27 juin 2013

By Ashanthi R Medawala. Sri Lanka's fee-levying higher education institutes are drawing on technology and cost management strategies to make services affordable to students and maintain quality, officials said.
"Quality always comes at a cost, but institutions can adopt strategies to be innovative and bring down costs," Athula Pitigala-Arachchi, head of Asia Pacific Institute of Information Tecnology (APPIIT), an affiliated college said.
"Using technology to bring down costs with live-streaming of lectures and also to have a flying faculty can help."
He was speaking a forum organized by the British council where international and regional educators met in Colombo to debate international higher education issue. Read more...

By Devon Haynie. International students can use MOOCs to test whether they are ready to study in the U.S. At 15, it seems unlikely Priya Prabhakar would know much about college.
But the rising high school sophomore has already taken six college courses from some of America's best universities, earning high marks in everything from poetry to computer programming.
Prabhakar, from Chennai, India, is one of thousands of students across the globe taking massive open online courses. And she can't get enough of them. Read more...

Jean-Louis Bianco, président, et Nicolas Cadène, rapporteur général, ont remis, mardi 25 juin au Gouvernement, le point d’étape sur les travaux de l’observatoire de la laïcité. Il vise à rendre compte des travaux menés depuis deux mois et demi par l’observatoire, installé par le président de la République et le Premier ministre le 8 avril dernier et dessine un premier état des lieux de la laïcité en France. Point d'étape observatoire de la laïcité. Synthèse du point d'étape.
Synthèse par M. Nicolas Cadène, Rapporteur général
Sommaire
Introduction, par Jean-Louis Bianco, Président (page 1)
Histoire de la laïcité en France, par Jean-Noël Jeanneney (page 7)
La laïcité dans le droit par Jean Glavany (page 10)
Analyse du rapport de la commission sur l’application du principe de laïcité dans la République présidée dite « Stasi », par Alain Bergounioux (page 23)
Présentation du rapport sur l’enseignement laïque de la morale à l’école, remis au ministre de l’Éducation nationale, par Laurence Loeffel (page 26)
Projet de charte de la laïcité à l’école, du ministère de l’Éducation nationale (page 29)
La notion et les critères du service public, par Alain Christnacht (page 31)
Décision du Conseil constitutionnel du 23 février 2013, analyse par Nicolas Cadène, Rapporteur général (page 38)
Arrêts « Crèche Baby Loup » et « CPAM » de la Cour de cassation du 19 mars 2013, analyse par Nicolas Cadène, Rapporteur général (page 43)
Jurisprudence de la Cour européenne des droits de l’Homme, rappel par Nicolas Cadène, Rapporteur général (page 50)
Bilan de la loi de 2004, par les services du ministère de l’Éducation nationale (page 76)
Bilan de la loi de 2010, par les services des ministères de l’Intérieur et de la Justice (page 85)
Bilan des lois de 2004 et de 2010, par les services du ministère des Outre-mer (page 96)
Etat des lieux concernant le principe de laïcité dans les DROM-COM, par Nicolas Cadène, Rapporteur général (page 98)
Etat des lieux concernant le principe de laïcité dans les établissements de santé, par les services du ministère de la Santé (page 104)
Etat des lieux concernant le principe de laïcité dans l’entreprise privée, par Armelle Carminati (page 118)
Etat des lieux concernant la vision extérieure à la France du principe français de laïcité, par Roland Dubertrand (page 121)
La laïcité, une étrangeté française ou un projet universel ?, par Daniel Maximin (page 127)
Traitement médiatique des questions touchant à la laïcité, par Jean-Louis Bianco, Président et Nicolas Cadène, Rapporteur général (page 133)
Avis de la CNCDH sur les requêtes concernant la laïcité (page 134)
Avis de la « mission laïcité » du HCI (page 135)
Avis du Défenseur des droits et de la HALDE (page 137)

Education at a Glance: OECD Indicators is the authoritative source for accurate and relevant information on the state of education  around the world. It provides data on the structure, finances, and performance of education systems in more than 40 countries, including OECD members and G20 partners.
The 2013 edition of Education at a Glance enables countries to see themselves in the light of other countries’ educational performance.
View indicators and raw data of educational institutions and the impact of learning; financial and human resources; access, participation and progression; the learning environment and organisation of schools.
Country notes with key fact tables and multilingual summaries regarding 34 OECD member countries, 8 non-OECD member countries, as well as the European Union.

This spotlight sets out how apprenticeships and other forms of workplace learning help people to make a successful transition from school to work, the best practices for putting effective apprenticeships into place and the challenges often encountered. Skills Strategy Spotlight No. 3 - 28 May 2013.
Apprenticeships and Workplace Learning
How do apprenticeships and other forms of workplace learning help people to make a successful transition from school to work?
Global economic competition requires a labour force with a range of mid-level trade, technical and professional skills alongside the high-level skills typically associated with university education. Good-quality workplace learning in vocational education and training programmes, internships and other forms of on-the-job learning give students some valuable labour market experience before graduation. And combining work and study during a transition phase typically yields better labour market outcomes for people. This Spotlight uses the results of the recent Learning for Jobs survey of vocational education and training (OECD, 2010a) and the Jobs for Youth study of youth labour markets (OECD, 2010b) to provide some key policy messages.
Workplaces can provide a strong learning environment, by enabling trainees to develop technical skills using modern equipment as well as gain real world experience in skills such as teamwork, communication and negotiation. Workplace learning can also be less expensive than off-the-job training, especially when it provides access to expensive equipment. Employers’ willingness to offer work placements for trainees also provides a concrete expression of employers’ skill needs and can help to ensure relevant skills are taught. Workplace training also facilitates recruitment by allowing employers and potential employees to get to know each other, while trainees contribute to the output of their firm.
What practices are most important for effective apprenticeships and workplace learning?
A high-quality learning environment
Workplace training should offer a high-quality learning environment that enables students to acquire practical skills on up-to-date equipment with trainers familiar with the most recent working methods and technologies.
It should also allow students to develop key soft skills – such as dealing with customers – in a real-world environment. Also, it is very important to highlight that whether in the workplace or the classroom, a high-quality learning environment requires well-prepared trainers and teachers.
Balance students’ preferences with employers’ needs
Workplace learning should facilitate a two-way flow of information between potential employers and employees, making later recruitment more effective and less costly. Very importantly, employer provision of workplace training should provide a signal that a programme is of labour market value. At the same time, employers should be involved in developing the learning objectives to ensure that they are both relevant to their immediate needs and balanced by sufficient emphasis on transferable skills for future employability.
A clear contractual framework
Apprenticeships and other forms of workplace learning must operate within a clear contractual framework. This framework should encourage employers to help trainees to make a productive contribution, ensure that trainees receive effective learning opportunities and protect trainees against exploitation at work. An apprenticeship or traineeship contract that sets out the rights and obligations of both trainees and receiving firms also underpins the quality of workplace training. Special contracts for apprentices or trainees exist in many countries. In some countries (e.g. Germany, Austria and Switzerland) students are responsible for finding a company that will provide them with workplace training. Conversely, in Hungary, VET institutions often help students find apprenticeship places and the contract is then typically signed between the firm and the apprentice. Some countries (e.g. Australia and Norway) involve third partners in the apprenticeship.
Effective quality assurance mechanisms
To assure quality in apprenticeships and other workplace learning practices, an effective national standard framework need to clearly identify both learning and labour market outcomes, provide reliable and accessible information for both students and employers across different sectors and locations and focus on identifying areas for improvement and not serve as a means of punishing poor performers.
What are the challenges often encountered?
Finding effective incentives for employers’ engagement
Incentives for adequate employers’ engagement might include a number of financial incentives, including direct subsidies, special tax breaks and arrangements to share the burden of training between groups of enterprises. Incentive arrangements should recognize that employers might gain both a production and a recruitment benefit from apprenticeships and other forms of significant workplace training.
Both benefits and costs are hard to estimate
But the willingness of employers to provide workplace training places also depends on how they perceive the benefits and costs of doing so. In Switzerland half of firms with apprentices either have formal mechanisms to monitor the cost/benefit ratio of their training, or were about to introduce such mechanisms in 2004. But many firms lack such mechanisms and rely instead on more subjective perceptions of the utility of training. Systematic studies have been undertaken in Germany and Switzerland into the costs and benefits to employers of taking apprentices: these can be used as a means of encouraging employers to take trainees and apprentices by demonstrating to them the real economic returns.
Making the apprenticeship system attractive to potential apprentices
Apprentices normally receive a wage and they may also get some type of government grant or subsidy. In return they should receive good-quality training and the reasonable prospect of a smooth entry into the target occupation. From the apprentice’s point of view, the appeal of this form of training depends on what other opportunities s/he has, typically involving the relative attractiveness of an academic track in tertiary education, or alternatively, of direct entry into the labour market.

Tema 8: La educación permanente: aprendizaje formal, informal y no formal
Los meses de mayo y junio de 2013 tiene lugar el Tema 8: La Educación permanente. Aprendizaje formal, informal y no formal. En este tema, damos respuesta a cómo ir más alla de la educación formal, partiendo de un aprendizaje que se produce en diversos contextos, y durante toda la vida. Concluiremos nuestro recorrido de actividades virtuales, con la realización de la octava jornada de eventos presenciales en 9 ciudades iberoamericanas, cuyo tramo comenzará en Caracas (Venezuela), los días 27 y 28 de junio.
1. Actividades virtuales (Mayo- Junio 2013)
Llevamos a cabo distintas actividades online en torno a cuatro categorías: Debatir con ponentes de primer nivel internacional; Foro comunidad educativa, un punto de encuentro entre familias, estudiantes y docentes implicados en la educación del futuro; Compartir y Talleres, aprendizaje práctico a través de actividades colaborativas. Para acceder a las actividades puedes pinchar en el eje temático deseado.
1.1 Actividades por ejes temáticos:
* Aprendizaje durante toda la vida (Life Long Learning), Cultura Digital y Competencias del Siglo XXI. Del 20 al 24 de mayo
* Aprender como ciudadano digital. Del 27 de mayo al 7 de junio
* Nuevos puentes educación – mercado laboral – sociedad. Del 10 al 14 de junio
* Enseñar y aprender desde el ocio y la cultura. Del 17 al 28 de junio.