Formation Continue du Supérieur

The External Evaluation of Cedefop was conducted in compliance with Article 27 of the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities specifying that evaluations should be applied to all programmes and activities which entail significant spending and evaluation results should be disseminated to spending, legislative and budgetary authorities.
The evaluation follows the previous such effort provided in 2007 and covers the period until mid-2012.
The purpose of the evaluation was to provide information on whether Cedefop's activities are well chosen to provide support to the European VET policy agenda and take into account European-level policy, as well as to point out possibilities for further development of Cedefop's role as a resource for European VET policy.
Furthermore, the evaluation reflected on possible synergies between Cedefop and other EU decentralised agencies, with a view to enhancing cooperation among them for better results and a more efficient use of resources.
External evaluation. 

The latest issue of Social Agenda highlights the need for a new approach to employment, social and inclusion policy to promote youth employment: a combination of urgent, highly targeted measures supporting young people directly and of longer term structural reforms. Social Agenda n. 35.

Δεν υπάρχουν εύκολες λύσεις στο θέμα των απασχόλησης των νέων, αλλά η απόκτηση προσόντων και η καλύτερη σύνδεσή τους με την αγορά εργασίας αποτελούν τη βάση για το μέλλον, σύμφωνα με τα συμπεράσματα εκδήλωσης που διοργάνωσε το Cedefop, σε συνεργασία με το Δήμο Θεσσαλονίκης και τη Διεύθυνση Πρωτοβάθμιας και Δευτεροβάθμιας Εκπαίδευσης Κεντρικής Μακεδονίας, και με τη στήριξη του Europe Direct του Δήμου. More...

The Greek Presidency of the Council of the European Union, with the support of the European Commission, hosts the EU Youth Conference on the topic of Social Inclusion of Young People.
The EU Youth Conference is one of the milestones of the structured dialogue process, which serves as a forum for continuous joint reflection on the priorities, implementation and follow-up of European cooperation in the youth field. The EU Youth Conference builds upon the results of national consultations conducted in the 28 Member States of the European Union as well as the reports submitted by International Non-Governmental Youth Organizations (INGYOs).
The conference will be hosted in the city of Thessaloniki, the European Youth Capital for 2014, and will bring together around 250 participants from National Youth Councils (NYCs) and Directorates-General for Youth from the EU, candidate countries and EFTA (European Free Trade Alliance) states, as well as from International Non-Governmental Youth Organizations (INGYOs), the European Youth Forum and the European Commission. European Youth Conference.

A biennial event to decide on validation strategy… worldwide.
Cedefop will participate with two keynote speakers: Ernesto Villalba will present the 2014 update of the European inventory of validation of non-formal and informal learning and discuss preliminary outcomes. Jens Bjornavold will speak on ‘Validation of non-formal and informal learning in Europe: the challenging move from policy to practice’. Link of the event.

The Council adopted conclusions on innovative education and training to invest in skills, in the context of the European Semester and in particular the education aspects of the 2014 Annual Growth Survey. The conclusions call for action to improve skills performance across the EU and to help protect investment in education and training as areas which can both foster and support growth. Conclusions on Efficient and Innovative Education.

Cedefop, in cooperation with the European Training Foundation (ETF) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) is organising an expert seminar on Skills anticipation guides.
The purpose of the event is to present and validate the final drafts of 3 guides of the compendium of methodological guides which the ETF, Cedefop and the ILO have been developing for skills anticipation and matching (i.e. Guide on Tracer Studies, Guide on the use of labour market information (LMI) and Guide on Employers Skills Surveys). The objective of the seminar is to ensure their validity and usefulness for target audiences and provide expert feedback and advice to the authors of the guides with a view to finalising them. Prague seminar - agenda. More...

Language Quiz

Think you know a thing or two about languages? Test your knowledge with our European languages Language Quiz.

IAU is pleased to announce that the IAU Collaborative Workshop: A three-step activity to envision higher education for Education for All (HEEFA) locally, was successfully conducted in New Delhi, India, on 20-21 February 2014.
Organised in collaboration with the Lady Irwin College, University of Delhi, an IAU member, the Workshop brought together 100 representatives from the higher education sector and other levels of education. Invited participants included faculty from various institutions within the University of Delhi and Ambedkar University, Delhi, and from the institutions of Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi and the National University of Educational Planning and Administration. There was also a strong student participation that strenghtened the capacity building side of the Workshop. The Ministry of Human Resource Development was represented by the Secretary of the Department of Higher Education and the Director General of the National Literacy Mission Authority from the Department of School Education and Literacy.
The Workshop ended with the validation of 7 recommendations (including the use of the IAU HEEFA Portal) and a three-pronged action plan, addressing research, teaching and learning, and community service. The Director General of the National Literacy Mission Authority has expressed his personal interest to take up the outcomes of the Workshop.
This was the fifth Workshop of its kind conducted by the IAU, the second to be organised in Asia.
The Workshop outcomes will be soon available on the IAU website.
Contact: Nadja Kymlicka.

1. On 30 September 2013, the Minister for Universities and Science announced a £200 million fund from Government, to be matched by institutions and other sources, for investment in science and engineering teaching facilities (‘£400 million will help science and engineering students get ahead in the global race and encourage more women to study these subjects’). We received confirmation of this funding in our grant letter in February 2014, and then a separate letter with further instructions about its use (see Annex C below).

2. This letter sets out our initial proposals for the processes that will underpin distribution of this fund. We do not require a response to this letter, but welcome feedback on our approach, including the criteria proposed for the competitive element. We intend to publish full details of the scheme, and where appropriate invite bids, after our proposals (informed by responses to this letter) are agreed by the HEFCE Board in July. This letter includes a provisional timetable for this process to enable institutions to plan for the development and submission of bids.

3. Capital funding is currently distributed in a variety of ways – through both formulaic and specific capital funding initiatives (such as this exercise). We continue to remain committed to allocating some capital funding through formulaic processes, and compliance with the Capital Investment Framework (CIF) is a key factor in this for higher education institutions. In response to Government priorities, however, increasing amounts of capital funding have been allocated competitively. While the criteria and process outlined in this letter relate solely to this fund and do not affect other allocations for capital, we are also considering how we may take a more strategic overview of different capital funding streams in the future.

4. Any feedback or questions should be addressed to stemcapital@hefce.ac.uk by 31 March 2014. More...