4. Other Activities

Youth 2002

30 June 2002 - 13 July 2002

Contents and aim:

On 30 June, 1000 young people from 33 European countries will arrive in Copenhagen.

On the next day, when Denmark takes over the EU Presidency, the young people will be given an official reception at Copenhagen City Hall and in Tivoli, before they travel on to visit 13 folk high schools all over the country. Here, the young people are to live together for two weeks, and in the course of their stay, they are to find a common answer to the question: If there is to be a European Constitution, what should in our opinion then be its text?

The folk high school's tradition of open debates and exchange of opinions will thus make up the framework for a forwardlooking debate on the EU of tomorrow. So far, it has often been the case that the citizens were only involved in the debate about various treaties, when the text had already been written. At worst, the debate about the EU has ended in riots and disturbances.

Youth 2002 brings together young people from all over Europe for a constructive debate and dialogue, before the European Heads of State and Government finalise the text, which in 2004 may turn out to be a European Constitution.

On 11 July, representatives of the 1000 young people will thus meet at Rønshoved Folk High School to compile the 13 schools' proposals for a European Constitution into one proposal. The work will be carried out in the Tower Room, from which there is a view to all points of the compass.

The joint proposal for a European Constitution will immediately be handed over to representatives of the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Danish EU Presidency and sent directly to the European Convention and the European Youth Convention, which on this very day, 12 July, are gathered in the European Parliament in Brussels. The proposal will also be sent via e-mail to 30,000 citizens all over Europe, including many of the young people's friends and acquaintances.

Before the 1000 young people come to Denmark, they will have participated in a 9-week web-dialogue with some of Europe's leading political players. The web-dialogue is organised by the World Economic Forum and Huset Mandag Morgen under the heading "Bridging Europe".

Organisers:

Youth 2002 is organised by the participating folk high schools in cooperation with the Association for Community Colleges, IUC Europe, Nyt Europa, Folkehøjskolernes Forening (the Association of folk high schools in Denmark) and the Danish Youth Council.

Youth 2002 has been organised with funding from the Danish Ministry of Education, the European Commission, the European Parliament, Folkehøjskolernes Forening, the EU Information Board, the Danish Youth Council as well as private sponsors.

Youth 2002
Brandbjerg Højskole
Brandbjergvej 12
7300 Jelling

Contact:

Head of Secretariat
Søren Winther Lundby
soren@youth2002.org
Web: www.youth2002.org
 

European Seminar on a European Approach to Quality in Vocational Education and Training

19-21 September 2002, Elsinore

Background:

Quality in vocational education and training is a major issue on national as well as on a European level when it comes to the development of skills and competencies in the European Union. The transition to a knowledge-based economy brings new challenges to the development and good governance of initial and continuing vocational education and training when it comes to improving the employability and matching the future needs of the labour market.

On a European level, the strong interest in closer cooperation and sharing of experience has been underlined with the establishment of the European Forum on Quality in Vocational Training, which is to support the exchange of experience, stimulate the development of national quality systems and contribute to increased transparency in the field of quality seen from a European perspective.

Aim and contents:

The aim of the seminar is to provide a framework for dialogue and exchange of experience in the field of quality in vocational education and training and to promote a broad debate on quality strategies and measures based on the on-going work and results of the European Forum on Quality.

The seminar will focus on future challenges at national and European level when it comes to promoting quality, including key issues, solutions and constraints in the field of quality assurance. The working sessions are organised so as to present and discuss the results of the work undertaken by the European Forum on Quality and national experience covering subjects such as "quality management approaches, self-assessment, examination and certification practices and quality indicators in vocational education and training".

The resulting views and recommendations from the seminar will make an important contribution to the on-going work on national level as well as to future co-operation on a European level on the promotion of quality in vocational education and training.

Members of the European Forum on Quality, national representatives from education and training authorities, training providers and social partners involved in quality issues are invited to participate in the seminar, including representatives from the European Commission, Cedefop and the European Training Foundation (approx. 100 delegates).

Organisers:

The seminar is jointly organised by the Danish Ministry of Education and the European Commission with the assistance of Cedefop.

Contact:

Senior Adviser Jan Reitz Jørgensen, Ministry of Education, e-mail: jajor1@uvm.dk

Social partners in Europe take part in the formation and evaluation of vocational competencies. While national authorities have traditionally played a crucial role in this field, the social partners, professional associations, chambers of commerce, private enterprises and various international bodies are to an ever greater extent influencing the way in which qualifications are defined and valued.

Main themes:

There is an important role to be played by the social partners in facing challenges of industrial and economic change. Understanding, anticipating and preparing for the qualified skills base of the future is a key to the intelligent management of this change. The need to reduce barriers to mobility as well as a common understanding of the demands in the knowledge society point to new initiatives being taken.

Contents:

The purpose of the conference is to explore and discuss the main challenges facing social partners in the accreditation, validation and recognition of competencies and qualifications on a European, sectoral, national and decentralised level. Discussions will be based on policy developments on the European, national and sectoral level.

Participants will mainly be social partners on the national and European level.

Organisers:

The European Commission, the European Monitoring Centre on Change and Cedefop will provide the conference with financial support.

The programme has been developed together with the European social partners and representatives from the Danish social partners.

It is the aim of the conference to explore possible future ways of addressing the issues of accreditation, validation and recognition of competencies and qualifications.

Contact:

Iver Jan Leren, Cedefop, e-mail: ijl@cedefop.eu.int
www.cedefop.gr

It is the aim of the conference to inspire and create the basis for concrete cooperation in the youth area between the present EU Member States, the applicant countries and the CIS.

Main theme:

With the European Commission's White Paper on youth as a theoretical basis and in accordance with the Presidency's priority of "participation", the conference will, among other things, focus on young people's participation in the development of democratic structures, in particular in the CIS.

Contents:

The conference will consist of two general parts: cooperation and project management. Cooperation is to be understood broadly, i.e. both the cooperation at national and regional/ local level as well as transnational cooperation. Furthermore, the participants will get the opportunity to exchange experience about project management. There will be an opportunity to discuss new project ideas with colleagues from other organisations. The programme will be a mixture of lectures, workshops and debate.

Aim:

It is the aim of the conference to establish a network among the participating organisations/NGOs, which hopefully will lead to a well-functioning cooperation within the youth area. In the long term, it will be possible to extend the network to also cover organisations from other countries, in particular the CIS.

The primary target group is Germany, Sweden, Finland and Denmark, Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as well as Belarus, the Ukraine and Russia (in particular the regions of Kaliningrad and St. Petersburg). From these countries, the following participants will be invited: 1 or 2 political decisionmakers from national and regional/local level; 1 representative from the existing national offices with responsibility for the EU Youth programme as well as 2 or 3 representatives from youth organisations/NGOs. In addition to these, there will be representatives from the European Commission, the Ministry of Educa-tion and the County of Bornholm.

Co-organisers:

The County of Bornholm will be the co-organiser of the conference, which will be funded by the European Commission, the Ministry of Education and the County of Bornholm.

Contact:

Benedikta von Eltz-Rübenach,
e-mail: ber@ciriusmail.dk
Cirius, Fiolstræde 44, 1171 Copenhagen K,
www.ciriusonline.dk

EU-Conference on Grundtvig learning partnerships

24-27 October 2002, Copenhagen

Background:

Grundtvig learning partnerships are an innovation in the European Socrates programme. Learning partnerships are small-scale transnational cooperation projects for institutions and organisations working within adult education. The project type is suitable for involving new and small players within adult education and folkeoplysning (liberal adult education).

In order to raise the profile of the learning partnerships and the Grundtvig programme, a conference will be held in Denmark, which will bring together the existing learning partnerships from the 30 participating European countries.

Main themes:

The conference will have two overall main themes. One main theme will be about the contribution offered by the learning partnerships to the European discussion within adult education and folkeoplysning in general in Europe.

The other main theme will be about learning partnerships as a concept and the issue of whether learning partnerships in their present form contribute to meeting the challenges of the common European intention of wanting to improve the framework of lifelong learning.

Contents:

The focal point of the conference will be two series of workshops. The first series will be focusing on the themes which are dealt with in the learning partnerships. The project themes cover a broad spectrum of issues within adult education and folkeoplysning and comprise such topics as active citizenship, integration, adult counselling and adult pedagogy. The other series will focus on project implementation.

The focus will be on topics such as the dissemination of results, project cooperation and self-evaluation models.

The aims of the conference are: To promote and raise the profile of the learning partnerships, To support networking and mutual inspiration through the ongoing learning partnership projects, To improve the quality in learning partnerships, To strengthen the dissemination of results and examples of good practice.

Participants:

Approximately 100 participants from the on-going learning partnership projects as well as 30 participants from the national offices, which coordinate the central Grundtvig programme are expected to attend the conference. Furthermore, there will be approx. 10 participants from the central Grundtvig projects, who are working with topics of specific relevance to the themes of the conference.

Organisers:

The conference will be organised by Cirius with support from the European Commission and the Ministry of Education.

Contact:

Mr Jens Dalsgaard, e-mail: jd@ciriusmail.dk
Mr Philip Sønderberg, e-mail: ps@ciriusmail.dk
Cirius, Fiolstræde 44, 1171 Copenhagen K, www.ciriusonline.dk

International and Danish studies - and most recently the PISA-study "Knowledge and Skills for Life" - all show that factors related to the home are of the very greatest importance to children's and young people's learning and future life. In some countries - including Denmark - these factors play a greater role than factors related to the school.

Aim:

It is thus the aim of the conference to illustrate the importance of parents' to their children's schooling and learning at school. There will be specific focus on the importance of the cooperation between the home and the school as a determinant factor.

Through lectures, presentation of papers and symposia, the conference will attempt to summarise the existing knowledge in Europe about the significance of good school/home cooperation with regard to the quality of pupils' learning. At the same time, also the development of new and innovative forms of cooperation between home and school will be elucidated.

Participants:

European researchers and decision-makers within the basic school area, e.g. researchers from universities, colleges and independent research institutions, politicians at municipal, regional and national level, civil servants, head teachers, members of school boards as well as organisations with relations to the basic school.

Number of participants: Max. 100 persons.

Organiser:

"Skole og Samfund" ("Education and Society")

Contact:

Niels-Christian Andersen, e-mail: nca@skole-samfund.dk

Meeting of the Bologna Follow UpGroup

4 November 2002, Copenhagen

Contents:

The Bologna Follow-up Group is monitoring the Bologna process of implementation of the Bologna Declaration of 1999, the aim of which is to create a European Higher Education Area before 2010.

The meeting will discuss the results of seminars and conferences in the process, consider reforms in higher education in signatory countries and prepare the ministerial conference for higher education in September 2003.

Members of the group i.e. representatives of the signatory countries, of the European Commission, the Council of Europe and of European organisations of higher education.

Organiser:

Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation

Contact:

Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation
Mogens Berg, e-mail: mob@fsk.dk

Danish education is part of a greater global and international context. Globalisation requires more and more from trade and industry and society in terms of competency - a requirement, which can only be met if the education becomes more internationally oriented.

Main theme:

15 November 2002 has been declared the International Day of Education in Denmark, and it is to function as a display window for all courses of education which give priority to the international aspect and which take active part in international activities.

The International Day of Education is a day of inspiration, where results and good ideas will be demonstrated.

Contents:

On 15 November, the various educational institutions in the whole country will arrange lectures, exhibitions, musical performances and other activities with a focus on internationalisation.

A homepage has been set up which will inform on a continuous basis about the International Day and the activities that will take place. On the homepage it will be possible to get inspired to take part in different activities, and it will be possible to register one's own activity. For more information, see www.ciriusonline.dk/internationaldag.

In October 2002, an internationalisation paper will be published with contributions and articles about internationalisation, and there will be a mention of all the activities which will take place in the national educational institutions. On the International Day, Cirius will host an event in Copenhagen. Ministers and EU commissioners will be invited.

The overall aim of the initiative is to focus on the importance of the internationalisation of education. It is expected that many schools and educational institutions will be interested in stressing their international profile on 15 November 2002.

Participants:

The International Day of Education is open to all fields of education from basic schools to universities and colleges, and it covers both formal and informal education.

Contact:

Jesper Langergaard, e-mail: jl@ciriusmail.dk
Cirius, Fiolstræde 44, 1171 Copenhagen K
www.ciriusonline.dk

Vocational Teacher and Trainer Training (TTT) Conference

21-23 November 2002, Copenhagen

Background:

The two European Agencies in Vocational Education and Training (VET), Cedefop and the European Training Foundation (ETF) have joined forces with the Danish Government to organise this VET TTT conference during the Danish Presidency.

In the European Union, TTT has attracted renewed attention, and this has among other things been expressed in the Council of Ministers' report in 2001. In this report, it states that TTT is the key to enable the education system to meet the challenges posed by the objective to become the leading knowledge based economy by 2010.

Both the Cedefop and the ETF have contributed to the development of TTT; Cedefop through the TTNet network which was set up in 1998 as a Community forum where key players from the various national training systems can focus on the theme of professionalisation of teachers and trainers, and the Foundation through the preparation of a cross-country analysis of TTT in the candidate countries and through development projects in selected countries.

Denmark has had a major role in the development of reforms of national VET TT systems in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Building on the Danish experience in the Baltic States, the Foundation has together with Denmark and Finland been implementing a major TTT project in Latvia and Lithuania since 1999.

Aims of the conference:

Identification of the main challenges, priority themes and key questions in connection with the training of teachers and trainers in the 13 candidate countries;

Awareness-raising in the candidate countries of the aims of and possibilities provided by the TTNet network coordinated by Cedefop;

Provision of examples of good practice in VET TTT illustrated by innovations in Denmark.

Output of the conference:

Identification of main challenges in TTT in the candidate countries;

Demonstration of different approaches to TTT reform through an example from Latvia and Lithuania and examples from Denmark;

Identification of a 'roadmap' for the candidate countries to join the Cedefop TTNet.

Participants:

3 from each of the 13 candidate countries
2 additional participants from Latvia and Lithuania
5 external experts
1 participant from each of the EU TTNet countries
10 participants from DG EAC, Cedefop and ETF
(70 participants in all)

Organisers:

The conference is co-financed by ETF, Cedefop and the Danish Ministry of Education.

Contacts:

Henrik Faudel, European Training Foundation, email:

hfa@etf.eu.int
www.etf.eu.int

Mara Brugia, CEDEFOP, e-mail:

mb@etf.eu.int
www.cedefop.eu.int

The European Student Conventions were initiated in November 2000 under the French Presidency of the EU in an attempt to bring students from around Europe together to discuss issues relevant to them and higher education as a whole. Following the French Convention a "Student Manifesto" was created that was presented to the Council of Ministers of Education of the EU. Since that Convention there have been three more Conventions.

Issues:

The previous Conventions have been on issues relating to the European dimension of higher education; these have included 'the social dimension of the European higher education area' and 'recognition of qualifications in education'. The convention in Copenhagen will continue the general direction of these discussions and will be on the topic 'Higher education Human right or Commodity'. This Convention will look at whether higher education is either a human right or a marketable service or indeed whether it is such a black and white issue. In order to examine this topic fully the Convention will investigate issues surrounding the accreditation of education, trans-national education and lifelong learning as well as the commodification of education and the role that higher education plays in any society.

Aim:

The aim of the conference is to formulate and discuss in more detail the issues surrounding the aim of higher education, which will form an integral part of the student input into the Berlin Summit of Ministers of Higher Education in September 2003 and on-going discussions surrounding the GATS treaty. The Convention will also result in a coming together of student opinion across Europe in the form of a "Student Charter" that will outline the points relating to the discussions.

The participants for the Convention will be approx. 200 student representatives from across Europe through the members of ESIB. Guests and speakers will also be invited from the European ministries of education, the European Union (the Parliament and the Commission), the European Network for Quality Assurance in Higher Education, the European University Association, UNESCO, the Council of Europe, the World Trade Organisation and the World Bank and other key actors in European and International Higher Education.

Organisers:

These European Student Conventions are organised by ESIB the National Unions of Students in Europe, which represents over 10 million students across Europe through its members in 35 countries, and the national student union in the country of the convention - in Denmark that will be the National Union of Danish Students - DSF. The Convention is co-financed by the European Commission.

Contact:

Mads Aspelin, DSF, e-mail: ma@dfsnet.dk

The debate about the future of Europe is high on the political agenda in Europe after the European Council meetings in Nice and Laeken. It is important that young people are involved actively in the debate about the future of Europe. At the same time, it appears from the Laeken Declaration that one of the priorities of the Convention is to bring the European Union closer to its citizens and in particular to its young citizens. It is therefore also important for the Danish Youth Council that the Danish Presidency is used as an obvious chance to open a debate among young people about the future of Europe as well as give youth policy aspects a central place on the agenda. The Danish Youth Council is not to have a common position as regards the EU, but will endeavour to create a broad debate, which may engage both scouts, exchange-organisations and others who are not normally consulted on EU issues. We are working on creating good conditions for the debate by contributing with information activities, which may provide subjects for both a broader and more balanced discussion.

Contents and participants:

The Danish Youth Council is planning to organise various youth events during the Danish Presidency. One of the most central events will be the Youth Convention on 5-8 December 2002, a week before the European Council's meeting in Copenhagen. This event is for young people between 18 and 25 years of age from the Member States of the European Union and the candidate countries, and the Danish participants will come from the Danish Youth Council's memberorganisations. The European Youth Forum will be responsible for the selection of the participants from abroad. It is the intention to invite around 250 young people who are to discuss the future of Europe both through workshops and role-plays.

Themes:

The overall theme of the Youth Convention is the European Union and the future, and the sub-themes are education and mobility, the White Paper entitled "A new impetus for European youth", informal learning, the enlargement of the EU, globalisation and a constitution for the European Union, where we will continue the work with the conclusions from Youth 2002 and the conclusions from the Youth Convention held in Brussels on 9-12 July 2002. In order to ensure a European dimension in Youth Convention-DK, we will be inviting members of the European Parliament, the European Commission, foreign politicians, representatives of European NGO's etc. to chair the various workshops.

The conclusions from the Youth Convention will be handed over to the Minister for European Affairs, Mr Bertel Haarder, and hopefully to the vice-chairman of the European Convention, Mr Jean-Luc Dehaene, on the last day of the Youth Convention. In this way, we hope that the conclusions arrived at by the participants in the Youth Convention will be heard and may influence the debate on the future of Europe.

The Convention will be organised by the Danish Youth Council with financial support from the European Commission.

Further information:

www.Youropa.dk or Ms Katja Murray, Danish Youth Council, e-mail: km@duf.dk

Meeting of the Council's Education Committee

11-12 December 2002, Copenhagen

Background:

It is the responsibility of the Council's permanent Education Committee to prepare the meetings of the Council of Ministers (education). During each Presidency, one of the ordinary meetings of the Education Committee is held in the country holding the Presidency of the Council.

The agenda of the meeting, which will only be decided immediately prior to the meeting, will focus on a follow-up to the meeting of the Council on 12 November 2002.

Traditionally, representatives of the Council of Europe's Education Committee will be invited to participate in part of the meeting with a view to discussing matters of common interest.

Participants:

Members of the Council's Education Committee, the European Commission, the General Secretariat of the Council, a delegation from the Council of Europe's Education Committee.

Denne side indgår i publikationen "The Danish Presidency of the European Union 2002 - Education and Youth" som det engelske kapitel 4 af 4
© Undervisningsministeriet 2002