Quelle que soit la nouvelle architecture qui sortira de l’accord et qui gagnerait à favoriser la coexistence entre un CDI unique et l’emploi intérimaire, il est nécessaire de consolider et d’unifier tout ce qui relève de la politique publique d’insertion, d’emploi et de formation et qui peut contribuer à l’accompagnement et l’instrumentation des trajectoires professionnelles des moins qualifiés. Les nouvelles règles régissant les embauches, le contrat de travail et les licenciements ne feront pas l’économie d’une nouvelle approche en matière de simplification et de cohérence de l’éventail des services et des prestations contribuant à:
    * Etablir la carte des aptitudes et des potentiels des personnes au-delà des acquis scolaires ce qui signifie une remise à plat du fatras méthodologique généré par le bilan de compétences et une véritable politique volontariste en matière de VAE.
    * Faciliter l’information des personnes sur les contenus, les évolutions et les transformations des métiers et leur plus ou moins grande proximité.
    * Favoriser l’accès direct aux opérateurs de formation assorti d’une politique de suivi et d’évaluation de leurs performances plutôt que de s’illusionner sur les effets de cahiers des charges hyper-prescriptifs et inutilement sophistiqués qui dévitalisent la créativité et l’innovation des organismes de formation.
    * Développer les modes de financement « global » favorisant la combinaison de services et de prestations qui est la meilleure façon d’individualiser sérieusement l’accompagnement des transitions professionnelles plutôt que de tenter d’individualiser chacune des fonctions utiles à la construction des parcours. Ce dernier point est fondamental si on veut sortir de la taylorisation et de l’atomisation des prestataires qui minent les dispositifs d’insertion et d’emploi. Suite de l'article...

By Andrew McGettigan. The number of first-class degrees is rising, but if we care about standards we must analyse the pressures around accreditation.
The Higher Education Statistics Agency recently published its annual overview of enrolments and qualifications achieved at UK universities and colleges. A breakdown of undergraduate results for 2010/11 showed that 16% of candidates now achieve first-class honours. The numbers graduating with the highest degree classification are now double what they were a decade ago. Immediate, superficial responses see yet another example of "dumbing down", but the changes are not that straightforward and these criticisms avoid tackling bigger issues about the place of higher education within British society. Read more...

By Stephen Hoare. Malaysia's relaxed multicultural lifestyle and year-round sun are prime attractions for UK academics, says Christine Ennew the new provost of Nottingham University's Malaysia campus.
Academic life has an added sparkle for the new provost of Nottingham University's Malaysia campus just outside the capital, Kuala Lumpur. Christine Ennew has been teaching in Malaysia on and off since 2000 when she and a handful of academic colleagues helped set up the overseas campus.
"Our unique selling point is we offer a British education but we are locally embedded. All our research priorities contribute to the region's economic priorities," says Ennew. In the early days Ennew lived in a rented apartment in Kuala Lumpur just half an hour's walk from the university's original city centre campus near the famous twin skyscrapers, the Petronas Towers. Read more...

By Charlie Osborne. As the distance learning industry booms, what can we expect from 2013?
Nord Research Associate and online learning specialist, Dr. Tony Bates, has released his fourth annual predictions for how online learning will change in 2013 based on the Canadian education industry. According to Bates, online learning will experience a shift and move into mainstream programs as the growth of hybrid learning — to accommodate new technologies — takes root in the education industry. Due to this, it is possible that academic institutions will give distance-based online learning methods more of a priority within their long-term strategies.
“In online learning, the only thing you can really be certain of is uncertainty,” says Bates. “A major multinational player like Apple, Google or Facebook could jump into the online learning market and, in partnership with some elite universities, take a major share of the for-credit online market.”
All in all, the researcher believes that 2013 will prove to be a “transformative” year for online learning worldwide; but what are his predictions?
1. From the periphery to the center. When online learning began to take off in 1995, it remained very much on the periphery of accepted learning practices, and is still yet to achieve the same worth as traditional classroom education. However, Bates says that in 2013, online learning will move from being a “sidebar” to becoming central to an institution’s operation.
2. Hybrid learning. Instead of relying on massive open online courses (MOOCs) to push the drive from periphery to center, hybrid learning methods may be the primary reason online learning becomes a priority of colleges and universities. Hybrid learning, a mix of online and campus-based teaching in order to improve educational quality and boost productivity, will potentially lead to full redesigns of courses. Read more...

By Ayesha Banerjee. France wants Indian students. “When former French president Nicolas Sarkozy visted India in 2010, it was felt that the number of Indian students in France should increase from the current 3000 to 6000 by 2013,” says Helene Duchene, director of mobility and attractiveness at the French ministry of foreign and European affairs.
India is important for France because both countries share the same views when it comes to democracy. France supports India’s bid for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council, the countries are collaborating on the Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project and IIT Rajasthan has been founded in collaboration with France, among many other things,”  Duchene adds.
Fabienne Couty, also from the ministry, says, “The quality of students coming from India is quite high, especially those from the IITs. So far, about 226 MoUs have been signed between schools and universities of the two countries,” she says.
When compared to the US or UK, the most preferred destinations of Indian students, France is relatively cheaper. “Education makes up 40% of the country’s budget – fees for the students is funded by the state, which comes to about ¤16,000  per student,” says Couty. For the country this is an investment for gaining high quality students, she adds. International students also get some financial help for accommodation. Read more...

By CHRISTOPHER F. SCHUETZE. On an autumn night, 25 people stood around a square in Slubice, a small Polish town across the Oder River from Germany, practicing their Polish. After rehearsing how to introduce themselves by name, they went around in the circle, the men practicing to say “Jestem Niemcem” while the women of the group learned “Jestem Niemka,” which means “I am German.”
The unusual language course was organized by a student club associated with the Europa-Universität Viadrina in Frankfurt an der Oder, a border town in the former East Germany. Many of the participants — who would then go to a British pub to learn to order drinks in Polish — study at the university, which has one of the highest rates of foreign students in Germany.
The Viadrina, as it is known, was founded in 1991, just a year after German reunification and long before Poland became part of the European Union.
“It was founded with a clear mission to build a bridge between East and West,” said Annette Bauer, a university spokeswoman. Read more...

By Douglas Rushkoff. Education is under threat, but the Internet and the growth of Massive Open Online Courses are not to blame.
Like the arts and journalism, whose value may be difficult to measure in dollars, higher education has long been understood as a rather "soft" pursuit. And this has led people to ask fundamental questions about it:
What is learning, really? And why does it matter unless, of course, it provides a workplace skill or a license to practice? Is the whole notion of a liberal arts education obsolete or perhaps an overpriced invitation to unemployment?
The inability to answer these questions lies at the heart of universities' failure to compete with new online educational offerings -- the rapidly proliferating MOOCs -- as well as the failure of most Web-based schools to provide a valid alternative to the traditional four-year college. Education is about more than acquiring skills. Read more...

Two well-known European Union funded programmes, Erasmus Mundus and Tempus, have encouraged Libyan higher education institutions and qualified Libyan students to take part in the ongoing Calls for Proposals.
These Calls for Proposals are meant to provide an opportunity for students and institutions to submit proposals for specific study projects to be carried out with the support of scholarships provided by the EU-funded programs.
These opportunities were announced at the ‘Information Day’ that took place at the National Academy of Higher Studies in Tripoli on Monday January 14, and aimed at promoting inter-university cooperation between Libya and the European Union.
Speaking at the gathering, EACEA representative Mr. Philippe Ruffio underlined the ongoing efforts of the EU to actively support economic development and institutional reform in Libya and stressed the role of higher education in accompanying the dynamic political process in Libya. Read more...

By Sumedha Jalote. The provincial government of British Columbia (BC), Canada unveiled a refreshed LearnLiveBC, an information portal designed to answer the questions of students around the world considering universities in British Columbia.
The website is part of BC’s international education strategy released in May 2012, and will help the province attract more international students. According to the government, BC will gain 1800 jobs and CA$100 million (US$101.5 million) in GDP for a 10 per cent increase in the number of international students. In 2010-2011, BC hosted 100,700 international students, a 7 per cent increase from the previous year. Read more...

Les discriminations à l’embauche ont-elles disparu? Les critères de recrutement sont-ils exclusivement centrés sur l’aptitude à occuper un poste? D’après l’enquête de l’Apec réalisée en 2012 auprès des recruteurs et auprès des cadres, les réponses des uns et des autres montrent que les pratiques de recrutement n’ont pas encore totalement atteint les objectifs du respect absolu des textes réglementaires, ni ceux des préconisations initiées par certaines entreprises ou par les milieux associatifs pour lutter contre les discriminations et favoriser la diversité. Une majorité de recruteurs estime cependant que des progrès ont été faits depuis dix ans, mais les cadres sont eux beaucoup plus circonspects. Si l’enquête restitue des opinions et non des faits, elle donne néanmoins un aperçu détaillé des pratiques, des perceptions et des expériences, tant chez les recruteurs que chez les candidats à des postes cadres. Espace Presse - Etude intégrale Recruter un cadre: entre sélection et risque de discrimination. Espace Presse - Synthèse Etude Recruter un cadre: entre sélection et risque de discrimination.
Les discriminations illicites sont toujours présentes lors de la sélection des candidats
Cadres, entreprises et intermédiaires du recrutement s’accordent pour affirmer que les discriminations n’ont pas disparu lors des recrutements de cadres. Tous considèrent que le critère de l’âge est la discrimination la plus répandue. Plus de 60% des recruteurs en entreprise et plus de 90% des intermédiaires le reconnaissent. De leur côté, 84% des cadres considèrent eux aussi que l’âge est souvent discriminant lors des recrutements. Pour eux, la plupart des discriminations interdites par la loi sont assez, voire très fréquentes lors des recrutements, en particulier celles fondées sur la grossesse, l’apparence physique ou l’origine ethnique. Si les recruteurs reconnaissent que ces discriminations existent, elles ne seraient que « parfois » ou « rarement » à l’origine d’un blocage selon eux. Espace Presse - Etude intégrale Recruter un cadre: entre sélection et risque de discrimination.