MONIKA WOJCIECHOWSKA, JOLANTA PODŁOWSKA
Raising Quality of VET in Cooperation with Employers and Higher Education – a Study Visit Organised within the Framework of the Lifelong Learning Programme – Study Visits
For many years, raising the quality of vocational education and training has constituted a top priority of the European Union’s strategy and activities in the field of education. Dissemination of information on national initiatives and good practices in the field has constituted one of the main goals of study visits staged under Lifelong Learning Programme as part of the Study Visits sub-programme. Raising quality of VET in Cooperation with employers and higher education was the title of a study visit organised by the National Centre for Supporting Vocational and Continuing Education under Study Visits – Lifelong Learning Programme in Warsaw on 19-22 September 2011. The participants of the study visit were representatives of educational agencies and institutions and employer organizations from seven member states of the European Union: Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Slovenia and Great Britain. The meetings included in the programme of the study visit were also attended by a representative of the European Commission. The goal of the study visit was to present good practices and solutions that contribute to boosting the effectiveness and attractiveness of VET in Poland on the central, regional and local level and to exchange experiences by participants. One of key questions for which participants of the study visit sought the answer was the relationship between vocational education, higher education and the labour market. The programme of a visit in Warsaw that lasted a few days included presentations by representatives of institutions and centres concerned with raising the quality of vocational education and training, visits to school workshops and discussions with teachers and students. Presentations by visit participants also formed an important element of the study visit’s programme. Discussion on solutions presented by hosts and visit participants, which were by far the most important part of the agenda, best proved the fact that the study visit focused on major issues.
DEVELOPING COOPER ATION BET WEEN VET, HIGHER EDUC ATION AND ADULT LEARNING IN RESPONSE TO THE CHALLENGE OF LIFELONG LEARNING
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