The ENT-TEACH EU-funded project addresses entrepreneurship in senior secondary vocational education institutes and seeks to provide teachers with tools and materials to educate, inspire and motivate students for entrepreneurship. The EN-TEACH consortium is organising the project final event on “VET reinvented: Vocational & Entrepreneurship Teaching” that will take place on Friday 7^th March from 9.00 at the Delegation of the Basque Country to the EU (rue des Deux Eglises, 27). Register here and visit the project website available in 5 languages where you can find material to be used by teachers and trainers. See also EUCIS-LLL position paper and compendium of good practices on “Fostering entrepreneurial mindsets” as well as our recent policy debate on entrepreneurship skills in the European Parliament.

On 30-31 January the Committee of Regions adopted its opinion on the Commission’s Communication “Opening Up Education“, drafted by Ms Yoomi Renström (SE/PES). Among the Committee’s key messages, more emphasis should be put on a better access to open educational resources and new technologies for all learners, whatever their geographical situation, and a particular attention should be paid to disadvantaged areas with the help of structural and investment funds. EUCIS-LLL supports many good elements of the document beyond the focus on access, such as the crucial role of local communities to support a shift of mindsets towards the digital revolution – as underlined by Mr Claudio Dondi in his intervention on the topic in a recent European Parliament public hearing where he represented EUCIS-LLL and MENON. See also EUCIS-LLL position paper on Opening Up Education.

The European Federation for Intercultural Learning (EFIL) will organise on 24-27 April in Istanbul, Turkey its annual symposium to gather various stakeholders from different cultural backgrounds to reflect upon a common theme. This year’s specific focus on creativity in education and intercultural learning will be the opportunity to share best practices and learn from each other through debates with experts, intercultural workshops by AFS trainers, educational best practice workshops delivered by attendees from all around the world, creativity sessions, field trips, co-teaching opportunities and visits to like-minded organizations. Apply here before 17 February!

By Brian Keeley. If you’re a regular visitor to the blog, you’ll know we often report on the latest OECD economic forecasts. After reading these, you may have found yourself asking this question: Is this really what’s going to happen? You’re not alone. The OECD’s economists, too, have been asking themselves the same question, and today they offered some answers.
In a “post-mortem” project, the OECD examined the accuracy of the economic forecasts it issued between 2007 and 2012, a period of seemingly endless economic turbulence. The study reports that, in general, the OECD tended to be too optimistic – it didn’t predict the scale of the collapse in economic activity between 2008-09 and then overestimated the speed of the subsequent recovery. More...

Open Education Europa is thrilled to be at the European MOOCs Stakeholder Summit, which starts today and runs until Wednesday. The conference hasn't even officially started yet and the Twitterverse is already buzzing. We'll be live tweeting the keynote speeches and selected sessions from @openeduEU. Follow the #emoocs2014 hashtag for up-to-the-minute news and insights from the conference. More...

By Pierre-Antoine Ullmo. The European MOOCs stakeholders summit starts today in Lausanne. The future of MOOCs will be discussed extensively. In the book Mania, Panics, and Crashes — which I translated and first published into French back in 1993 — the American economist Charles Kindleberger  wrote that economic history is replete with manias of all kind: canal manias, railroad manias, joint stock company manias, real estate manias, and stock price manias. Are we facing an MOOCs mania, another speculative bubble that sooner or later will come to an end? More...

By Pierre-Antoine Ullmo. MOOCs have just appeared and the big question has already been raised: are they sustainable? In other words, are they pedagogically adequate, institutionally relevant and financially viable? MOOCs are rupturing the norms of how we have taught and learned until now. They enable a fresh approach to continuing education. They demonstrate the irrelevance of existing quality standards. They demand a new approach to certification… One of the questions that comes up again and again refers to the business model. What is the business model for MOOCs? How much do they cost? What are the revenues? Simple questions but difficult to answer. More...

On Feb 10-12, over 450 education stakeholders met at the European MOOCs Stakeholders Summit, a conference focused on massive open online courses and their place in the wider education field. The conference proceedings are also massive, open and online - click here to access the 300-page document. Are they worth consulting? We'll give you an overview of the summit and you can decide for yourself if you want to dig deeper. We've already published a recap of the first day of the conference and posted the videos of the first keynote speeches, so let's get right to the second day. More...

The EMOOCs 2014 conference started yesterday, opening with keynote speeches from EPFL's President Patrick Aebischer and Deputy Director General of Education and Culture at the European Commission Xavier Prats Monné. The afternoon sessions took place in four tracks: business, research, experience, and policy. Recap on Storify. More...

Creative Commons would like to invite you to a breakfast discussion „Really Open Education. Domestic Policies for Open Educational Resources”. The event will take place on the 18th of February 2014 and be hosted in the European Parliament by Róża Gräfin von Thun und Hohenstein, MEP. Website. More...