The UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) has published the first two textbooks in its French-language series, “Perspectives Africaines de l’Éducation des Adultes” (APAL).
They are entitled Socio-psychologie de l’éducation des adultes en Afrique and Fondements et philosophie de l’éducation des adultes en Afrique. The two teams of authors emphasise the need to abandon models inherited from the colonial period or borrowed from other regions of the world, and to take account of the specific African context: the importance of the group, the role of adult education in Francophone Africa, the incorporation of local traditions and knowledge, and bilingual and multilingual situations. The publications show that this contextualisation is perfectly compatible with the need to adapt to the demands of the global economy. Bringing these factors into the equation will enable Africa to confront new educational challenges such as the democratisation of access to schooling, and to resolve development-related problems.
The two textbooks seek to develop tools and approaches that will make adult learning more effective. They represent a valuable contribution to the debate on adult education, whose crucial importance has still to be fully recognised in French-speaking Africa.
Download:

• Fondements et philosophie de l’éducation des adultes en Afrique
  (PDF, 2,2 MB)
• Socio-psychologie de l’éducation des adultes en Afrique
  (PDF, 2 MB). Read more...

Convocation and Celebration will be held in Yangon on May 7, 2014. IIE Myanmar Higher Education Initiative.
The Institute of International Education will lead a one-day workshop and convocation event focused on expanding international academic collaboration in Myanmar. The event serves as the culmination of "Connecting with the World: International Relations at Higher Education Institutions", a new course which provided comprehensive instruction for Myanmar university participants on how to set up and manage an international office. This meets a critical need for their universities as they form partnerships and engage in exchanges and projects with higher education counterparts around the world, to build the skills to support the country’s economic growth.
Myanmar and U.S. government officials and Myanmar university rectors will speak at the commencement ceremony, and will recognize the participants’ accomplishments. At the workshop, the educators and policymakers will discuss long-term goals for their universities, and how higher education can support the country’s broader development goals. They will also lay the groundwork for a first-ever association of international education administrators to support the universities as they go forward with their new international activities. More...

By Terri Macdonald (NTEU National Office). Deakin University Honours research student Beth Turnbull is conducting research about life in Australian society as a woman with no children.  
To assist in this, the project is looking for women participants who are aged between 25 and 44 years and do not have children. 
For further information including links to the project's online questionnaire, please click on the flyer below.
Research project participant recruitment: Life in Australian society as a woman with no children. More...

By Courtney Sloane (NTEU National Office). The NTEU is gravely disappointed that Universities Australia (UA) has ignored clear evidence of policy failure in the opening up of Commonwealth funding to all higher education providers.
This formed one of the recommendation of the Kemp Norton review of the demand driven funding system and would see all higher education providers, including for-profit providers, be eligible to enrol Commonwealth supported students on an unlimited basis. 
UA CEO, Belinda Robinson, in her Media Release of 16 April rightly referred to the recommendation as a “policy high wire act”.
Yesterday, however, UA accepted the recommendation so long as it ensured “the safeguarding of the integrity and reputation of Australia’s quality higher education system.”
This is odd given the clear failure of such policies in Victoria to deliver affordable and high quality education and training in the VET sector. More...

By Matthew McGowan (NTEU National Office). The May 2014 edition of edXpress is out now. With news and views on what’s happening on our campuses around the country, we file on the first Monday of the month.
Read, subscribe, and circulate to your colleagues and friends – and please do send us your stories. View this month's edition here. More...

By Courtney Sloane (NTEU National Office). The NTEU has created a video to highlight the Government’s plans to increase student fees in the upcoming budget.
This is despite Christopher Pyne saying on the 26th of August, 2012 that the Coalition had no plans to increase student fees.
The video features three children drawing what they want to be when they grow up, only to have their dreams crushed by rising student debt. More...

Cedefop is transforming the EU Skills Panorama website into a central access point for information and intelligence on skill needs in occupations and sectors across Europe. And we need your help.
Our aim is for the EU Skills Panorama to become a comprehensive, dynamic, interactive and user-friendly website that provides new data and information on European skill trends, as well as links to other European and national information sources.
Your views count. You can help us improve the website by spending around five minutes to complete the EU Skills Panorama Users Survey
Take a look at the current EU Skills Panorama website at: euskillspanorama.cedefop.europa.eu

Links

• EU Skills Panorama
• EU Skills Panorama Users Survey. More...

euskillspanorama.cedefop.europa.eu

The European Commission has published a new report called “E-Skills for Jobs in Europe: Measuring progress and moving ahead.”
The report showed that Europe is expected to have about 700 000 unfilled new ICT-related jobs by 2015.
Links

• E-skills report. More...

Keeping you informed about European Credit System for Vocational Education & Training. The latest issue of the ECVET magazine is available for download: ECVET Magazine - Issue 19 (May 2014).
The contribution of ECVET to individuals, businesses, VET providers and VET systems in general
An article by Daniela Ulicná and Anette Curth, ICF GHK. After several years of testing and development in pilot projects, it is now time to have a look at the benefits of ECVET from a broader perspective. How can ECVET support learners, businesses, VET providers and VET systems in general? This article lines out some of the benefits of ECVET and gives some concrete example gathered from the context of the pilot projects. Although the examples are not always based on real cases2, the projects have proven through testing that they are realistic - within the existing conditions of current VET systems. However, in practice, this depends on whether or not ECVET is implemented beyond the context of a particular project. In short: although the examples are realistic and the solutions are possible, in most cases this is not yet mainstream practice.
Recognition of non-formal and informal learning to help acquire a formal qualification
Maria works as a care assistant for families, nursing elderly relatives. She has several years of experience, but does not have a formal qualification in this area. Maria wishes to change her work environment; instead of working for families in private homes, she would now prefer to work with elderly people in a nursing home. She realises that potential employers require a formal qualification. Therefore, she undergoes a procedure for the recognition of non-formal and informal learning and – thanks to her practical experience - achieves credit for several units that form this qualification. However, since she never attended formal training, Maria does not perform as well on the units related to theoretical knowledge. Due a recognition model based on ECVET principles, she can accumulate the units already acquired with additional formal training, thus significantly shortening her training programme; and eventually achieve the full qualification.
Certification by units to support early school leavers’ return to formal education
Mathieu, a Belgian student, has left school early to work in a garage. After a while, he realises he is not very well paid and his chances to move up in his job are small. This situation would improve with a formal qualification. During his formal training in a vocational school, Mathieu has already acquired four out of the six units of learning outcomes that are necessary to acquire a formal qualification. After a VET-reform that took place in the French speaking community of Belgium, training for car mechanics was organised around those units, and Mathieu was given a validated ‘passport’ recording the units he acquired. Upon his re-entry to formal education, these four units were recognised. He returns to school to acquire the missing two units. No training content is required to be repeated. After he successfully passed the assessment of the final two units, Matthieu is granted a full formal qualification as a car mechanic.
Compensating the shortage of skilled workers by finding someone with an exact skills match
A small family owned-enterprise seeks to hire an experienced plumber. They have put out a job advert, but no suitable candidates have applied. They then get in touch with the Public Employment Services (PES), without success – as qualified plumbers are scarce. However, in a personal consultation the PES asks about the exact job profile of the candidate and it turns out the company is looking for someone to take over small, but time-consuming repair jobs with private customers, so that the specialists can concentrate on bigger jobs, which require more planning skills. Read more in ECVET Magazine - Issue 19 (May 2014).

Keeping you informed about European Credit System for Vocational Education & Training. The latest issue of the ECVET magazine is available for download: ECVET Magazine - Issue 19 (May 2014).
Results from the ECVET pilot projects and impulses for national implementation
An article by Anette Curth, ICF GHK. One of the main objectives of the eight ECVET pilot projects 2011-2014 was to contribute to the national implementation of ECVET. However, they all came from very different starting positions: the projects VET-CCS and CPU-Europe in Malta and the French Community of Belgium were implemented by governmental institutions and connected to comprehensive VET-reforms; the French project MENECVET was implemented by the Ministry of Education, with the aim of testing the compatibility of the existing regulatory framework for the design and description of French qualifications with the ECVET technical specifications; the Italian project CO.L.O.R was implemented by ISFOL, a national centre of VET-expertise, and was designed to support greater coherence in the Italian VET system; and the German projects EASYMetal, 2get1care, and ESyCQ and the Italian project ICARE were instead driven by practitioners who developed solutions and recommended them to the competent institutions for implementation at the systemic level. This article briefly summarises the suggestions, models, impulses and contributions of the projects to the national implementation of ECVET. Read more in ECVET Magazine - Issue 19 (May 2014).