February 2013
ISSUE // 26
NEWS AND VIEWS FROM ACROSS THE ETF COMMUNITY
Bosnia and Herzegovina Making education work with the country’s 13 education ministers INSIDE THIS ISSUE 10 Towards excellence in entrepreneurship 14 Promoting VET in Kyrgyzstan 16 Opinion: Sector skills councils 21 FRAME and GEMM: New regional projects
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INSIDE 04
Country Focus: Bosnia and Herzegovina
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Two years after the Arab Spring
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The ETF supports career guidance in Jordan COMMENT ON OUR BLOG
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How to train entrepreneurs
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Greening education and training in Eastern Europe
We’d love to know what you think. You can comment on any of our articles online at
www.etfliveandlearn.eu
CONTACT US
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INVESTMENT, SKILLS & KNOW-HOW
Today ay the value ch chain is broken here
Large national or multinational chains, supermarkets and wholesalers which import produce from neighbouring countries. They have no links with producers in the north.
Producers of dairy products for the local markets but too weak to expand and supply to the national market.
Imported branded goods are often cheaper / safer and more appealing to hotel clientele.
Small, private, subsistence dairy farmers, often lacking modern farm management, marketing and accountancy skills.
Helping the market create jobs in Montenegro
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The Torino Process
For any additional information, please contact:
Tourists and nationals based in the capital city and along the southern border.
1 2 The ETF proposes two strategies for growth in the northern region
Increase productivity, improve quality and quantity of production.
Focus on 2-3 popular cheese products, preserve production methods, facilitate cooperation among producers and build product brands.
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Students use performance to tell people about the virtues of VET
Further information can be found on the ETF website: www.etf.europa.eu
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GEMM and FRAME: two new projects for 2013
Communication Department European Training Foundation ADDRESS Villa Gualino, Viale Settimio Severo 65, I – 10133 Torino, Italy TELEPHONE +39 011 630 2222 FAX +39 011 630 2200 EMAIL info@etf.europa.eu
To receive a copy of Live&Learn please email info@etf.europa.eu
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Skills councils: social dialogue in education
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Digital update
The European Training Foundation is the European Union’s centre of expertise supporting vocational and training reforms in the context of the European Union’s external relations programmes.
Cover photograph: ETF/Ard Jongsma Please recycle this magazine when you finish with it. 02
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Editorial
The harvest year
Farming metaphors don’t seem out of place when you try to describe the long-term character of the work the ETF does in its partner countries. We plan and prepare the ground in the countries. We sow – we launch projects. We manage and monitor them, and sometimes we need to weed and prune them as well to adapt them to changing realities. And finally we are able to harvest. Because the ETF works in cycles, and 2013 happens to be the last year of our mid-term perspective, it will be a harvest year for many projects. Our work on vocational education and training for social inclusion, on modern qualifications in the Mediterranean region, on continuing training in eastern Europe, and on skills matching will bear its fruits. Our produce will be, amongst others, concrete guides on matching for policy makers, or methodological approaches for good practice in entrepreneurial learning and enterprise skills or for social inclusion, or more sustainable institutions for multi-level governance of vocational education and training. To draw further on these agricultural similes, the projects will produce food for thought: new awareness and realisable visions for human capital development. The results and the process All these agricultural comparisons, however, place the emphasis on the end result, while for the ETF, the process is often just as important. This year will see a very good example of it – the conclusion of the second round of the Torino Process. Obviously we all look forward to the findings, to new data, and up-to-date analysis of vocational education and training in our partner countries which
should help in the development of more effective, result-oriented policies. But please don’t forget about everything that will have happened before the closing conference on 8 and 9 May. There will have been informed debates, the involvement of social partners and civil society, exchanges of views and experience among the countries, new partnerships – all this not merely for a nice glossy final report, but for better education and training.
Madlen Serban, ETF Director Photo: ETF/Giorgio Cosulich – EUP & Images
The harvest is not the end though. Our next horizon is 2020 and new projects that can contribute to the external dimension of the three main EU priorities: smart growth, sustainable growth and inclusive growth. This year we are also starting two large regional projects in the southern Mediterranean and in the Western Balkans and Turkey. It is not enough, however, to express confidence in achieving our targets. The measure of our achievements is based on the dedication, expertise, commitment and strength of all the men and women who steer the ETF ship on a daily basis. I appreciate and praise your dedication and thank you for the trust you placed in us in 2012. My heartfelt gratitude and best wishes go to you and your families. ■
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Country Focus Bosnia and Herzegovina
Brčko in the north of the country is a multi-ethnic town, and so is its Tehnička Škola (technical vocational school). Photos: ETF/Ard Jongsma
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA THE CHALLENGE OF DECENTRALISED EDUCATION
The Dayton agreement of 1995 divided Bosnia and Herzegovina into two entities: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska. Each covers roughly half of the country’s territory. As the status of Brčko in the northeast could not be agreed upon, this area became a separate district, belonging to both entities but ruled by neither. It has its own authority. The federation is divided into ten cantons which are further divided into municipalities. In the Republika Srpska, this intermediate level of government does not exist. The Council of Ministers is the executive branch of the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It oversees policies in fields such as foreign affairs, foreign trade, customs, finance and others. However, education is the responsibility of the cantons in the federation and of the district in Brčko, while the Republika Srpska has one central education authority. Each has their own education ministry, laws and budgets. The federation also has a federal ministry of science and education. As a result the country has thirteen education ministers.
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National education policy comes from the Ministry of Civil Affairs. It has played an important role in getting the framework laws establishing the national agencies adopted.
the country has thirteen education ministers One of these is the Agency for Pre-school, Primary and Secondary Education, whose Unit for VET, Lifelong Learning and Adult Education in Banja Luka plays an increasingly active role in current reforms in vocational education and training, including the Baseline Qualifications Framework and moves to modularise VET curricula. ■ Words: Ard Jongsma, ICE
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THE VET agency: a critical partner The Agency for Pre-school, Primary and Secondary Education is the most important partner for the ETF and an increasingly important player in vocational education training (VET) in the country. “One of the positive effects of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s efforts to reach a common line on education policy has been the establishment and rapid expansion of the education agencies,” says ETF country manager Margareta Niokolovska. Necessarily decentralised in the politically fragmented country it serves, the agency has offices in Mostar, Sarajevo and Banja Luka. But it is not split along ethnic lines. The different offices cover the three quite different parts of the agency’s mandate, with the office in Banja Luka in charge of all things related to VET. Maja Stojkic has been the director of the agency since it was established in 2008. “We support the modernisation and development of pre-primary, primary and secondary education,” she says. “We do this with foreign partners, as well as with the Ministry
of Civil Affairs and the council of education ministers. We develop occupational and training standards, assess results and develop common core curricula. We also provide guidelines for preparing teachers to use these new curricula.” The agency played an instrumental role in developing the Handbook for In-service Teacher Training for Entrepreneurial Learning and in rolling out subsequent training. During 2010 and 2011, the agency evaluated curricula for 36 occupations. It can also be credited with the development of VETIS, an information system supporting the evidence-based approach in VET. As such, the work of the agency is an important element in the direction of a single, country-wide approach to VET policy development and reforms. ■ Words: Ard Jongsma, ICE
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Country Focus Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
translates ideas into action
As spectacularly beautiful as it is spectacularly complicated from an administrative point of view, Bosnia and Herzegovina is a country with a troubled recent past which it has found difficult to leave behind. The wars of the 1990s have left the country deeply divided along ethnic lines and in dire economic straits. On paper, prospects are still worsening, with youth unemployment now at a staggering 57%, up from an already high 40% in 2008. But if you look beyond the raw data that have been thrown up by the ETF’s Torino Process, there is positive news too. “There have been great improvements in policy development,” says Margareta Nikolovska, the ETF’s country manager for Bosnia and Herzegovina. Herself from the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, she has an affinity with the region that is a prerequisite for supporting development in this part of Europe. “Recent legal changes have been very good too, with significant
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initiatives adopted such as an entrepreneurial learning strategy and the blueprint for a qualification framework,” she adds. This blueprint is the Baseline Qualification Framework adopted by the Council of Ministers in 2011. Among other things, it institutionalises the involvement of labour market partners in training. This link to the labour market, which was strong in communist Yugoslavia, has been eroded since 1991 with dramatic consequences for the employability of VET graduates and for the status of VET as a whole. According to Adnan Husić, assistant to the Minister of Civil Affairs in the Education Department, “reconnecting education and employers” is a matter of urgency.
“But this can only be achieved if we can also develop an inventory of the most urgent needs,” he says, “the results of the Torino Process are a great step in the right direction that can help us to identify needs and take action to meet them.” One town where the severing of the link to industry has left deep scars is Zenica, an hour’s drive north of Sarajevo. During the 50 years following World War II, Zenica’s population more than quadrupled thanks to its steel mill, one of the largest in south eastern Europe. The massive plant still dominates the skyline but its transfer into private hands has led to massive restructuring. The plant’s needs for labour today are of a very different nature to those the nearby Tehnička Škola can supply.
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unemployment rate in Brčko (39% in 2011) is much higher than the national average (27.6%) but the town appears in much better shape than Zenica, possibly as a result of the foreign support that followed the decision to put Brčko under international administration. Today, Brčko is multi-ethnic again and so is the Tehnička Škola Brčko. “We were lucky to be able to set up a couple of good partnerships,” says director Meksud Bećirović, “a project with Austrian hydraulic systems company Festo required 30% co-financing from the district government and we received that. Teachers have been sent to Austria to upgrade their qualifications and this boosts our popularity. But here too the interest of young people in VET is waning.”
The market has changed and the education sector can’t lag behind. Photos: ETF/Ard Jongsma
“One unfortunate inheritance of the communist era is that people don’t follow the rules,” school director Fadil Hodžić concedes, “in the public sector, some workers’ rights are still guaranteed, but in the private sector they are poor. As a result, most young people want to work in the public sector. They go into higher education but when they then find that there is no work, they move abroad.”
“For us, it is critical to keep an eye on what happens in the labour market. One good example of how we have responded to its needs is when people from our local Confederation of Bricklayers went to the employment office to sound the alarm. They needed more workers. The employment office got in touch with us and we received funds to train extra bricklayers in close collaboration with the confederation. The market has changed and the education sector can’t lag behind. Market principles affect us too.” In a country with considerable human and material resources but a sluggish economy, entrepreneurial learning has the potential for kickstarting business. For this reason, entrepreneurial learning has been a key area for the ETF’s work in the country. In March 2012, the Council of Ministers adopted an entrepreneurship
learning strategy for the next three years as a direct result of a 2007 IPA (Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance) project on the topic. “But adopting is one thing, implementation is another altogether,” according to Margareta Nikolovska.
“keep an eye on what happens in the labour market” Fadil Hodžić acknowledges that implementing the strategy still faces some hurdles. “My greatest dilemma now is whether entrepreneurship should be included in all subjects or whether we should teach it as a separate subject,” he says. A handbook for implementation, another output of the 2007 IPA project still used by the ETF, provides some answers. “The ETF has supported the development of two modules for in-service teacher training for entrepreneurial learning,” says Nikolovska. “They have now become part of a new curriculum for professional teacher development in entrepreneurship learning.” These are very real changes and while they may take time to show up in economic results, they signal an important break with the trend to divorce ideas from action that has plagued many countries in the region so long. ■
Words: Ard Jongsma, ICE
“At a vocational school in Zenica, an hour’s drive from Sarajevo, the facilities are not of a standard that can give students the skills they need,” says school director Fadil Hodžić.
Earlier this year, the World Bank estimated that 20% of Bosnians aged 25 and over with higher degrees currently live in one of the OECD countries. “But even if we wanted to supply the private sector, we are not in a position to do so. When I studied in a village in the 1970s, we had good workshops in our schools, with up-to-date facilities. Today, even in a town like Zenica, we do not have facilities of a standard that can give students the skills they need,” says Hodžić. Just 100 kilometers to the northeast, Brčko is a different world. According to the country’s Bureau for Statistics, the
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Feature
Two years after the Arab Spring Photos: ETF/Juha Roininen – EUP & Images
What are Arab governments doing to provide opportunities for young people?
Egypt – a HANDS-ON approach to job creation
Mahmoud El-Sherbiny, Executive Director of Egypt’s Industrial Training Council
Egypt’s first step towards a more efficient vocational education and training (VET) system and labour market will be to revive the Supreme Council for Human Resources Development (SCHRD) as the single organisation in charge of education, training and employment. This move aims to bring more joined-up government to a complex institutional landscape. The SCHRD “will still depend on units in different ministries for implementation but will be in control of performance and direct it towards national goals,” says Mahmoud El-Sherbiny, executive director of the Industrial Training Council or ITC. The first output of the new-style council will be the Training for Employment Initiative which aims to
get 700,000 young people into jobs during 2013. This ITC-run scheme will take a hands-on approach to tackling Egypt’s skills mismatch by gathering skills needs from employers and using a network of grassroots organisations to reach out to the unemployed. It will offer intensive training to prepare people for specific vacancies. “We will be training for very specific jobs,” says El-Sherbiny, “let’s say a company that makes ready-made garments needs someone to sew pockets. I will bring you someone who can do just that.” The ITC has a remit to carry out this matching function and capacity building for various ministries, including agriculture, tourism and building.
Lebanon – reinventing VET Lebanon is changing levels and degrees with the aim of making VET more responsive to demand and attractive to students. This involves integrating VET into the national qualifications framework, opening up new pathways and setting up a higher VET council including all public and private stakeholders. “The aim is to provide dynamic feedback so VET can respond to labour market needs faster,” says Lebanon’s minister of education and higher education, Hassan Diab. Hassan Diab, Lebanon’s Minister of Education and Higher Education
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The ministry is working to boost the public image of VET with 2,000 new scholarships and plans for a public awareness campaign including workshops,
pamphlets and a TV advert. “We need to raise awareness of the potential of VET and make it more responsive,” says Diab, “needs are changing all the time; before you didn’t need computer skills, but now even a waiter needs to be able to input some data.” Youth unemployment in Lebanon is more likely to affect those with low or no qualifications than VET graduates, while those with a higher degree often look for opportunities abroad. “Not everyone needs to be a doctor,” says Diab, “on the contrary, doctors can no longer find work whereas a VET qualification can lead to a good career.”
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Skills for rebuilding Libya
Mokhtar Jwaili, Chairman of Libya’s National Board for Technical and Vocational Education
Libya aims to substantially expand VET as a way of creating jobs for young people and helping rebuild the economy. By 2025, VET should account for 50% of enrolments, up from 24% (intermediate level) and 19% (higher level) in 2011, according to Mokhtar Jwaili, chairman of Libya’s National Board for Technical and Vocational Education. “Rebuilding Libya means we need a lot of skills,” he says, citing tourism and construction as a special priority. A first step is an agreement with universities giving VET graduates with top marks a path to higher education. In terms of governance, Jwaili hopes VET will become a separate unit directly answerable to the
prime minister. Future plans include setting up a supreme council for TVET and a human resources development fund, although this is subject to the decisions of Libya’s new government. The public image of VET remains a problem, “but we need to improve the system before we ask more people to join,” says Jwaili. Long-term aims include shifting resources from general education to VET, improving teaching capacity and introducing new specialisms and structures such as sector skills councils for tourism and construction.
Morocco – access to VET, a basic right
Abdelouahed Souhail, Morocco’s Minister of Employment and Vocational Training
Morocco’s July 2012 constitution describes access to vocational training as a fundamental right. The current process of reform, expected to culminate in 2020 with a new strategy for the whole VET sector in place, should change the traditional view of VET as a tool to benefit companies in the formal sector. The new focus defines its aim as equipping young people for work and gives priority to social inclusion. “We are also trying to develop apprenticeships and sandwich courses,” says Abdelouahed Souhail, Morocco’s minister of employment and vocational training. As in neighbouring countries, young Moroccans are more likely to be unemployed – youth unemployment was 17% in 2011 compared to 9% overall. University
graduates and qualified school leavers, especially women, are hardest hit. But unlike Tunisia or Egypt, Morocco’s economy is still growing. A second difference is that Moroccan VET is in demand. With 300,000 students, 56% male and 46% female, VET has an average of three applicants for every place. “Young people understand that VET is the way to enter active life,” says Souhail. The private sector provides 20% of VET places and Souhail points to interesting experiences with public-private partnerships in aeronautics, textiles and car manufacturing. But employers complain of a continuing skills mismatch and over emphasis on basic VET to the detriment of continuing education.
Tunisia aims for jobs, jobs, jobs
Abdelwaheb Matar, Tunisia’s Minister of Vocational Training and Employment
Job creation is top priority for Tunisia, the country where young people launched the Arab Spring two years ago. The interim government’s January 2012 action plan included tax exemptions for companies who recruit unemployed graduates, training grants for 80,000 young people on work placements and a recruitment drive which has taken on 25,000 young people in public and a further 6,500 in semi-public organisations, according to Tunisian Minister of Vocational Training and Employment Abdelwaheb Matar. The transition government elected in October 2011 will unveil a longer term national strategy for jobs in late 2012.
A September 2012 circular gives greater powers to regional employment departments as part of a policy for decentralising governance and revitalising local actors. This policy is also being road-tested in an ETF project on VET and employment in Médenine region. Making Tunisian VET more demand-driven is another priority. “There is a big gap between the outputs of education and the needs of companies,” says Matar. Long-term aims include introducing new subjects throughout the education system, improving the public perception of VET and involving the private sector. Moves to open up vocational schools to the local community and businesses have already begun. ■ Words: Rebecca Warden, ICE
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Event Report
How to train entrepreneurs Thorsten Jahnke of German iq consult talked about innovative ways of turning unemployed people into entrepreneurs.
From women’s business training to entrepreneurship simulation games to education and business cooperation – in Brussels on 14-16 November 2012 the ETF brought together training providers and policy makers from 38 countries to discover the best ways to train entrepreneurs. Leila Kabalan is a graduate student at the Lebanese American University in Beirut. In 2007 she attended the Company Programme, a youth business competition run by Injaz, a local NGO. During the competition, Kabalan and her classmates set up a company that sold car bumper stickers. Afterwards some of her partners in the company went into real business, but she thought she didn’t have this one, great idea to establish her own company. Her entrepreneurial training, however, had other benefits.
“Not everybody can be an entrepreneur and not everybody wants to become an entrepreneur,� said Truszczynski. “Nonetheless, given the very high unemployment rates [...] we need to do more to create additional opportunities to help young people [...] make a successful transition from the world of learning to the world of work.�
“One of the most important things you learn in entrepreneurship training is how to be professional and how to deal with all the challenges of the market,� said Kabalan. “All these soft skills that people take for granted are so hard to learn and so important for your future – public speaking, negotiating. [The training] builds your entrepreneurial mindset in everything you do.�
The two-day conference was devoted to good practice in promoting entrepreneurship. Injaz and 11 other training providers from the EU and partner countries presented their work, which fell under three themes: training for youth start-ups, skills for the internationalisation of small and medium-sized enterprises, and training for women entrepreneurs.
Jan Truszczynski, Director General for Education and Culture at the European Commission, who spoke at the opening of the ETF’s conference, agrees.
“All these areas are crucial to job creation and making economies more competitive,� said Anthony Gribben, the ETF expert on entrepreneurship who was in charge of the organisation of the event.
Success factors in promoting entrepreneurship According to the World Economic Forum, the main success factors for effective entrepreneurial education are: Policy and institutional commitment – national strategy Implementation and integration of entrepreneurship into formal curricula Extracurricular activities and informal entrepreneurship learning Teacher training Networks, collaboration, positive entrepreneurial ecosystem Measurement, evaluation and learning from good practice 10
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“There is an increasing expectation on policy makers and practitioners to design more cost-effective ways of developing human capital. Good practice sharing is one option to reduce time, cost and effort in bringing innovation and value to the enterprise world.� From good practice to next practice Thomas Cooney, president of the International Council of Small Business, who spoke at the conference, explained that entrepreneurial learning is not about good practice but about next practice. “We shouldn’t be looking at what’s been good about what people are doing now, we should be looking at what we should do better.� That is why the recommendations from the conference included the need for more focused attention on evaluation of training and impact assessment if training provision is to get a ‘good practice’ tag. Gunilla Torstensson, Programme Manager at the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth, shared her practice in fostering an entrepreneurial spirit and creating the right mindset among her fellow citizens. “Our challenge is that we have very few entrepreneurs and we need more of
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Global Entrepreneurship Week The ETF’s conference “Towards excellence in entrepreneurship and enterprise skills” was organised during the Global Entrepreneurship Week, an international initiative that introduces entrepreneurship to young people worldwide. Hundreds of events bring together entrepreneurial experts, policy makers, education practitioners and politicians. Since its creation in 2008, more than 10 million people from 130 countries have participated in entrepreneurial-related activities during the week.
them, while there is potential for women entrepreneurs in Sweden and in many other countries.” Torstensson’s programme coordinates some 800 Swedish female entrepreneurs who act as ambassadors, meeting other women, telling stories, giving a realistic picture of business-making. In the past three years more than 100,000 women have participated in such sessions. “It makes entrepreneurship more visible in society, in the media, and it provides role models that say ‘if she can do it, so can I”. One might ask however if you are unemployed and you can’t find a job, how can you create one?
“Our special approach is to serve people who are normally not seen as good candidates for entrepreneurs,” says Thorsten Jahnke, CEO of iq consult, a social enterprise that helps unemployed people set up businesses in the German federal state of Brandenburg.
of the iq consult office in Potsdam,” tells Jahnke. “She wore dozens of colourful metal badges.” Jahnke talked to her and at some point suggested she started a business designing and producing badges. Not long afterwards she became an employer herself and hired four workers.
From punk to prez
“We didn’t speak about the business model, we didn’t even speak with her about how to make money. What we did speak about was how to spread her personal ideas.” ■
“Our approach is low threshold, lay language and being where young people are. We don’t wait in an office, we go to people’s living rooms, wherever they want to open a business.”
Words: Marcin Monko, ETF
Jahnke gave an example of a punk woman who lived on the street, and who, thanks to iq consult help, started her own company. “We saw her one day in front
“We need to stimulate [young people] to develop their plans and projects, their businesses”, said Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, in an opening video address to the participants of the ETF conference. Photos: ETF/Juha Roininen – EUP & Images
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Innovation
Helping the market create jobs in Montenegro: The case of The dairy sector INVESTMENT, SKILLS & KNOW-HOW
Today ay the value chain ch is broken here
Large national or multinational chains, supermarkets and wholesalers which import produce from neighbouring countries. They have no links with producers in the north.
Producers of dairy products for the local markets but too weak to expand and supply to the national market.
Small, private, subsistence dairy farmers, often lacking modern farm management, marketing and accountancy skills.
1 2 The ETF proposes two strategies for growth in the northern region
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Increase productivity, improve quality and quantity of production.
Focus on 2-3 popular cheese products, preserve production methods, facilitate cooperation among producers and build product brands.
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Montenegro has experienced growth rates in the last few years that are the envy of many other countries, but not everyone in this nation has benefited. In the mountainous north of Montenegro, the closure of communist-era industry has left many middle-aged workers unemployed and unable to find work.
But there are opportunities and an ETF project has identified the dairy industry, and in particular cheese-making, as an area for potential growth. Thanks to a value chain analysis (see infographic), the ETF has been able to pinpoint the obstacles to growth and to see where training interventions can help create new jobs in the sector. “We found that dairy products from the north of the country have a good reputation but were not realising their market potential because marketing skills were lacking,” says Ummuhan Bardak, labour market specialist at the ETF. Quality products with a good name would be ideal for the growing tourist market in the coastal south of Montenegro, adds Bardak. This is a model already pioneered by regional cheese makers in Italy, which are increasing the popularity of their products. But realising this aim would call for greater efficiency of production in farming and processing of dairy products as well as packaging and marketing. Since many of these skills are lacking in this part of the country, a more systematic approach to training is needed.
onal or multihains, supermarkets salers which import om neighbouring hey have no links cers in the north.
a more systematic approach to training is needed Imported branded goods are often cheaper / safer and more appealing to hotel clientele.
Tourists and nationals based in the capital city and along the southern border.
In particular, says Bardak, existing vocational training in the agricultural sector will need to include improved expertise in food safety and business management. “It’s in these areas and all the support services that go with them that new jobs will be created,” she adds. At a seminar in November 2012, there was broad agreement amongst stakeholders, including farmers, trade associations and local and national government bodies, that the study is the first step in the right direction. “People could see that transformation of the sector is inevitable; close cooperation between stakeholders in training is the next step,” says Bardak. ■ Words: Patrick Kelly, ICE
products, s, facilitate rs and
Infographic: Value chain in the dairy sector in Montenegro
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Guest Writer Kyrgyzstan
Students use performance to tell people about the virtues of VET Blagodat, a Kyrgyz NGO, takes an innovative approach to promoting vocational education and training (VET) in southern Kyrgyzstan. Instead of giving formal lectures or pep talks on the way VET can open doors, Blagodat’s experts have come up with an approach which uses performance – music, dance, poetry and sketches – to get the message across. It harnesses the enthusiasm of a team of young people to tell their peers what VET could do for them. “We have a multi-ethnic team of teenagers – boys and girls aged from 14 to 19 – students from Public School 51 and Vocational Lyceum 16,” says project manager Elvira Zheng. “We implement one part of the project. Our task is to popularise vocational education and training by means of an interactive and informative campaign called ‘I’d love to become a skilled worker if you teach me how’.” Since independence, demand for vocational education and training in Kyrgyzstan has been low but the situation is changing. More Kyrgyz teenagers are opting to acquire technical skills rather than seek higher education degrees. The number of VET students has increased by 5.5% during the last three years – from just under 30,500 students in 2008 to just over 32,000 in 2011 according to the Ministry of Youth, Labour and Employment’s Technical and Vocational Education Agency. Gulbara Samatova, an 18-year-old student from Lyceum 16, performs a mini-sketch on the hairdressing profession. She was very shy at the beginning and participating in the promotional campaign has helped her to gain confidence.
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Sergei Sakhmatov practices on a machine at Lyceum 16. Photos: Hamid Tursunov, ICE
“Vocational education is also good. Now I’m not afraid of becoming unemployed because in a few months’ time I will have a good vocational qualification. If you have technical skills, you will always be in demand,” says 18-year-old Sergei Sakhmatov.
Like many of his friends, Sakhmatov aspires to be a worker with a broad range of skills. “First I want to be a skilled car mechanic, welder and electrician. Then I want to learn IT skills because nowadays IT technologies are used to repair cars.”
So convinced is Sakhmatov that vocational education is a sound option for his peers that the student from Osh’s Vocational Lyceum 16 has joined the awareness raising campaign team to help improve its image.
Many young Kyrgyz people find their university degrees do not open any doors for them as there is little demand for higher education graduates. “When you graduate from university, it is difficult to find a good job. If you are a good skilled worker, you will always find work,” says Sakhmatov.
“We have visited schools and children’s homes to promote different vocational courses through music, dancing and staging small performances. We also recite poems. I like travelling and telling my peers about various trades and skills,” says the teenager, “we tell them our stories, share our experience of education and tell them about the opportunities awaiting them.” The 18-month initiative aims to tell school children and socially vulnerable groups as well as potential migrants about the difference technical education could make to their lives. It is part of the bigger ‘Towards improved vocational and technical education system in Kyrgyzstan’ project launched in January 2012.
The project is funded by the European Union and implemented by the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Blagodat works with the IOM in 12 pilot schools in the southern regions of Osh, Jalalabad and Batken.
“If you are a good skilled worker, you will always find work”
VET becoming a popular choice The prestige of vocational education and training is still low according to Elvira Zheng. “The bigger the city, the more prestigious the universities,” she says, “but attitudes are changing as more people realise that a university degree does not guarantee a job.” According to local observers, trades such as builders, welders, mechanics, cooks, electricians, turners, crane operators and hairdressers are becoming more popular among young people. “Before everybody wanted to get a university degree. Nowadays, young people willingly choose vocational education, the situation has changed,” says Raisa Evsyukova, deputy head of Vocational Lyceum 16, “people are choosing trades that are in demand on the labour market.” ■ Words: Hamid Tursunov, guest writer, ICE
Hamid Tursunov is a freelance journalist based in Osh, Kyrgyzstan. He has been involved in various international development and humanitarian projects in southern Kyrgyzstan.
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Opinion
Skills councils
social dialogue in education
How can the worlds of work and vocational education talk to each other? This question is on everyone’s lips around the globe as skills needs in labour markets are changing. Globalisation and technological development are destroying, changing and creating occupations. Those who make decisions about vocational education and training (VET) should know what competences are needed in new jobs. Those who represent the labour market, enterprises and trade unions, should express their expectations when new qualifications and training programmes are designed. Forecasting skills needs is much more than diving into statistical information. It should include analyses of qualitative data too.
Petri Lempinen is a specialist in VET and social partnership at the ETF Photo: ETF/Juha Roininen – EUP & Images
Several eastern European countries have started this dialogue. Azerbaijan, Belarus and the Republic of Moldova are among those countries developing sector skills councils. The idea is simple – to ensure that training in the sector meets the needs of employers and government. They also promote skills development in the sector. This includes the current work force as well as young people and adults who hope to find work and livelihoods for themselves. How about the needs of people? Employers should be able to explain what they need when they recruit new people. Skills development is important but education and training should prepare learners for life, not just for work. In many countries trade unions are delivering these messages.
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There are at least two preconditions for a sector skills council. First, the government needs to have the will to enter into dialogue with representatives of the sectors or social partners in general. Second, employers and/or workers from the sector need to be organised so that they can present their collective opinion. Different sector councils are widely used in more than 20 EU Member States and around the globe. Councils are not a miracle medicine to ensure quick VET reforms, but they can help VET authorities and providers to understand labour market trends. This is why the ETF has decided to support the development of more systematic dialogue between social partners and VET systems. ■ Words: Petri Lempinen, ETF
On 24-25 October 2012 in Kiev, the ETF held the first of a series of workshops to help set up sector skills councils in eastern Europe. The workshop focused on the rationale of sector skills councils, and their roles and responsibilities.
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Project Updates
THE ETF SUPPORTS career guidance in Jordan “I am a victim of bad career guidance”, said Shadin Hamaideh from Injaz, a Jordanian NGO active in the field of youth education. “My father is an engineer and my mother, a lawyer, so as the oldest child and a role model for younger siblings, I studied chemical engineering. For prestige reasons without knowing what to do with this education in a country where the chemical industry does not even exist. Luckily enough I managed to re-orient my career to work with young people and education, my passion.” Hamaideh and other representatives of Jordanian career guidance providers participated in an ETF-sponsored study visit to Turkey in October 2012. They learnt more about the newly developed Turkish National Career Information System and the way vocational guidance is coordinated at national level and implemented in education and employment institutions. The study visit was part of a three-year (2010-12) ETF support to Jordan in the field of career guidance. Mismatch between educational choices and labour market demand During the project, Jordanian authorities adopted a national career guidance strategy. The strategy will help tackle the mismatch between education choices and programmes, and labour market supply and expectations. The country’s labour market is saturated, especially with young university graduates who stay idle for many years
Jordanian career guidance providers participated in an ETF-sponsored study visit to Turkey in October 2012. Photo: ETF
waiting for a job or to emigrate to work in the Gulf countries. At the same time, local employers recruit immigrants for technical, low- to middle-level jobs. The ETF assessed the Jordanian career guidance system in 2010. Then it conducted a series of seminars and workshops on guidance, image, gender mainstreaming, career information and education. The project also included a peer-learning visit to Jordan to raise awareness and enhance networking among different stakeholders in career guidance. The ETF’s activity in this area has been complementary to the EU sector budget support programme that focuses on career guidance and support to unemployed people through the national employment services. ■
Words: Outi Karkkainen, ETF specialist in VET and gender
What is career guidance? Career guidance comprises services and activities designed to assist individuals of any age and at any point in their lives to make education, training and occupational choices and to manage their careers. Career guidance provides an essential link between education and the labour market. Policy makers and practitioners are encouraged to integrate career guidance into their education, training and labour market reforms.
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Project Updates
Greening education and training in Eastern Europe “One of the central challenges in addressing sustainability in our partner countries is the lack of practical knowledge of how to do it,” said Arne Baumann, the ETF specialist in green skills. “There is an awareness of climate change, the necessity to reduce emissions and to avoid environmental degradation in general. However, the awareness of what education in general and vocational education and training (VET) in particular can and should do about it, and how, is missing”. In order to allow governments and schools to start addressing issues of sustainable development in education policies and school operations, the ETF developed easy-to-use, self-assessment indicators. This practical tool was presented in Kiev and the participants provided their feedback. This will help the ETF to make the indicators available as a policy tool in all partner countries. The ETF and green skills Building on the EU-wide commitment to a sustainable future, the ETF promotes sustainable development as a fundamental principle in its activities in partner countries. The ETF responds to the need for exchanging expertise in this
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field. VET has a particularly close link with the world of work and needs to anticipate and respond to changes in the labour market and in the skills profiles needed for successful careers in low-carbon economies. In April 2012 the main international agencies active in the field of skills development decided to establish an Interagency Working Group on Greening VET and pool their expertise and reputation. Besides the ETF, seven organisations joined the group: Asian Development Bank, Cedefop, International Labour Organisation, OECD, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, United Nations Institute for Training and Research and UNESCOUNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training. In June 2012 the ETF published its first policy briefing on learning for a green future. The document explored ETF partner countries’ potential for green growth and how VET can help them mitigate and adapt to climate change, and make the best of the opportunities that green growth presents. ■ Words: Marcin Monko, ETF
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An international seminar in Kiev provided a concrete opportunity to learn about integrating sustainable development into education and training systems. The event, organised by the ETF on 29 and 30 November 2012, brought together participants from Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan and all countries of the EU’s Eastern Partnership.
Vocational education and training must respond to changes in the skills profiles needed for careers in low-carbon economies. Photo: Flickr/Creative Commons
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Torino Process
The Torino Process
Photos: ETF/Marcin Monko
Every two years the ETF invites its partner countries to review the state of their vocational education and training (VET) policies and systems – the so-called Torino Process. The first round of the reviews was carried out in 2010. In the second round 27 out of 31 partner countries have taken part. On 8 and 9 May 2013, the authors of the reports, researchers, policy makers and the ETF will convene in Turin to discuss the results and the priorities for VET development. In around half of the countries, the ETF experts led the reviews. In the other countries, self-assessments were carried out by experts at the education ministries or national VET centres and sent to the ETF. “We basically just take note, we are not really supposed to change anything they come up with,� says Evelyn Viertel, the Torino Process team leader at the ETF. “We provide the framework, and we insist on the use of evidence,
Themes of the Torino Process conference on 8-9 May 2013 Vision for skills Innovation and emergence of post-secondary VET Social inclusion and ’inclusive growth’ Governance and engagement of stakeholders Quality in teacher training
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data, research, and that they involve a wide range of stakeholders in the discussions.� Compared with the 2010 round, more countries decided to do the reviews themselves. The process is now more widely known, also among international donors in the countries, who often support the idea, join the work, and share information. Ministries of education, national VET centres, think tanks or groups of independent experts are often involved. “Both the process and the results are important,� says Viertel. “What we’ve seen is more ownership of the process by the countries, which should lead to better ownership of the results, and more possibilities that they will act on their own findings and recommendations.� The key findings, trends, issues and priorities are collected in regional reports – the EU enlargement area, the Mediterranean, eastern Europe and Central Asia – which form the basis for the discussions at regional events.
Evelyn Viertel speculates that where the countries carried out the Torino Process themselves, they could come up with different lists of priorities, “compared to how we saw things two years ago, from a distance, from a different perspective.� In three countries – Albania, Georgia, and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia – the analysis of the Torino Process is being turned into a VET strategy and adopted as a national document with clear priorities. “Governments take clear commitments to implement what they themselves analysed,� says Viertel. ■Words: Marcin Monko, ETF
Find out more aboUt the Torino Process: http://ow.ly/fWcyH
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Project Updates
GEMM and FRAME two new projects for 2013 Keeping up with skills needs in the Western Balkans
By the end of the project in 2014, the countries are expected to have developed:
Predicting what skills you are likely to need as a country is key for keeping up with the global economy. The countries seeking to join the European Union in the next few years are being asked to formulate a vision for just this in the context of a new ETF project. The EU will support this initiative with extra funding to the tune of ₏1.3 million over the next two years. The ETF’s new FRAME (Foresight and Regional Assessment Methods for Employment) project will seek to strengthen capacity in the countries of the Western Balkans to use evidence as the basis for policy making and policy implementation. It will be done through skills foresight, assessing institutional capacities and monitoring developments in human resources.
a vision and mid to long-term strategic plans for the development of relevant skills; plans for improving the institutional capacities for human resources development; agreements on data needs and national targets to monitor progress; proposals for regional cooperation and mutual learning. For further details and to track progress: www.etf.europa.eu/frame Getting people to work in the Mediterranean region The Arab Spring uprisings in the southern and eastern Mediterranean still on-going today, are serving to highlight many topical issues facing the region. One of these is the lack of jobs, especially among young people and women.
The ETF’s GEMM (Governance for Employability in the Mediterranean region) project will focus on enhancing the quality and relevance of vocational education and training systems in the region by helping to reinforce the capacities of stakeholders at national and sub-national levels. Two principle areas for action have been chosen: financing – in particular mechanisms for collecting, allocating and managing funds for vocational education and training; quality assurance and monitoring – in particular factors necessary for assessing the effectiveness of vocational education and training programmes and policies. For further details and to track progress: www.etf.europa.eu/gemm ■Words: Jo Anstey, ETF
February 2013
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On the Web
Digital Update Entrepreneurship Conference on Storify The ETF has managed to crowd-source a large part of its live reporting from the conference on entrepreneurship and enterprise skills in Brussels on 14-16 November. Twitter users helped us collect texts, links, photos, videos and documents. See it all at http://ow.ly/gRsqO
LIBYA BUILDS modern VET
Photo: ETF
Libya’s Board for Technical and Vocational Education together with the ETF held a workshop in Tripoli on 12 December 2012. The event kicked-off the Torino Process, a review of the state of vocational education and training in the country. More at http://ow.ly/gRsvy
Photo: ETF/Alberto Ramella
THE ETF helps set Moldova’s SME Strategy In October 2012, the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Moldova officially launched the country’s Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Strategy for 2012-20. The ETF, in collaboration with the OECD, contributed to the document. More at http://ow.ly/gRsyp
Photo: ETF/Alberto Ramella
Governing Board adopts ETF plans for 2013 More and better work on human capital development in partner countries – this is the key objective for the ETF in its 2013 Work Programme, which was adopted by the Governing Board on 20 November 2012. More at http://ow.ly/gRsBR
Read all ETF stories, comment and share them on social media The official ETF Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/etfeuropa ETF Twitter page at https://twitter.com/etfeuropa Online communities for education professionals at http://ow.ly/gRtgT
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Coming up
In the next issue Torino Process – the results
Photo: Ljubica Grozdanovska Dimishkovska
Photo: Flickr/Creative Commons
Photo: Ard Jogsma, ICE
The results of the second round of the Torino Process are gradually coming in from ETF partner countries. This time more countries participated in this policy review (27) and more made a self-assessment using a common methodology. The ETF expects new data, analyses, new points of view and an informed debate that leads to better human capital development policies.
Social inclusion in schools In the Western Balkans and Turkey stark inequality in the access to education, training and employment persists despite years of economic and social changes. Through the new project, the ETF aims to deepen its understanding of the barriers, potential opportunities and incentives to develop VET systems that are inclusive and equitable, and that foster the participation and achievement of all students.
COUNTRY FOCUS – JORDAN Jordan managed to avoid the wave of violent protest experienced by other Arab countries in the region. The young nation with a dynamically growing population and a lack of natural resources considers well-educated people a priority. The EU supports Jordan’s moderate and stabilising role in the region, paving the way for further political and economic integration and liberalisation.
Letter from Skopje Career guidance, reforms in education, especially to the VET system, practical classes in secondary and in higher education – these are the most important pillars of the new action plan for youth employment in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The aim is to bring about a better balance between the available workforce and the real needs of the labour market, writes our guest contributor from Skopje. ■
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For information on our activities, job and tendering possibilities please visit our website: www.etf.europa.eu For other enquiries please contact: Communication Department European Training Foundation Villa Gualino Viale Settimio Severo, 65 I – 10133 Torino
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