Links and reports
| Cedefop study on the economic benefits of vocational education and training |
The aim of this study was to summarise the evidence available on the economic benefits of vocational education and training (VET) at company level, by means of a literature review and meta-analysis based on 62 studies containing, in total, 264 estimated effects of training. Throughout the study the term VET is used to denote employer/enterprise provided training.The good news is that on the basis of the evidence collected, the authors of the report conclude that VET has a positive influence on the economic performance of firms. Most studies that were examined found a positive and significant effect of VET. |
| Engaging in Lifelong Learning |
Published in September 2011, this report is published by the European University Association. It is an outcome of the project “Engaging in Lifelong Learning: Shaping Inclusive and Responsive University Strategies (SIRUS)” which explored the different factors that enable universities across Europe to develop successful lifelong learning. SIRUS brought together 29 EUA members from 18 countries, who, over a series of workshops, shared experience and developed their institutional LLL strategies. |
| Eurobarometer survey on young people |
According to the latest Eurobarometer survey, 53% of young people in Europe are willing or keen to work in another European country, but lack of cash discourages many of them from taking a first step towards this by spending part of their education abroad. The survey highlights a huge gap between the widespread desire of young people to work abroad and actual workforce mobility: less than 3% of Europe's working population currently lives outside their home country. |
| European Agenda for new skills and new jobs |
This white paper sets out, in 13 key actions with accompanying and preparatory measures, the possible EU contribution to this joint effort as part of the Europe 2020 strategy. |
| European Employment strategy |
The EES is a 'soft' law mechanism designed to coordinate the employment policies of the EU Member States. While the objectives, priorities and targets are agreed at EU level, the national governments are fully responsible for formulating and implementing the necessary policies. |
| Going Mobile in Executive Education |
UNICON recently published a report in association with Ashridge Business School entitled ‘Going mobile in executive education'. This report analyses the potential impact of mobile technologies on the executive education learning landscape around the world. It examines mobile learning, and how portable technologies - smartphones, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), handheld computers and personal media players - can support and extend the reach of teaching and learning. |
| Learning while working:Success stories on workplace learning in Europe |
Cedefop published this report recently which calls for strong synergies between policies and programmes for innovation, research, enterprise development and training. It is based on previous research undertaken by Cedefop between 2003 and 2010.By presenting key achievements on workplace learning, successful solutions, dilemmas, and areas that demand further development, the authors hope to stimulate further debate, research and action to widen learning opportunities inthe workplace.The Bruges Communiqué has identified work-based learning as one of the areas that requires increased political attention and strategic action. This report provides a valuable input to the policy debate on how to expand learning opportunities in the workplace and create working environments |
| Managing Technology in Higher Education: Strategies for Transforming Teaching and Learning |
This new book written by Tony Bates and Albert Sangra examines how post-secondary educational institutions have tried to integrate technology in teaching and learning, and what actions and strategies are needed to ensure technology is used to support the development of the knowledge and skills needed in the 21st century. The book is based on evidence from over 30 universities and colleges, including 11 in-depth cases of institutions in both North America and Europe. It covers leadership, strategic planning, organizational structures, governance of technology, quality assurance methods, training of instructors and administrators, costing e-learning and the management of resources, organizational culture, barriers to change, and roles for government. |
| New Media Consortium Report on new technologies |
The NMC Horizon Report 2012 Higher Education Edition is a collaborative effort between the NMC and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI), an EDUCAUSE Program.This ninth edition describes annual findings from the NMC Horizon Project, a decade-long research project designed to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have an impact on learning, teaching, and creative inquiry in higher education. Six emerging technologies are identified across three adoption horizons over the next one to five years, as well as key trends and challenges expected to continue over the same period, giving campus leaders and practitioners a valuable guide for strategic technology planning. |
| Promoting the learning mobility of future workers: experiments with virtual placements in university-business arrangements |
Virtual placements are learning arrangements, which generate new possibilities for accumulating professional (work-based) knowledge. Virtual placements are beneficial in many ways; they merit increased training opportunities, exposure to un-/never-thought-of occupations, integration of disadvantaged individuals, and preparation of, and blending with, physical placements. This paper reports on multi-country experiments with technology-enabled remote access to work, as a contribution to the work-based learning and professional mobility of students. |
| Redefining the university |
Today, higher education is under tremendous pressure to meet greater expectations, whether it be student numbers, educational quality, the needs of professionals, or economic development. Meanwhile, the resources available to higher education institutions are declining. While the purpose of universities may have remained constant for centuries, the world around them is undergoing significant change. This special edition of the eLearnng papers explores some of the relevant issues. |
| Report on University management of work-based learning in the UK |
This report edited and introduced by Freda Tallantyre was published by the Higher Education Academy in the UK in 2010. It provides an overview of the views of UK pro-vice-chancellors from across the UK Higher Education sector on the implications of the employer engagement agenda for their institutions. |
| The Road Less Travelled |
A new report from the Centre for Enterprise in the UK explores why some employers support the progression of their advanced apprentices to higher education, and looks at the associated costs and benefits. The report, commissioned by the Skills for Sustainable Communities Lifelong Learning Network, examines the experiences of 18 employers who have supported their apprentices into higher education. The report finds a belief among these employers that the benefits of supporting progression outweigh the costs: they see the costs of progression as an investment that will generate significant business benefits in the future. |
| Work-based learners’ engagement with the university: An exploratory study in the UK |
This study published by Middlesex University and the Higher Education Academy in the UK describes the findings of the Academy Work-based Learning Research Network which is a group of researchers focused on work-based learning, sharing outcomes and informing and championing EvicenceNet.It has identified a number of themes and issues where it is felt that there is a gap in knowledge and understanding. The first project to address these gaps has directed attention to ways in which WBL students engage with the HEI they are enrolled in. |
| Work-based Learning Maturity Toolkit available from University of Westminister |
A group of universities and colleges (across England, Scotland and Wales) has developed a work-based learning maturity toolkit (including a methodology for using it) with funding from JISC's Lifelong Learning-Workforce Development programme and are in the process of piloting it. Institutions can use the Work-based Learning Maturity Toolkit to:
•Assess their current performace in work-based learning. |
| CEF cult |
Language skills are becoming more and more important, especially in intercultural professional communication. The Council of Europe has developed a Common European Framework (CEF) of Reference that describes the levels of proficiency in languages. CEFcult will build on the results of the WebCEF project and will develop an online environment that helps to assess the oral proficiency in languages, and more specifically the oral proficiency for intercultural professional communication. This way CEFcult brings together the worlds of higher education and enterprise. This online environment will be making optimal use of web 2.0 possibilities. |
| EIDCC |
European Diploma in Intercultural Competence (EDICC) is a two year project launched in October 2009 that aims at developing an academic Curriculum for Continuing Education in Intercultural Competence. The output of the project will be a work-life oriented Diploma that enables adult learners to enhance their intercultural competence in order to meet the demands of the increasingly multicultural and multilingual European societies. |
| EU-VIP |
EU-VIP stands for Enterprise-University Virtual Placements. Work placements can play an important role in the knowledge transfer between higher education institutions and the business community. In a global economy it is also becoming more and more important to introduce students to an international working environment during their education. EU-VIP is a two year EU-funded project (October 1, 2009 until September 30, 2011) under the Lifelong Learning Programme (ERASMUS). The EU-VIP project will design models and services for: virtual mobility activities to prepare students for a stay abroad and to sustain the experience after they return and fully virtual placements. |
| Improving Quality in Work-Based Learning (IQWBL) |
The object of this Transfer of Innovation project is to implement best practices with regard to Work-Based Learning (WBL, On-The-Job Learning), and the applicable parts of the administration as practiced in the Lighthouse project, when the national curricula and practices are taken into consideration. Exchange of experiences regarding WBL in different countries will take place at 3 seminars and by the means of internal communication over the Internet in between seminars. |
| Learn at Work |
This European project which finished in 2008 explorer the synthesis between the theories, conceptual frameworks and practices of distance learning, e-learning, work based learning and work placed learning in order to provide the community with practical examples guidance on the design and implementation of e-supported learning at work. |
| Learning Mentor |
The project intented to professionalize as well as to underline the necessity of a workplace based “promoter” for lifelong learning who cares about possibilities in regard to individual career development as well as about continuously training on the shop floor/in the production lines. The qualification of a learning mentor had to assure the assessment, recognition and classification of qualifications and skills to increase educational, employment and mobility chances according to the EU “standard” EQF. Guidelines, structured in fields of competences and learning outputs served as independent learning units/modules for learning mentors. The modules have been piloted with 80 employee and staff representatives. They have been adapted to the structures and legal conditions in 5 countries and adapted to EQF and EC-VET to assure quality and support the transferability of the products. |
| MIRROR |
This project aims to empower and motivate employees to learn by reflection of tacit work practices and personal experiences. MIRROR shall help employees capture experiences and collaboratively/immersively develop creative solutions for problems that need to be solved immediately. MIRROR states that it will be the first technology-enhanced learning approach that can be used in highly dynamic working situations where no teachers, no formal content, and no explicit knowledge are available. |
| My knowledgebox at work |
‘My Knowledgebox at Work’ is a project focussed on assisting first line managers to use IT to improve the performance of their employees by creating and applying small items of instruction of direct relevance to their employees. These small items are accessed by the employees using an easy, user-friendly application on a PC |
| ProLeNE |
ProLeNE - Promoting the recognition of learning in national and European contexts – is a project aimed at promoting the benefits of credit-rating informal, non-formal and non-accredited learning to a range of audiences - learners, employers, training providers and national policy-makers - and at expanding the number and range of credit-rated informal and non-formal learning provision in the Scotland’s National Qualifications Framework for lifelong learning. |
| WBLIC |
Work Based Learning as Integrated Curriculum (WBLIC) is a 2 year international research project aimed at identifying best practice in work/practice relevant learning in higher education settings. Researchers at Leeds Metropolitan University, UK, are leading the EU Lifelong Learning programme-funded project which seeks to place integrated curriculum at the forefront of developments in higher education. Integrated curriculum is seen as one of the key factors in improving the match between graduate skills and employers’ needs. |
| WBLQUAL |
The reason for this project is to refine a method of providing qualifications for work based activity that will also produce benefits for employers in performance, behavior and attitude of learners. Often organisations have many talented employees working in technically skilled jobs with little or no formal qualifications, at least not in relation to their employment. |
| Youth @ Work |
Youth @ Work is part of the EU’s Youth on the Move initiative. It aims to link business and young people and will build contacts between young people and small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) to encourage demand among SME employers for young people and, in turn, to promote working in SMEs to young people. In this way, it will help Europe’s young people find jobs and provide small companies with inventive, energetic new employees. |
| Compostela Group of Universities |
Set up originally by the University of Santiago de Compostela, the Compostela Group of Universities (CGU) is a large, prominent, open and inclusive network of universities whose overarching goal is to facilitate and promote cooperation in the higher education sector. It achieves this by acting as a platform to foster and support projects among its members as well as by participating in activities as an entity in its own right. Find out more from the GCU |
| EAPRIL Conference 2011 theme:Balancing workplace learning and practitioner research across professional fields |
This year the EAPRIL conference takes place from 23-25 November in the HAN University of Applied Sciences - Nijmegen, the Netherlands. EAPRIL is a unique event in that it brings together those interested in the crossroads between research and practice and between professional learning and education. The theme of this year's conference is Balancing workplace learning and practitioner research across professional fields. This theme fits well with one of EAPRIL most important aims: "We need research-based practice as well as practice-based research, in other words, research that is relevant to practitioners." Proposals are welcome up to 14 September |
| Institute for Work Based Learning |
This institute at Middlesex University, UK is a leading proponent of work-based learning and provide a number fo interesting resources on their website. This includes case studies. This pioneering Institute provides research and strategic development of work based learning across Middlesex University. In addition, the Institute partners directly with individual learners and organisations to create bespoke programmes from certificate through to doctorate level. |
| Journal of Workplace Learning |
The Journal of Workplace Learning aims to provide an avenue for the presentation and discussion of research related to the workplace as a site for learning. Its scope encompasses formal, informal and incidental learning in the workplace for individuals, groups and teams, as well as work-based learning, and off-the-job learning for the workplace. This focus on learning in, from and for the workplace also brings with it questions about the nature of interventions that might assist the learning process and of the roles of those responsible directly or indirectly for such interventions. Since workplace learning cannot be considered without reference to its context, another aim of the journal is to explore the organisational, policy, political, resource issues and other factors which influence how, when and why that learning takes place. |
| The EFMD Annual Conference deals with Management Education in 2025 |
The EFMD Annual Conference takes place this year from 5-7 June and will be followed by the PRME Summit from 7-8 June, both events will be held in Brussels. The EFMD Annual Conference has been designed for all those interested in management education and development. It brings together EFMD members, companies, educational institutions and other associations, offering various perspectives and discussions on the conference theme. It will be followed by the PRME Summit aimed at educational institutions and corporate participants. More information is available from the EFMD website. |
| The Journal of Cooperative Education and Internships |
The Journal of Cooperative Education and Internships is dedicated to the advancement of work-integrated learning, to a strong focus on research associated with work-integrated learning, and the development of a global view of work-integrated learning through the publication of thoughtful and timely articles. |
| The Universities Association for Lifelong Learning (UALL) |
The Universities Association for Lifelong Learning supports policy and practice across the UK higher education sector in part-time/flexible provision, employer engagement/work based learning, and community engagement.The Association acts as a consultative body for policy formulation and advocacy, representing the sector to government departments, funding bodies and national higher education organisations across the four nations of the United Kingdom. UALL provides a forum for the active exchange of ideas and good practice and undertakes research. |
| UNICON (International University Consortium for Executive Education) |
UNICON is a global consortium of business‐school‐based executive education organisations. Its community of member organisations is engaged in accelerating the development of leaders and managers, thereby enhancing performance in public and private organisations globally, through executive development initiatives. UNICON recently published a report in association with Ashridge Business School entitled ‘Going mobile in executive education'. |
| UVAC |
The University Vocational Awards Council (UVAC) is a not-for-profit organisation set up in 1999 in the UK by the higher and further education sector. We provide an independent voice for our members on matters relating to higher level vocational learning. Our mission is to champion higher level vocational learning.UVAC manages the Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning Journal. |
| Work-based learning organisation in the US |
This site provides a range of resources, information, tools, tips and an online community of practice to help make the business case for work-based learning programmes. It includes a set of best practices arising from work-based learning programmes from different parts of the US and makes for interesting reading. |