Related Activities

Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) convened the 10th meeting of the SEE 2020 Strategy Coordination Board that took place in Vienna, Austria on 30 November 2017.

The aim of the meeting was to take stock of the 2017 SEE 2020 Monitoring process and to kick-off the new monitoring cycle. The participants will also discuss the priorities to be part of the SEE 2020 Programming document 2018–2020, including agreement on the timeline for the next Programming Cycle, to learn on the activities implemented by the Regional Dimension Coordinators (RDCs) since the last meeting of the SE2020 Coordination Board and their future plans, as well as to present the overview of the Multi-Annual Action Plan on Regional Economic Area (MAP REA) in Western Balkans’ six economies.

The European Alliance for Apprenticeships (EAfA) is a platform managed by the European Commission in close cooperation with EU social partners that brings together governments with other key stakeholders, for instance business associations, individual companies, social partners, chambers, vocational education and training (VET) providers, regions, youth representatives or think tanks. The common goal is to strengthen the quality, supply, image and mobility of apprenticeships in Europe.

The main purpose of the Seminar is to enable learning among Candidate Countries and EAfA members: Governments, individual employers and employers’ associations, chambers and VET providers. The thematic focus was laid on the latest policy developments and on trainers and teachers and work-based learning. The seminar provided an opportunity to further discuss on the professional development of teachers and trainers in work-based learning/apprenticeships. The seminar was organized by EAfA (led by DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion) in close co-operation with the ETF and included site visits.

The Seminar focused on sharing experiences of Montenegro with regard to developing effective work-based learning/apprenticeship systems; deepening the understanding of the challenges and opportunities of work-based learning/ apprenticeship systems; learning from EAfA best practices and examples; exploring partner countries’ closer alignment with the EAfA; and considering the Riga work-based learning medium-term deliverable (MTD 1) and implementation.

More information: http://www.etf.europa.eu/web.nsf/pages/EV_2017_European_Alliance_for_Apprenticeships_(EAfA)_Regional_Seminar_for_Candidate_Countries?opendocument

The European Training Foundation’s (ETF) conference on the Torino Process, Changing Skills for a Changing World, took place in Turin, Italy on 7-8 June.

The Torino Process is the ETF’s flagship evidence-based policy tool for evaluating and implementing systematic change in vocational education and training (VET) policies in its partner countries. Education and training systems must engage in changing skills to ensure learners and workers acquire the adaptability needed to thrive in the fast changing world of work. The future of skills, VET and labor market systems were therefore at the forefront of the conference, which brought together more than 300 delegates.

Commissioner Marianne Thyssen delivered the keynote speech underlining that “on a global scale, the competitiveness and capacity to drive innovation of countries would, to a great extent, be determined by the skills of our people… We need to ensure our workforce is resilient and ready to reap the benefits of change. But it is also more than this – in the European Union, as in our partner countries, we must invest in people, because investing in people and their skills also creates more stable and inclusive societies” she said.

Madlen Serban, ETF Director, stressed the importance of widening the focus of the ETF’s work with partner countries to meet and embrace change.

The conference sessions introduced delegates to the five key concepts upon which the fifth round of the Torino Process will be centred. Innovation, diversification, delivery, cooperation and future were the key words that framed the discussions, debates and workshops.

Entrepreneurship and innovation in VET were also key themes of the conference. The Ideas Market embodied this, capturing changing skills through the eyes of young innovators.

The ETF will launch a call for good practice in promoting entrepreneurship as a key competence in VET. The competition is open to all VET providers from ETF partner countries. The award and the winner will be presented at the European Vocational Skills Week on 20-24 November 2017.

More information can be found http://www.etf.europa.eu .

The 2017 Western Balkans Summit took place in Trieste, Italy, on 12th July 2017, where the Heads of Government, Foreign Ministers, Ministers of Economy and Ministers of Transport of the Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo* and Serbia) together with their counterparts from several EU Member States (Austria, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, and Slovenia) and high-level EU representatives discussed key areas of regional cooperation, and set out concrete measures to better connect the region’s infrastructures, economies and people. The summit was part of the “Berlin process”, an initiative for stronger regional cooperation in the Western Balkans. All participants also expressed great satisfaction with the prospect of further high level events in the region itself.

The Trieste Summit offered the opportunity to build on the achievements of previous Summits – Berlin (28 August 2014), Vienna (27 August 2015), Paris (4 July 2016) – and to progress further in several areas of cooperation, in particular in the connectivity agenda, which is and will remain the core element of the process, and in the regional integration process. The Summit recalled the need to provide appropriate responses to global challenges and confirmed the importance of strengthening reforms on the rule of law, fundamental rights, economic development and competitiveness in order to deliver results to citizens.

In addition, as a part of the Multiannual Action Plan accompanying the Conclusions of the Summit, the measures enabling higher mobility in the region are supported. This includes solving existing regional issues regarding the recognition of professional and higher education qualifications, for the purpose of employment and continuing education respectively. The supported activities are to be tackled in cooperation of relevant partners (among others, RCC, CEFTA, ERI SEE ENIC NARIC offices, higher education institutions) and stakeholders, which is the for their realization.

* This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSC 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence.

For more information please visit: https://ec.europa.eu/transport/themes/international/news/2017-07-12-western-balkans-summit-2017-delivering-region_en

On 28th -29th September, in Belgrade, the Directorate for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture of the European Commission, in cooperation with the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological development, organized the 6th annual ministerial meeting of the Western Balkans Platform on Education and Training, which was for the first time joined with the Western Balkans Platform on Research and Innovation. The ministerial meeting was opened by the Commissioner Navracsics and Minister Šarčević, who delivered the opening remarks, stressing that this year’s Platform will focus on two very important priority topics: research and mobility. Thus, the meeting stressed the importance of the European Commission mobility scheme – Erasmus+, and among others, gathered young professionals whose careers were greatly influenced by their learning mobility experiences. During the meeting, the further participation of the WB countries in Erasmus+ was encouraged. It also served as the platform for the discussion on regional cooperation and current development.

More information:

https://ec.europa.eu/education/policy/international-cooperation/western-balkans_en