Lifelong learning in the European Union

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Lifelong learning in the European Union

• David White
• Director Lifelong Learning
• European Commission

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European Union Lisbon agenda2000-2010

• Sense of underperformance
• Sharpened by US
• Major issues to address
• Globalisation
• Competitiveness
• Jobs and growth
• Potential is there

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Lisbon agenda key areas

• The Knowledge Society and policy on
• Enterprise
• Research
• Education
• Innovation
• Keys to jobs, growth and competitiveness

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Lisbon and EU competence

• Open method of coordination
• Recognition of common goals
• Voluntary participation
• Benchmarking method
• Self-driven assessment cycle
• Commission assessment
• National reform agenda
• Annual report
• High level political discussion

• EU is not quite federal but
• Defined fields of action
• Principle of subsidiarity
• Common issues
• Could do better
• Highly dispersed performance
• Contains world-beaters

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Lisbon put education training on the EU map

• Education training
• challenged by demography
• Lisbon requires efficiency
• traditional concern for equity

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Demographic challenge to Europe

• Population 493 million
• Fertility below replacement since 1970, now 1.5
• Life expectancy increasing 2 years every decade
• Working age population will decline from 2011
• Median age rises from 39 to 49 2005-2050
• Migration pressure
• Demand pull
• Economic pressure creates supply
• Instability elsewhere (asylum applications have
  soared since 1990)
• Currently 17.7 million non-national residents

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Lisbon put education training on the EU map

• Education training
• challenged by demography
• Lisbon requires efficiency
• traditional concern for equity

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Education and training 2010 (1)

• Objectives
• Improve quality effectiveness
• Facilitate access
• Open up systems to the world
• Method peer learning clusters
• Modernisation of HE
• Teachers trainers
• Making best use of resources
• ICT the recognition of learning outcomes
• etc

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Education and training 2010 (2)

• Monitor progress
• 5 benchmarks
• Not more than 10 early school leavers
• Decrease of 20 in low-achievement in literacy
• 85 of young people complete upper secondary
  education
• Adult participation in education 12.5
• Indicators developing

• Report progress
• Biennial Joint Progress Report (next in February
  2008)
• Reference tools
• Resolutions on lifelong learning, lifelong
  guidance etc
• Recommendations on key competences, EQF, teacher
  training etc

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Education and training 2010- Benchmarks
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Education and training 2010- Benchmark LLL 85
Lisbon target 85
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Education and training 2010- Early school
leavers lt10
Target not more than 10
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Education and training 2010- Benchmarks
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Education and training 2010- female
participation in tertiary
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Education and training 2010- Core indicators

• 8 use current data
• Participation in pre-school
• Early school leavers
• Literacy in reading, maths, science
• Completion rates upper secondary
• HE graduates
• Adult participation in LLL
• Cross national mobility in HE
• Educational attainment of the population

• 3 need further refinement of definitions
• Special needs education
• ICT Skills
• Investment in ET
• 5 to be pursued
• Civic skills
• Adult skills
• Professional development of teachers
• Language skills
• Learning to learn skills

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Key competences for Lifelong Learning (1)

• National strategy to provide for
• Young people to develop key competences
• Young people with educational disadvantage
• Adults to develop update across life
• Infrastructure for continuing education
• Coherence between ET and social, employment,
  cultural innovation policy

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Key competences for Lifelong Learning (2)

• 8 key competences
• Communication in mother tongue
• Communication in foreign languages
• Mathematical competence basic competence in
  science technology
• Digital competence
• Learning to learn
• Social civic competence
• Sense of initiative entrepreneurship
• Cultural awareness expression

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European Qualifications Framework (1)

• Objectives
• Facilitate transparency of qualifications
• Promote mobility
• Encourage lifelong learning
• Operates on basis of learning outcomes
• 8 levels of qualification
• Descriptors for
• Knowledge
• Skills
• Competences

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European Qualifications Framework (2)

• Example
• Level 1
• Basic general knowledge
• Basic skills required to carry out specific tasks
• Work or study under direct supervision in a
  structured context
• Level 6 bachelors degree
• Level 8 doctorate
• EQF is underpinned by Quality assurance
• Sectoral detail from Tuning
• Compatible with
• ECVET (vocational training system)
• ECTS (Bologna tool for higher education)

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Reform of Higher Education

• Governance
• University autonomy
• Partnership with stakeholders
• Quality assurance
• Funding
• Diversify
• Promote equity
• Access efficiency

• Curricula
• 3-cycle system
• Competence based learning
• Flexible learning paths
• Recognition
• Mobility

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Education for innovation

• Creativity and innovation
• The drop-out who thinks outside the box
• The doctors who make it work
• Soft innovation skills
• Creativity, problem solving, communication, team
  work
• Innovation depends on competence, not knowledge
  on active involvement of learner in learning
  process, reflection, interpretation
• ICT skills are crucial

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Lisbon put education training on the EU map

• Education training
• challenged by demography
• Lisbon requires efficiency
• traditional concern for equity

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Equity efficiency

• Equity efficiency are compatible objectives
• Biggest returns come to pre-school learning
• Early tracking promotes neither efficiency nor
  equity
• Free HE may not be a good use of resources
• Training should be linked to business
• Policy should be based on evidence

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The benefits of education and training
Rate of return
Children from a low socio-economic background
Children from a high socio-economic background
Pre-primary
Primary Secondary
Higher education
Adult education
Age
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Evidence based policy (1)

• Very little research is carried out on education
• Reluctance in accepting research evidence as
  policy basis
• Teachers in general are neither equipped to
  contribute to research, nor to use it
• Sequence creation mediation application.
  Difficult at each step

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Impact of evidence on public debate according to
survey respondents
Source Ifo World Economic Survey (WES), I/2007
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Evidence based policy (2)

• The role of teachers is crucial
• Teachers need to identify with research for it to
  be useful
• In Finland, teachers are both researchers and
  users of research

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Quality of teacher training (1)

• Teachers are an aging group
• Widespread shortages
• Lack of new competences
• In-service training is limited
• Less than half MS require even 3 days per year
  in-service training
• Only half EU MS offer early support
• Limited incentives for in-service training

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Age structure of all professionals and teachers
(2005)
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Quality of teacher training (2)

• Ensure that teachers possess appropriate
• Knowledge
• Attitudes
• Pedagogical skills
• Support professionalisation of teachers
• Ensure sufficient resources for initial and
  continuing teacher development
• Promote the status and recognition of the
  profession

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Status of in-service training for teachers in
primary, general lower and upper secondary
education, 2002/03
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Adult learning

• An essential part of Lifelong learning
• 5 key messages
• Lift the barriers
• all age groups levels of attainment
• bottom quartile
• Ensure quality
• teaching methods, staff, providers, delivery
• Recognition validation of learning outcomes
• EQF, ECVET, quality assurance
• Invest in aging population migrants
• Develop indicators benchmarks

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Conclusion

• Objectives
• Improve quality effectiveness
• Facilitate access
• Open up systems to the world
• EU has accepted that there is an issue
• Building blocks are being put in place
• There is a rich base of experience
• The end is not in sight

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