are virtually attended by students around the world; some courses even boast attendance in the hundreds of thousands. They’re popular for good reason: they offer access, often at no cost, to top-notch classes previously relegated only to those smart (and privileged) enough to attend the nation’s top schools. They’re a natural extension of traditional teaching that’s enabled by the internet.
And they’re an effective tactic; people are open to learning via high quality content on the Internet, a fact validated by the popularity of sites like Khan Academy and TED.com. Schools create very high quality content, and so it is natural to want to extend that content to massive audiences. MOOCs provide tremendous scale—a single course can be taught to an unlimited number of online students—and are coming of age at a time when many schools are seeking to address the demand for our schools’ content both domestically and abroad. Read more...
Credit Watch | Saylor.org Courses Approved for Credit At 7 Colleges
By Robert McGuire. It’s not quite MOOCs approved for credit, but it’s getting closer.Saylor.org, a nonprofit that offers free, self-paced online courses, has gotten three courses approved for transfer credit at seven accredited colleges and universities.
The five-year-old initiative’s Corporate Communications, Western Political Thought and Business Law & Ethics courses have passed muster with the National College Credit Recommendation Service, a regional accrediting agency run by the New York State Board of Regents, and they are now good for three transfer credits each at schools that have committed to recognizing them. The courses are free, though there is a $25 fee for an online service to proctor the final exam. Read more...
Everybody should be afraid of MOOCs
“MOOC-phobia” — I’m enjoying all the MOOCterms that are getting invented to explain these new phenomena.“There’s a distinction that people often don’t make,” said Professor Thrun, “which is whether these classes reach existing students and take away business, or whether they reach new students and add to the business?”
While that question is being answered, MOOC-phobia continues to spread. Last year, the University Professional and Continuing Education Association entitled its annual conference “Resilience.” This year’s event is called “Disruption 2.0.” “Everybody should be afraid of MOOCs,” said Gary W. Matkin, dean of continuing education, distance learning and summer session at the University of California, Irvine, “although there are some that should be more afraid than others.” Read more...
Six Reasons Why Computer Science Education is Failing Students
Interesting arguments from the CEO of LiveCode. These two points are particularly interesting. The first is: What sits between Scratch, or Alice, or App Inventor, and professional-class languages like JavaScript or C++? I would put Python in there, but I still see that the Scratch->Python gap is a big one. The second paragraph is really striking, and I’d like to see more evidence. Does Israel’s great CS ed system lead to the strong startup culture, or is it because Israelis value technology that they have both a great startup culture and a great CS Ed system?Up to about age 13 there are some excellent tools in widespread use, most notable among them being the free and popular Scratch from MIT and MIT App Investor However students outgrow Scratch by around age 13 and schools often don’t make a good choice of language for the next phase in a child’s education. Many traditional programing languages such as JavaScript or C++ are completely inappropriate for this age group. Read more...
Google unveils new online learning service
By Helen Ku. Google Inc yesterday unveiled a Chinese-language version of its new service YouTube EDU, which allows Internet users to access videotaped courses from three local universities.The search giant said National Taiwan University, National Tsing Hua University and National Chiao Tung University had uploaded more than 140 video courses about math, literature and science to the YouTube EDU Web site since the beginning of the year.
“The courses allow Internet users to learn not only academic knowledge, but also cultural aspects. They also provide great opportunities for foreign students to learn Taiwanese culture,” Angela Lin, manager of YouTube’s strategic partnerships division, said at a press conference. Read more...
EAC root for same tuition
By Dear Jeanne. Universities and institutions of higher learning in East Africa are set to harmonise tuition fees for students within the East Africa Community states.Stakeholders from 96 universities registered under the Inter- University Council of East Africa (IUCEA) will hold consultative talks to forge a way forward for implementation of the policy that the Council has been campaigning for for the last two years.
The decision was reached during the 4th annual IUCEA meeting held in Entebbe recently. According to the IUCEA Executive Secretary, Prof Mayunga Nkunya, the council has received resistance from EAC member states who view the policy as a way of forcing governments to educate members of other states at a cheap price. Read more...
What Graduate Students Should Know About the Sequester
By Delece Smith-Barrow. Admissions criteria will change at some schools because of sequestration. Research universities and graduate assistants across the nation are starting to feel the sequester's impact. The across-the-board, $85 billion in discretionary spending cuts began just one month ago. "My NIH grant has already been affected. Our budget has been altered because of it," says Thomas Brown, a professor and vice chair of research for the Department of Neuroscience, Biology and Physiology at Wright State University. Read more...University chief issues rankings warning
By Nicholas Jones. New Zealand universities are falling in international rankings and without a radical rethink of funding will struggle to attract top students and staff, a university leader has warned. Auckland University vice-chancellor Professor Stuart McCutcheon said the university system had lost ground in even the most generous of international rankings."Although the universities do a better job each year, other university systems that are better funded are rising through the ranks. That's a huge problem, because international students particularly use the world rankings as a mark of quality."
New Zealand universities are aiming to grow their numbers of international students, after a change in government funding effectively capped domestic student numbers, and the funds that go with them. Professor McCutcheon said that was at risk. Read more...
