The new university year has not even begun for millions of students worldwide and already many are worrying about how they will pay their tuition fees. But for those asking themselves if it is all worth it, the answer is reassuring.
People with university-level degrees earn one and a half times as much as those without in OECD countries, as Education at a Glance 2013 tells us. These graduates are also more likely to have a job, with 75% of them in full-time employment, compared with 64% of those who did not complete secondary education (high-school).
But going to university is not an automatic guarantee of employment, and at a time of economic uncertainty and rising tuition fees, the prospect of starting one’s adult life already in debt through student loans may deter some. So how to acquire the skills to make you a hot property on the 21^st century labour market? One option is apprenticeships, which can involve learning on the job or a combination of classes and work experience.
Countries with well-established vocational and apprenticeship programmes have been more effective in holding the line on youth unemployment, and oftentimes apprenticeships come with a guaranteed job at the end. At the same time, however, some consider vocational education a less attractive option than more academic education; and some research suggests that participation in vocational education increases the risk of unemployment at later ages.
Whatever choice you make, it is unlikely that once you graduate from school, college, or apprenticeship that you will be saying goodbye to education for the rest of your adult life. New technologies mean new jobs, and new skills to perform them in every walk of life. So whatever else you bring away from your education, make sure you do not forget how to learn.
Read more

• How much does education cost, who pays, and what kind of education do you need to succeed? Find out all this and more. – Education at a Glance 2013

• People who have completed university can generally expect to earn more than those who don’t. But governments and societies benefit from these people’s investments as well. – Public returns on higher education

• Young people from poorer families are badly underrepresented in higher education. What can be done? – Education for all

• More policymakers are looking to apprenticeships as a possible way of strengthening the labour market and improving job prospects for the young. But not any apprenticeship will do. – Quality apprenticeships : The new degree?

• Is increased youth entrepreneurship another possible way of reducing youth unemployment? What, if anything, can policymakers do to give young people a start in business? – Can youth entrepreneurship work?

• Skills have become the global currency of the 21st century. What are the hot issues facing countries, companies and individuals today? – OECD Skills Platform

The ILO's International Training Centre (ITC-ILO) and the ETF will jointly offer a new training and knowledge-sharing course on career guidance policies and practices. The training in Turin, Italy, on 21-25 October 2013 is designed for planners and decision makers in employment, education and training. It responds to an increasing demand for career guidance and related capacity-building services in partner countries.

Course content

The one-week course will comprise five learning units:

(1) The need and rationale for career guidance;
(2) Delivery models of career guidance - finding the optimal career guidance mix;
(3) The crucial role of labour market and career information;
(4) Key elements of effective career guidance;
(5) Next steps of policy implementation - key messages and ways forward.

The course will pay special attention to the specific issues (i.e. informal economy, negative stereotyping of technical and vocational education and training (TVET), specific meaning of 'career'), which developing and transition countries need to address when building career guidance services.

Lecturers and scientific support

Activity manager of the course is Mostefa Boudiaf (ITC-ILO) and the main lecturers will be Dr Gideon Arulmani (India), Dr John McCarthy (ICCDPP), Donna Koeltz (ILO) and Helmut Zelloth (ETF). Scientific support in the course design has been provided by Professor Ronald Sultana (Malta) and Dr Aboubakr Badawi (Egypt).

Expected participants

The course is targeted both to employment and education/training sector representatives:

•    Employment, TVET and education planners at national, regional and local government levels;
•    Employment services staff;
•    Representatives of employers and workers' organisations;
•    Members of boards of trustees of educational and training institutions and bodies, or similar committees; and
•    Leaders in guidance professional societies and unions.

Deadline for application

The deadline for application is 16 September 2013. Interested candidates are kindly requested to fill in the online registration form. The course leaflet provides more information.

NB: The ETF, as a decentralised agency of the European Union, is a non-profit entity. The course fees are charged solely by the ILO to cover for the tuition fees and specified subsistence costs.

The IAU Validation Workshop for Anglophone Africa of its new project to support academic librarians in the use, re-use and production of Open Educational Resources (OER) will open tomorrow. The Workshop, organized in partnership with the Association of African Universities (AAU) and with support from UNESCO's Participation Fund, will bring together some 30 academic librarians from 10 African countries. Its aim is two-fold: to provide all participants with equal and updated knowledge on OER and to discuss the content of IAU's project to adequately fit local needs. It is taking place from 12 to 13 September 2013 in Accra, Ghana. More information on the workshop will be posted on the IAU website soon afterwards. Contact: Amanda Sudic

By Queenter Mawinda. The Executive Secretary for the Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA) Professor Mayunga Nkunya has said that Tanzania still lags behind in university students’ enrollment rate compared to other East African countries.
Professor Nkunya made the observation early this week in an interview during the second East African Community university students’ debates on EAC integration organized by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the German agency for international development. More...

By Martin Shipton. Plaid Cymru has called for a cross-party consensus to reform higher education funding after figures showed the high percentage of Welsh students studying in England.
Subsiding Welsh students who choose to attend university in England is “unfair” on Welsh universities, Plaid Cymru has said.  Plaid called for a cross-party consensus on the future funding of universities after  figures showed Wales is the only nation in Britain where students are more likely to apply to universities outside the country where they live. More...

Canadian students hoping for some financial relief on the cost of their post-secondary education are in for a disappointment over the next few years, a prominent think tank suggests.
A report from the left-leaning Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives forecasts the inflation-adjusted cost of an undergraduate university degree is expected to climb an average of 8.6 per cent over the next four years, extending a trend that has seen the price tag triple over the past two decades. Read more...

Last week the U.S. Census reported college enrollment declined for the first time in six years in the fall of 2012. That, in turn, threatens higher education revenue, said Moody'sInvestors Service in a special report on Monday. Already, "precipitous enrollment declines for fall 2013" have hurt the credit quality of two private colleges - Loyola University in Louisiana and Central College in Iowa - and a public one, St. Mary's College in Maryland.
"Enrollment declines in higher education are credit negative because they heighten competitive pressure for all universities. This limits opportunity to grow tuition revenue, now the primary revenue for the majority of public and private universities," said Moody's. Read more...