• The European Framework of Key Competences is a tool for policy-makers across the EU which identifies the fundamental skills that people need to lead successful lives in today's world.

• The European Qualification Framework for lifelong learning (EQF) aims to better link different national qualifications systems, acting as a translation device for employers and individuals to better understand qualifications from different EU countries, thus making it easier to work, study or hire staff abroad.

• The European Quality Assurance Reference framework for Vocational Education and Training (EQAVET) helps national authorities to improve their Vocational Education and Training (VET) systems, through the development of common European references.

• The European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) provides a common basis to recognise higher education study periods abroad.

• The Diploma Supplement (DS) accompanies a higher education diploma, providing a standardized description of the nature, level, context, content and status of the studies completed by its holder.

• The European Credit system for Vocational Education and Training (ECVET) is being developed to help the transfer and recognition of learning experiences in Europe, including those outside formal training systems.

• Europass helps people make their qualifications and skills better understood and recognised throughout Europe, increasing their employment prospects. Its web portal includes interactive tools that, for example, allow users to create a CV in a common European format.

• The National Academic Recognition Information Centres (NARIC) provide information and advice on the academic recognition of diplomas and periods of study abroad. 

• Other guidance tools and information sources on learning and career opportunities in the EU, including the PLOTEUS portal and the Euroguidance network.

Other tools are being developed for the validation of informal and non-formal learning. Read more about actions to help recognition of qualifications across the EU.

The international higher education landscape is changing dramatically in shape and size, with greater competition from countries such as China and India. This calls for an overhaul in the way Europe's 4 000 universities operate - not only internationally, but also in how they deliver education to European students in their home countries.
Today, the European Commission launches a new strategy, 'European higher education in the world' aiming to ensure European graduates gain the international skills they need to work anywhere in the world and that Europe remains the most attractive destination for international students. Erasmus+, the new EU programme for education, training, youth and sport, will allocate more than €400 million a year to support international student exchanges and increased cooperation between European universities and their partners worldwide.
Androulla Vassiliou, Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, said: "European universities need to think global. They must act strategically to capitalise on Europe's reputation for top quality higher education. They need to promote international mobility of students and staff, provide world-class innovative curricula, as well as excellence in teaching and research. While many European universities have good links inside the EU, many lack a clear strategy for strengthening ties with non-European partners. This urgently needs to change. The Commission will support Member States so that they can develop their international higher education networks. There is no one-size-fits-all model for this: countries need to play to their strengths." Read more...

Helsinki, Finland on 26 and 27 April 2013
European Ministers have backed the creation of a Europe-wide platform to tackle corruption and fraud in education and an ethical code for teachers. Meeting at the Council of Europe’s 24th Education Ministers Conference in Helsinki (Finlandia Hall) – 26-27 April – ministers and high-level delegations from 43 European States, as well as Mexico and the European Union, have been discussing ‘Governance and Quality Education’.
The platform and ethical code are part of a five-point plan agreed by Ministers today to ensure access to an education of quality for every pupil and student in Europe and beyond, including Roma and other vulnerable and disadvantaged children.
The platform would provide training, codes of conduct, accreditation and quality assurance and a space to share best practice.
The ministerial Conference be dedicated to governance and quality education and highlight contemporary challenges in the implementation of governance and quality standards based on the vision of the Council of Europe.
This 24th Session provided ministers with the opportunity to focus on the roles and responsibilities of public authorities and gain knowledge and share effective results of policies, local contribution and international co-operation in ensuring good governance and quality education for all.

Final Declaration on the theme of Governance and Quality Education, adopted on 27 April 2013 in Helsinki, Finland

Programme

Speeches - Opening Session

• Opening speech from the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Mr Thorbjorn Jagland
• Opening speech from the Chairmanship of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers, Ms Roser Suñé, Minister of Education of Andorra
• Opening speech from the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, Mr Jean-Claude Frecon
• Opening address by Mr Jukka Gustafsson, Minister of Education and Science of Finland
• Opening address by Mr Eero Heinäluoma, Speaker of the Parliament of Finland
• Opening address by Ms Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissionner responsible for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth.

Press release.

Different European language communities speaking with one voice.
The Network to Promote Linguistic Diversity (NPLD) is a pan-European network created with the support of the European Commission and led by different state and regional governments comprising universities, associations and NGO’s working in the field of language policy and planning for Constitutional, Regional and Small-State Languages (CRSS) across Europe.
The NPLD works to raise awareness at a European level on the positive aspects of linguistic diversity, to portray languages as an opportunity for the personal, social and economic development of Europe and to exchange best practices among policy makers, practitioners, researchers and experts across Europe.
The NPLD includes a broad range of languages – from official EU languages such as Estonian, Irish, Swedish or Finnish – to languages with official statuts in their territories such as Basque, Catalan, Galician, Welsh, Frisian and other language communities without official recognition but highly vibrant such as Breton, Corsican, Occitan, Cornish or Sami, among others.
The NPLD is open to all CRSS language communities, including public bodies, institutions, associations, universities, and civil society working in the field of linguistic diversity and multilingualism across Europe. For more information, visit the NPLD’s website

Greek is one of the less widely taught languages in Europe. However, many European languages include words of Greek origin, resulting in many Europeans (but also people from all around the world) wanting to learn Greek, to better understand and appreciate their own languages as well as learning one of the most ancient. Some of these learners reach advanced level in Greek and so the GLOSSA project was developed to support these language learners who wish to continue learning Greek and do not have either suitable learning materials and resources or the chance to visit Greece.
GLOSSA is unique in that it has developed an online multimedia course for levels C1 and C2, as well as two educational methodologies, one for the development of e-learning content for languages at an advanced level, and one for self-learning using an on-line environment. In addition a common European professional profile for language teachers has also been created, which is transferable to other languages, plus an accreditation tool has been adapted in order to promote the certification and validation of language teaching skills in non-formal and informal environments. Two books are available and published in both hard copy and electronic form.
The course, which has been developed with the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme (Key Activity 2: Languages), has attracted participants from 29 different countries from all over the world. The partners, all experienced in teaching languages, have enjoyed working together and have already developed a new idea for the continuation of the project.
The GLOSSA online advanced level Greek language courses are offered twice a year (the next courses will start in September 2013) and registrations are open for everyone who has a B2 level knowledge of the Greek language. The courses are offered at a low cost and include synchronous and asynchronous learning practice.
For more information about GLOSSA, you can visit the website or send an e-mail to: euprograms@action.gr

On 24th September 2013, the international conference on “Motivation in language education” will be held at the University of Warsaw.
It is organized by the Polish LLP NA Foundation for the Development of the Education System, Representation of the European Commission, EUNIC, Ministry of National Education, University of Warsaw in cooperation with European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML) as a part of a series of events organized in Warsaw in order to celebrate the European Day of Languages.
The conference is addressed to experts responsible for shaping language policy, neurolinguists, representatives of education institutions, researchers, teachers, social partners. The conference will provide them with the possibility to discuss the following issues:

This article presents statistics on tertiary education in the European Union (EU). Tertiary education – provided by universities and other higher education institutions – is the level of education following secondary schooling. Higher education plays an essential role in society, creating new knowledge, transferring knowledge to students and fostering innovation; some European universities are among the most prestigious in the world.
Since the introduction of the Bologna process (see the article on education and training introduced) a major expansion in higher education systems has taken place, accompanied by significant reforms in degree structures and quality assurance systems. However, the financial and economic crisis has affected higher education in different ways, with some countries investing more and others making radical cutbacks in their education spending.
Main statistical findings
The EU-27 had around 4 000 higher education (undergraduate and postgraduate) institutions, with almost 20 million students in 2010 (see Table 1). Four Member States reported more than 2 million tertiary students in 2010, namely Germany (note the data for this country excludes students enrolled at ISCED level 6), the United Kingdom, France and Poland; tertiary student numbers in Italy and Spain were just below this level and together these six countries accounted for two thirds of all EU-27 students in tertiary education. Romania was the only other Member State to record at least one million tertiary students in 2010.
Across the EU-27, just over one third (34.0 %) of the students in tertiary education were studying social sciences, business or law, with more female (3.9 million) than male (2.8 million) students in this field of education, as shown in Figure 1. The second largest number of students by field of education was in engineering, manufacturing and construction-related studies which accounted for 13.6 % of all students in tertiary education; three quarters of the students in this field were male.
The median age of students in tertiary education can be influenced by a number of factors: whether students postpone starting tertiary education either by choice (for example, by taking a break or a gap year between secondary and tertiary education) or obligation (for example, for military service); the length of the tertiary education courses studied; or the extent to which mature students return to tertiary education later in life. In 2010, the median age of students in tertiary education ranged from 20.3 in Ireland to 22.5 in Spain, with the Nordic countries of Sweden, Denmark and Finland, as well as Austria, Luxembourg, Greece and Germany above this range (see Figure 2); note that the German figure was above the EU-27 average of 22.1 years, even though the data exclude those students enrolled at ISCED level 6.
The strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training that was adopted in May 2009 set a number of benchmarks, including one for tertiary education, namely that by 2020 the proportion of 30- to 34-year-olds with tertiary educational attainment should be at least 40 %. Just over one third (34.6 %) of the population aged 30 to 34 in the EU-27 had a tertiary education in 2011, rising to almost four out of ten (38.5 %) among women, and falling to just over three out of ten (30.8 %) among men (see Figure 3). In Ireland, Luxembourg, Sweden and the United Kingdom, the proportion of 30- to 34-year-old men and women with tertiary educational attainment was already 40 % or more in 2011; this was also the case in Norway and Switzerland. In contrast, less than 20 % of men in this age range had a tertiary education in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and Italy, as was also the case in Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Turkey (where the proportion of women having a tertiary educational attainment was also below 20 %).
Almost 4.5 million students graduated from tertiary education establishments in the EU-27 in 2010. An analysis of the number of graduates by field of education shows that 35.7 % had studied social sciences, business and law; this share was higher than the equivalent share (34.0 %) of tertiary education students still in the process of studying within this field, suggesting that less students had started this type of study in recent years, or that drop-out rates were higher in other fields. A similar situation was observed for health and welfare, which made up 15.1 % of graduates from 13.6 % of the tertiary student population, as well as the smaller field of services studies. The reverse situation was observed for the other fields of education shown in Figures 1 and 4, most notably for engineering, manufacturing and construction-related studies.
Within the EU-27, female graduates outnumbered male graduates by a ratio of approximately three to two; this ratio reached three to one for health and welfare fields of education (see Figure 4). Male graduates outnumbered female graduates slightly in agriculture and veterinary fields, more so in science, mathematics and computing fields, and by close to three to one in engineering, manufacturing and construction-related fields. Read more...

In the EU27, two thirds (66%) of all enterprises with ten or more employees provided vocational training to their staff in 2010, compared with 60% in 2005. The highest proportions of enterprises providing training were observed in Austria and Sweden (both 87%) the United Kingdom (80%), the Netherlands (79%), Belgium (78%) and France (76%), and the lowest in Poland (23%), Romania (24%), Bulgaria (31%), Latvia (40%) and Hungary (49%).
These data, published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, come from the Continuing Vocational Training Survey (CVTS), which is carried out every five years. This News Release presents data from the fourth and latest survey, referring to the year 2010, which covered the 27 Member States and Croatia.

Links

• Two thirds of enterprises in the EU27 provided vocational training in 2010

Over the past year, progress in developing and implementing national qualifications frameworks (NQFs) has allowed more countries to link these to the common reference framework for qualifications, the European Qualifications Framework (EQF).
How far each country has progressed along this road can now easily be seen by clicking on country chapters in Cedefop’s working paper, Analysis and overview of NQF developments in European countries, the fourth annual report Cedefop has prepared on this topic.
This linking process makes it easier for countries to understand one another’s qualifications. As a result, it also eases citizens’ lifelong transitions between learning and working, across sectors, and within the entire European labour market. Some countries also see qualifications frameworks as tools for education reform and institutional change. Full text of the press release. Read more...