By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Do we actually want to close the achievement gap?
Ewan McIntosh, edu.blogs.com, 2015/05/19
I'm not sure exactly what the "achievement gap" is supposed to be - if I look at my life, do I have an "achievement gap" with respect to Jose Bautista? Or Twitter newb Barack Obama? Having said that, I'm generally in agreement with Brian Boyd's suggestions as summarized by Ewan McIntosh. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Telepresence Helps Universities Connect Virtual Students with Campus Life
Tanya Roscorla, Center for Digital Education, 2015/05/19
This is an application of technology I'm not so sure of. The idea is to give virtual students the feeling of actually being on campus. So the the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has set up live video feeds their faces on tablets mounted on top of telepresence robots they remotely move around the stage and auditorium. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The coming hundred years, in one hundred words
Kevin Kelly, The Technium, 2015/05/18
Kevin Kelly invited his friends to contribute a 100-word prediction of the world in a hundred years. It's always interesting to think about how I would respond. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Excellence is not the only point of education
Sam Carr, The Conversation, 2015/05/18
Doug Belshaw points toward this item from The Conversation in his weekly newsletter. The argument is that we should not allow business words, like 'excellence', to seep into education. More...
By Jen T. Kwok (NTEU National Office). The reason Australia’s higher education system has slipped from number nine to number ten in the U21 Ranking of National Higher Education Systems for 2015 is because of Australia’s appallingly low level of public investment in our universities, the NTEU said today.By Jen T. Kwok (NTEU National Office). The 2015-16 Federal Budget was relatively subdued in relation to the higher education portfolio, with no major announcements or shifts in direction from the Commonwealth Government. As the NTEU had anticipated, this year’s Budget included a commitment to the government’s long-term deregulation plans, to deregulate higher education student fees, open up funding for sub-degree qualifications, and to open public funding to for-profit private providers, despite these being defeated twice by the Senate. More...
The EU Youth Monitor is based on the EU Youth Dashboard 
, composed of 41 indicators covering all eight fields of action of the EU Youth Strategy.
It is updated regularly, on the basis of data provided by Eurostat or Eurobarometer surveys.
The Monitor provides information from 2010 onwards, where available.
See youth unemployment rate by country.
See youth population by country. More...
On 25 and 26 May 2015, members of the country reviews steering groups from Malta, Lithuania, Greece, Italy and Slovenia are meeting in Thessaloniki for a policy learning exercise. They are gathering to discuss apprenticeship schemes, bringing in their different experiences and perspectives, and to learn more on how country reviews work. More...
Well-trained employees are a competitive advantage for businesses. Advanced training helps to keep vocational qualification levels up-to-date, safeguards jobs and improves career prospects.
Vocational advanced training is often associated with great effort and high costs where evening lessons and weekend seminars are attended over months or years, culminating in examinations requiring intensive preparation. In addition, employers have to agree and allow employees to take time off. Often businesses financially support advanced training programmes. However, they hedge their investment by way of contracts and repayment clauses. Employees leaving their company during or shortly after advanced training have to pay back costs. More...
The German employment agency plans to introduce an instrument of ‘assisted vocational training’ in its initiative Betriebliche Ausbildung hat Vorfahrt (in-company training comes first).
‘DIHK supports the idea of assisted vocational training. The more young people we get into in-company apprenticeships, the better’, said Esther Hartwich, head of the DIHK vocational education and training department. She stressed that the idea of supporting young people during in-company apprenticeship is far more preferable than providing external or vocational college training. More...
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