Posts from — June 2009

Dear colleagues,

The third working session of the Bremen Consultation Workshop shifts the attention to the future development of European cooperation. We want to examine the role of policy instruments and cooperation activities

We will have two sets of cards that will be discussed in two working groups.

The ‘Activity’ cards invite the participants to comment, what objectives can be linked to different cooperation activities and what benefits the participants and their organisations will gain.

The ’Instrument’ cards invite the participants to make comments on the possible role of European policy instruments and their possible benefits.

The participants are invited to give comments to the comment spaces and to share the comments within their group and between the groups.

What do we want to achieve? We try to get a picture of  the usability of different forms of cooperation at the transnational and European level. We also want to have views on the role of European policy instruments.

How does this help us further? Discussion on “what works in European cooperation” is essential for the conclusions of the consultation process.

How does this contribute to the final results of the consultation process? This exercise is also an attempt to aggregate the results (working agendas) of the regional workshops.

Good luck with the discussion on the role of European cooperation,

Pekka Kämäräinen (on behalf of the organisers)

Dear colleagues,

The second working session of the Bremen Consultation Workshop shifts the attention to key issues and challenges that have been taken up by the previous workshops and by the projects .

We will have two sets of sheets (matrixes) that will be discussed in two working groups.

The ‘topic’ sheets contain brief statements that have been formulated on the basis of the workshop reports. The following topics are covered:  Relations between VET teachers and trainers, Trainers’ certificates and accreditation, Cooperation between school-based and workplace learning, Support for e-learning and new training methods.

The ’study’ sheets contain brief statements that refer to the work or to the challenges of recent European projects. The following studies are covered: Defining VET professionals (Cedefop), TTplus (Leonardo), Trainers in SMEs, Network “Trainers in Europe” (Survey).

The participants are invited to give comments to the comment spaces and to share the comments within the groups.

What do we want to achieve? We try to get a picture of  parallel experiences and findings that can be linked to the statements and to the project findings. The participants are also invited to inform each other of  other similar projects or developments that are relevant for the issues.

How does this help us further? The work with the key issues and challenges helps us get more focused when we discuss the prospects for  European policies and cooperation activities.

How does this contribute to the final results of the consultation process? The work with key issues is an attempt to aggregate the discussions and findings of the regional workshops.

Good luck with the work with key issues and challenges,

Pekka Kämäräinen (on behalf of the organisers)

Dear colleagues,

The first working session of the Bremen Consultation Workshop invites the participants to work with different scenarios for the professional development of teachers and trainers in vocational education and training (VET).

We will have three parallel groups:

Group 1: Professional development of trainers

Group 2: Professional development of VET teachers

Group 3: Changing roles of VET teachers and trainers.

What do we want to achieve? We try to get a picture of different tensions and strategic choices that have an impact on the future development of VET teachers and trainers. We want to list arguments for different choices and map possible consequences. We want to see, what role European and national policies can play.

How does this help us further? The work with the scenarios gives us an overview, where we stand now and where we might be going. This helps us to make comments on the issues that have been raised by prior consultation workshops and by recent European projects.

How does this contribute to the final results of the consultation process? The work with scenarios is a new element that was not tried out in the regional workshops.  Yet, it is possible to link the messages that arise from the workshops to the scenarios.

Best wishes for the work with scenarios,

Pekka Kämäräinen (on behalf of the organisers)

Dear colleagues

We are now ready to start the final Europe-wide Consultation Workshop on VET Teachers and Trainers (in Bremen on 25.6.-26.6.09). The next postings to this group blog will present the main sessions of the workshop:

1) The session “Scenarios of practice”

2) The session “Key issues”

3) The session “The role of European cooperation”

These postings try to give a picture for the participants (who prepare themselves for the workshops) and to others (who didn’t have a chance to participate but who may want to try something similar in other workshops.

With best greetings on behalf of the organisers

Pekka Kämäräinen

Dear colleagues,

Time has come to draw conclusions from from the consultation seminars on VET teachers and trainers. The six regional consultation workshops have been presented on this website. Some reports are still under preparation and will be uploaded soon.

Now we are preparing the final workshop that has the task to draw conclusions from the earlier workshops and to make recommendations. To support this the regional organisers are working to summarise the key messages that arise from the workshops. With this support some new questions will be proposed for the participants of the forthcoming workshop.

We will get back on these issues in the next postings. Watch this space.

Greetings, Pekka Kämäräinen (on behalf of the coordination team at ITB and Pontydysgu)