Following is the programme of the event:

Day 1 – Monday 12 March 2007

09.00 – Welcoming participants (coffee/refreshments)

09.45 – Introduction to the seminar

10.00 – The Intermediate Level in the European Union and Lifelong Learning – a general statement

Hans Daale (Netherlands), chair EURASHE Working Group LLL

10.30 – Transfer from short professional higher education to bachelor programmes in formal education – a comparison between Germany and UK

Christoph Veigel (Germany), director Business School ABW/AIM, chair of the network ESA

10.50 – Lifelong Learning in the Policy Paper of EURASHE for ‘London’

Lars Lynge Nielsen (Denmark), president of EURASHE

11.10 – Coffee break

11.30 – Learning from experiences and diplomas

Brigitte Bouquet (France), Ministry of Employment, DG Education and Professional Trainings

11.55 – Question time – with all speakers – and formulating propositions for the forum discussion

12.30 – Lunch

13.30 – Statements about:

Position of the Government and the ‘policy makers’

Need for flexible frameworks, looking at the necessary qualifications

Point of view of Employer’s organisations

Possibilities for the transfer from the intermediate level to bachelor programmes

13.30 – Julia Gocke (Germany), BDA/UNICE Representative in the Bologna Follow-Up Group

13.50 – Stefan Küpper (Germany), Verband der Metall- und Elektro-industrie und Bildungswerk Baden-Württemberg

14.10 – Marianne van Loenhout (Netherlands), Metaalunie

14.30 – Stinna Gammelgaard (Denmark), ESIB

14.50 – Coffee break (and time for the organisation to formulate propositions as input for the forum)

15.15 – Forum discussion

Reactions on the statements, discussion about the propositions, also with the participants of the seminar

Stefan Küpper, Julia Gocke, Marianne van Loenhout, Stinna Gammelgaard, Alexandra Angress (Germany), Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD)

16.15 – Our EURASHE Policy Paper on LLL… and further actions…

16.30 – Closure of the seminar

Lifelong Learning and Intermediate Level in Higher Education

The stimulus for Lifelong Learning (LLL) including the Intermediate Level in Higher Education (short-cycle higher education, SCHE) comes from the world of employment: they see a need for qualified staff in a ‘middle position’ which they would like to see ‘filled’. There is a need for young people with specific skills, for specific jobs/profiles in both for-profit and no-profit employment. They are also employed people who want to upgrade their skills, so as to be able to meet the demands better for the (continually developing) jobs they currently hold.

In this seminar we are in particular focussing on the German speaking countries (Germany, Austria, Switzerland). The reason for this is that, in line with the specific mention of SCHE in the Bergen Communiqué (“including, within national contexts, the possibility of intermediate qualifications”) for every seminar we position the needs of a specific country:

• Amsterdam (Netherlands), in 2005, when support was needed for (re-)introducing the short-cycle higher education in the framework of the first-cycle (Bachelors) degree.
• Blois (France), in 2006, with a focus on post-secondary institutions that were seeking to upgrade their trainings, by adding a third year, in cooperation with a degree-awarding institution (a university).
• and now: Stuttgart (Germany) in 2007, in support of the labour market, which wants to open up higher education to people in employment, wishing to upgrade their skills. This way we can help create an intermediate step between secondary school, including post-secondary education (with little or no? job perspectives) and the first-cycle degree, which, for a great number of people is impossible, due to  lack of adequate schooling or for socio-economic reasons.

Rationale

Someone with a minimum standard of education (Certificate of Secondary Education) should have the opportunity to embark on higher education, both in public and private institutions, and should also have the prospect of continuing this higher education up to the level of the first cycle (BA degree), subject to requirements for quality assurance (QA) and minimum levels of competence. This may be one of the ways to reach the (Lisbon-related) objective to attain 50 per cent of the population in the 18-34 age group graduating in higher education, as formulated in a large number of European countries.

Irrespective of the prevailing legislation that does not (for the moment) foresee such a solution in a number of European countries, the demand for creating these pathways is obviously present among the employers in a (growing) number of countries, and at this moment only short cycle trainings and studies (either in the public or the private education sector) are able to fill this vacancy, in the framework of lifelong learning.

The moment is appropriate as the Ministers meeting in Bergen in May last year, created an opening for a provision of shorter training courses and studies in the countries that saw a need for this. This provision in the Bergen Communiqué needs to be followed up, like all the other provisions, such as stocktaking, the mandate to the E4-Group for quality assurance, etc. Moreover, this pathway is a unique illustration of how the lifelong learning concept can be put in practice.

Following are the speakers of the event:

Following are the practicalities of the event:

Organisers

Following is the material of the event:

•  2007 Seminar LLL: Programme (44 KB)
•  Lifelong Learning and Intermediate Level (6.1 MB)
•  Royal Metaalunie (34 KB)
•  The demand of business „Shared interests of Employers and Life Long Learning“ (0.2 MB)
•  The way to lifelong learning: Shared interests of employers and lifelong learning (0.6 MB)
•  Transfer from short professional higher education to bachelor programs in formal education - experiences of managers and students (47 KB)
•  Validation of non formal and informal apprenticeship: Learning from experience and diplomas ? (0.1 MB)