live&learn issue 7

#07April 07

What’s Inside

EU Commissioner pidla:Fight discrimination withpositive action

Skills to counterimpoverishment –ETF Yearbook enters newterritory

Mediterranean countriesmove ahead with ETF-backedobservatories

Timing is of the essence for theCopenhagen project

Policy learning for sustainableVET reform

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Vladimír Špidla - Commissioner for employment,social affairs and equal opportunities

A humanistic solutionto social inequality anddiscrimination particularlyconcerns Europe

Contents

EU Commissioner Špidla:Fight discrimination with positive action........................................................4

Rome was not built in a day –50 years on from the EU’s founding treaty....................................................7

Skills to counter impoverishment –ETF Yearbook enters new territory .............................................................10

How the labour market works in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon,Morocco and Tunisia ...................................................................................15

Mediterranean countries move ahead with ETF-backedobservatories ...............................................................................................18

Designing Adult Learning Strategies:The Case of South-East Europe .................................................................22

Timing is of the essence for the Copenhagen project ................................28

Policy learning for sustainable VET reform.................................................32

Women and Employment ............................................................................36

The European TrainingFoundation is the EuropeanUnion’s centre of expertisesupporting vocationaleducation and trainingreforms in the context of theEuropean Union’s externalrelations programmes.

www.etf.europa.eu

Cover photo: ETF/EUP-Images

02 Live&Learn Contents

03Live&Learn Contents

EU Commissioner Špidla:Fight discrimination with positive actionVladimír Špidla stresses the importance of equalopportunities for all and calls for everyone to take part

Mediterranean countries move aheadwith ETF-backed observatoriesTraining and labour market experts in MEDA countries aremaking good progress towards human resources decisionmaking

Designing Adult Learning Strategies:The Case of South-East EuropeThe quality of human and social capital is a key determinantof future economic growth, wealth creation and socialprogress

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EU Commissioner Špidla:Fight discrimination with positive action

The European Commission hasset 2007 as the European Yearof Equal Opportunities for All. Inthis interview, Vladimír Špidla,Commissioner for Employment,Social Affairs and EqualOpportunities, stresses thecrucial importance of thisconcept and calls for everyone totake part.

Equal opportunities? Mr Špidla is ahistorian – he was awarded his PhDin history at Charles University inPrague – and he likes reminding usthat equal opportunities is a very oldconcept. He explains: “It’s about theidea of soul and is supported by allmajor humanistic schools of thought.It is also the philosophical basis onwhich the European reconstructionwas founded and which gave birth tothe European Union.”

For Mr Špidla though, using the word“concept” doesn't mean that equalopportunities is an abstraction - far fromit. Without expecting a major upheaval,he confidently declares that the 15million euro budget that will be given tothe EU this year to fight discriminationbased on race, ethnic origin, religion orbelief, disability, age, sex or sexualorientation, is going to indicate both a“before” and an “after” - emphasisingthat efforts made over the last ten yearsin fighting gender discrimination haveled to positive results. According to theEurobarometer survey “Discriminationin the European Union”, published lastJanuary, it is felt to be a problem for just40% of the population, less than figuresfor ethnic origin (64%), disabilities(53%), sexual orientation (50%), age(46%), religion or beliefs (44%).

Of course this survey refers to theperception of discrimination, notdiscrimination itself, but Mr Špidla isstill optimistic: “Today, equality is anaccepted value for every memberstate and all of them are makingenormous efforts in this direction.”

This general recognition doesn'texclude differences between nations.So, in the Czech Republic - whereMr Špidla was prime minister from2002 to 2004 - 63% of hiscompatriots think that agediscrimination is widespread (againstan average 46% in Europe). And,despite progress made in Italy andSpain, gender discrimination stillworries over 55% of the population,today.

The 27 EU member states and threeother nations from the EuropeanFree Trade Association - Norway,Iceland and Liechtenstein - will betaking part in the European Year forEqual Opportunities viadecentralized advertisingcampaigns, practical grassrootsaction and aid to associations. “It willbe decentralised, but withoutestablishing priorities, as all kinds ofdiscrimination are equally important”,Mr Špidla specifies.

Raising awareness

One issue that the Year's promoterstake for granted in order to obtainmeaningful results is information. Infact, the Eurobarometer survey hasalready stated: “Awareness ofanti-discrimination legislation is stillweak in the EU. Discriminatingagainst disabilities is the only kind ofdiscrimination that over half thepopulation knows is legally forbiddenwhen taking on new employees. Thepopulation at large knows little aboutlegislation concerning agediscrimination (31%) or sexualorientation discrimination (30%). Onlyone third of citizens (32%) know theirrights should they themselves beobject of discrimination orharassment:” The geographical gapin information levels is quite marked:65% of Finnish citizens callthemselves satisfied, but thepercentage drops to 23% in Spain,19% in Estonia and just 17% inAustria.

The problem of information indirectlyraises the question of the EqualityBodies regulations that fightdiscrimination. These organisationsare based in every country and theirtask is to help people who have been

04 Live&Learn EU Commissioner Špidla: Fight discrimination with positive action

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discriminated against, make inquiries,carry out surveys and publish reports.Mr Špidla regrets, however, that “theirindependence is not always total.”

Whoever they are however, around500 million EU citizens have,according to Mr Špidla, an active roleto play. But how? Equal opportunitiesbetween men and women may be thebest example. In a recent speech inBrussels (Promoting Gender Equalityin Equal European Citizenship,January 25, 2007), Mr Špidlaadmitted that women “often clashedwith men's reluctance to take onduties towards younger and olderfamily members, often leaving theessential duties of unity and harmonyon women's shoulders. This kind ofproblem, estimates Mr Špidla, iswhere all men have the opportunity todo something useful by taking onthese duties “with the same rights aswomen.” Cooperating with institutionsand associations, getting closer toone other, helping disabled peopleand taking part in cultural events arejust some ways people can beinvolved during the Year.

As the Eurobarometer survey says,awareness exists and thepsychological ground is ready.“Greatest understanding, however, iswith disabled people. Almosteverybody interviewed (91%)supported the idea of giving moremoney to remove the physicalbarriers that exacerbate disabledpeople’s lives, as we can see in thisdocument. The opinion thathomosexuals are not alwaysaccepted due to their sexualorientation, is shared by 68% of EUcitizens, as well as the affirmation thatfamily responsibilities prevent womenfrom achieving managerial positions.Two Europeans out of three (65%)estimate that different ethnic originpopulations enrich their nation'sculture.

Humanistic approach

These figures reassure the optimismof Mr Špidla, who is an admirer ofErich Fromm, the Americanphilosopher of German origin whowrote that "the future of the world ishidden in our hearts". "I amconvinced that a humanistic solutiongiven to problems of social inequalityand discrimination particularlyconcerns Europe", he says. In hisopinion, Europe also has to promoteits basic values beyond itsboundaries, through bilateral ormultilateral agreements.

Does the current atmosphere oftension between religious groupsincrease the urgency for this move?Even though the perception ofdiscrimination based on religiousbelief or faith is increasing (in 7countries out of 27, most of thepopulation thinks that thisdiscrimination is stronger now than itwas 5 years ago), with the help ofstatistics, Mr Špidla remembers that itis not globally the most widespreaddiscrimination (for example 44%against 64% for discrimination basedon ethnic origin).

As the concept of discrimination isevolutionary by nature andproblematic news is permanentlypresent in every category, the Year'sorganisers are reluctant to setpriorities between discriminations."Let's take the concept of disability.What measures shouldn't integratewith the psychologically disabled?"asks Mr Špidla. Equally, aren't older

people's needs in constant evolutionand don't their rights today, apart frommeeting their basic needs, includemore independence and socialinteraction with others?

Positive action

This is why, Mr Špidla prefersfocusing his attention on defining themethod, which in his opinion, consistsof reducing discrimination throughpositive action which should lead toputting the whole world on the sameequal level, instead of usingaffirmative action by offering assets todiscriminated people. For example,he says ”supplying public transportservices for the disabled is not an actof affirmative action, but targeted,successful and positive action”.Moreover, aware that “work andemployment are the main fieldswhere the principle of equality amongpeople is applied” (30th January 2007speech delivered in Berlin on theoccasion of the beginning of theYear), he asks for an expansion ofthis principle to other spheres of civillife.

“Undoubtedly, equality amongindividuals and their right to socialparticipation overcome economic andmaterial considerations”, he declaredon that occasion.

Nevertheless, it could be estimated,without a wide margin of error, that80% of equality issues are found inthe job market. It is in business andpublic administration that the reasonsthat lead to discrimination - whateverthey are - tend to materialise andreveal their negative capabilities.However, the Eurobarometer surveyproves that there are still manydisparities on the issue. “Whenemployment is offered, disability andage are two elements which,according to EU citizens, work mostlyagainst candidates,” this text specifies

05Live&Learn EU Commissioner Špidla: Fight discrimination with positive action

“aound eight out of ten interviewed, infact, estimates that, with equal skills,a person who is over 50 has lessopportunity of getting a job orpromotion than a person under 50,the same for a disabled personcompared to one without disabilities.

Social pressure

Even though these criteria are stillcited by the majority, skin colour(59%) and ethnic origin (58%) areconsidered less of a disadvantage”.Social pressure to improve thissituation is considerable – 87% ofEuropeans, for example, supportspecific measures in favour of olderor disabled people – but Mr Špidla

refers to the youth of the EmploymentDirective, whose compulsorytransposition for member states wasDecember 2003. Given the fact thathe is keen on preserving historicalmonuments and that he studiedhistory and prehistory, he knows thatRome wasn’t built in a day. However,he believes the will of member statesto create solid, ambitious and ofteninnovative strategies is beyondquestion.

Competitiveness

As far as the future is concerned, hetrusts in a Europe of diversity andhopes that the immigrant, disabledand older person, for example, will be

increasingly integrated. “A Europe ofdiversity in the twenty-first centuryhas to follow an approach, whichshould be active and based onintegration”, he made clear in hisspeech in Berlin, adding “we cannotafford to waste faculties, skills orexperiences of any one singleperson, because they are the key toworld European competitiveness. It’sthanks to equal opportunities that wewill be able to harvest the fruits ofdiversity, whether they come fromeconomical, social or culturalsources.”

In this context, the fact that theEuropean Year of EqualOpportunities for All is celebrated onthe 50th anniversary of the adoption ofthe Treaty of Rome, 25th March 1957,is no coincidence. In this event,Mr Špidla sees the reassertion thatequality for all in the eyes of the lawand the right to live our lives withoutdiscrimination, are fundamentalvalues of Europe. “Our legalframework which ensures theobservance of these principles, is oneof the most complete in the world andwe can legitimately be very proud ofit” he says.

However, in his opinion it is an illusionto believe that equality is achieved bybeating recognised and understooddiscriminations. “Equal opportunity ismore, we all know that it is notbecause everybody has access toeducation, that all students have thesame opportunities of beingsuccessful”, he emphasises. There is,therefore, still a long way to go, buthis wish is that the year 2007 is anaccelerator and creates newdynamics.

Find out more:European Year of EqualOpportunities for All -http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/eyeq/index.cfm?cat_id=SPLASH

06 Live&Learn EU Commissioner Špidla: Fight discrimination with positive action

€15M has been given to the EU this year to fight discrimination

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Rome was not built in a day – 50 years on fromthe EU’s founding treaty

To mark the occasion of the 50th anniversary of theTreaty of Rome, the ETF takes a look at how theEU’s relations with the rest of the world havedeveloped and where the ETF and its role inhuman resources development fits into this picture.

The forerunner of today’s EuropeanUnion was born on 25 March 1957with the signing of the Treaty ofRome by Belgium, France, Italy,Luxembourg, the Netherlands andWest Germany. The EuropeanEconomic Community, as it was thenknown, was a child of the cold waryears and embodied the will toovercome the divisions of the pastand build a lasting peace througheconomic and political cooperation.The treaty established the EuropeanCommission and, under its impetus,the beginnings of a Europeanexternal relations policy started totake shape.

The starting point was teams ofEuropean contractors sent tooversee development projects in theoverseas colonies of the six foundingnations. As time went by, thesecontractors often found themselveshaving to deal with matters outsidetheir remit. By 1965, the need formore official representation wasclear, but the EEC was not ready tocontemplate a full diplomatic service.In the following years, around 21technical offices were set up mainly incharge of managing developmentprojects.

07Live&Learn Rome was not built in a day – 50 years on from the EU’s founding treaty

In 1975, with the signing of the firstLome Convention between the EECand 46 African, Caribbean and Pacificcountries, these offices began to workon areas such as trade, regionalintegration or cultural affairs as well asadopting a more overtly political role.Between 1975 and 1978, the numberof missions in ACP countries doubledto 41 and they became full delegationsof the European Commission. Duringthis time, the EEC’s relations with Asia,Latin America and the Southern andEastern Mediterranean developed anddelegations were opened in Caracas,Bangkok, Delhi, to name but a few.

An historic opportunity

In 1989, Europe’s attention turnedmuch closer to home. Many at theEuropean Commission saw the fall ofthe Berlin Wall as a historic opportunityto heal the divisions of the past 40years and this called for new ways ofengaging with the emergingdemocracies of Central and EasternEurope. The Tempus Programme wascreated to provide support for reformin higher education. The EuropeanTraining Foundation, originally a

brainchild of French presidentFrançois Mitterrand, was intended todo the same for vocational educationand training, but political wranglingdelayed its launch until 1994.

Under the leadership of its first directorPeter de Rooij, and with around 60staff recruited from Brussels, the ETFmoved to its current home in the VillaGualino overlooking Turin in a convoyof trucks in December 1994. ETF’scurrent director Muriel Dunbardistinguishes between two distinctphases in the work of the ETF so far,with a third about to begin. From itscreation until 2000, the organisationfunctioned mainly as an implementingbody of the European Commission’sVET projects under the Phare andTacis programmes as well asproviding technical assistance forTempus. One of the ETF’s mantras isthat any VET system will only beeffective if it is responsive to the needsof its labour market and ETF staffquickly saw the need for accurateinformation if this was to be achieved.Accordingly, much time and effortwent into establishing a network ofnational observatories to collect and

distribute information on the evolutionof the labour market. In the end, 24were set up in Central and EasternEurope and the countries of the formerSoviet Union and Mongolia.

New approach

From 2000 until 2006, responsibility forthe day-to-day running of projectsincreasingly passed to the Europe AidCooperation Office (AidCo) and theEC delegations in the field and theETF took on a different role. The focusshifted from project management tobecoming a centre of expertise –instead of doing things itself, the ETFbecame the one who would showother people how to do things forthemselves. During this period, theETF started to provide support for anew programme, CARDS, focusing onthe Western Balkans and itsgeographical remit was enlarged toinclude the ten MEDA countries of theEastern and Southern Mediterranean.Enlargement was the word oneveryone’s lips as the ETF becameincreasingly involved with helping theten accession countries of EasternEurope prepare to join the EU on 1May 2004. This enlargement, puttingan end to decades of artificial divisionof the European continent, is one ofthe biggest achievements of the EU todate and the ETF was proud to play itspart.

Further changes are on the cards forthe ETF over the next five years. Thisyear is seeing the launch of newinstruments for EU foreign policy inthe shape of the EuropeanNeighbourhood Policy, the Instrumentfor Pre-Accession Assistance and theDevelopment Cooperation andEconomic Cooperation Instrument.During this time, the sector-wideapproach, which gives a great dealmore responsibility to partnercountries for managing projects, isalso being introduced. In line with this

08 Live&Learn Rome was not built in a day – 50 years on from the EU’s founding treaty

The ETF celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome with a major conferenceon equal opportunities in education and employment

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new emphasis, the ETF will focusmuch more on providing countrieswith policy advice. “The idea is to helpcountries much more to helpthemselves. If consultants andoutside organisations come in and dothe project on behalf of the country,the learning experience is negligible,”says Bent Sørensen, head of theETF’s external communication unit, “itis much more productive to helpcountries to develop themselves.

So we want to advise key people inthe countries how to develop the fieldof human resources.” Furtherdeveloping this role will helpconsolidate the ETF’s role as aninternational centre of expertise.

At the same time, the ETF’s mandateis set to widen. The growingacceptance of the lifelong learningphilosophy is slowly blurring theboundaries between the different

kinds of education. “You cannotaddress VET in isolation,” saysMuriel Dunbar. She anticipates that“our new Council Regulation willmove the focus of our work fromstrictly VET to much broader skillsdevelopment in a lifelong learningperspective.” With so many newideas and new directions, there isplenty to keep the ETF busy for thenext fifty years.

09Live&Learn Rome was not built in a day – 50 years on from the EU’s founding treaty

Fighting discrimination in the classroom and the workplace

The ETF celebrated the Treaty ofRome's 50th birthday in style with amajor conference looking at equalopportunities in education andemployment. Held in Rome on 21March, the event looked at howvocational education and training canimprove the standing ofdisadvantaged groups in society andstrengthen their position in the labourmarket. It was co-organised by theETF and the Italian Ministry of EqualOpportunities. "We hope that bybringing experts from 55 countriestogether to share their knowledgeabout best practice and initiatives wecan inspire people and draw attentionto the challenge of fightingdiscrimination," says Bent Sørensen,"this issue is common to both EU andpartner countries."

The conference began with welcomespeeches from Anna Záborská, theEuropean Parliament's head of thecommittee on women's rights andgender equality, Barbara Pollastrini,Italy's minister for equalopportunities and the ETF'sMuriel Dunbar. The morning sessionexamined which equal opportunities

policies can create a more inclusivesociety. The afternoon focused onthe fight against discrimination in theworkplace and the role schools canplay in preventing discriminatorybehaviour.

It is the first in a series of eventstaking place in Rome to mark theanniversary. On 22 - 23 March, theCommittee of the Regions, agrouping of local and regionalauthorities from EU and accessioncountries, held its 69th plenarysession. On 24 - 25 March, youngpeople from all over the EU held theYouth Summit, coming together todiscuss key issues for the future ofthe continent such as globalisation,environmental protection and whatshould be the economic and socialmodels for Europe. Finally on 6 May,the ETF will hold an open day on itspremises, inviting members of thepublic and ETF partners in Turin tomeet representatives of the 28countries in which the ETF works.The partner countries will presenttheir culture, tourism and gastronomywhile the local partners will give apresentation of their work.

Find out more:50th anniversary of the Treaty ofRome -http://europa.eu/50/index_en.htm

The conference in Rome is the first of aseries of events to mark the anniversaryof the Treaty of Rome

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Skills to counter impoverishment –ETF Yearbook enters new territory

After two decades with a narrow focus on basic literacy andnumeracy as the prime weapons in the fight against poverty, skillsand skills development are enjoying renewed popularity amonginternational donors. The recently published 2006 edition of theETF Yearbook analyses this trend and its consequences for skillsdevelopment and poverty reduction in impoverished transitioncountries.

During the 1990s, worldwide donorinterest in human resourcesdevelopment declined at the expenseof large scale structural adjustmentpolicies. Mainly fuelled by World Bankand IMF philosophies, this becameknown as the WashingtonConsensus. The recently agreed EUDevelopment Aid policy – alreadybeing dubbed the EuropeanConsensus – marks a turning point,better defining the skills needed in ourglobalised and interconnected worldand firmly placing them at the heart ofdevelopment agendas addressing theneeds of the world’s poorest.

But the ETF doesn’t work with thepoorest countries in the world. It

works with transition countries andregions neighbouring the EU to thesouth and east. So why is a changingtrend in poverty alleviation of interestto the ETF?

Impoverishment

“Because,” argues Peter Grootings,one of the editors of the 2006Yearbook, “it is a myth that we don’tdeal with extreme poverty. Povertyhas increased dramatically in manytransition countries since thebeginning of transition. Of course, thesituation in some of our partnercountries in Central Asia is differentfrom that in many countries in Africa,but mostly because the recent historyof these countries is different. Notbecause the most vulnerable groupsin these societies cannot be definedas poor by any current standards.”

“But they are impoverished ratherthan simply poor. By this, we meanthat individuals, families, communitiesand institutions have become poorand although this may seem a subtledifference, it is an essential one.Among impoverished people, there isa memory of times when things weremuch better. Poverty has notnecessarily become the structuralproblem that it is in many developingcountries. But mechanisms that makepoverty a structural andintergenerational problem are

emerging and will gain the upperhand if increasing poverty is notproperly addressed.”

“These countries also have strongtraditions and memories are part ofthese traditions,” he continues. “Theyhave memories of functioningvocational education and trainingsystems that have also becomeimpoverished. And interestingly, theprocess of impoverishment of theireducation and training systems hadalready started before the so-calledtransition of the early 1990s. Theywere already in a dire state of repairwhen democratic forces took overfrom communism in the early 1990s.”

That sounds bad from a Europeanperspective, but not hopeless fromthe perspective of a developingcountry. After all, in most transitioncountries there is an existinginfrastructure onto which reform canbe built. These vocational educationand training systems need to bemodernised to adapt to new marketconditions, but there is no need tobuild up systems from scratch nordoes it make any sense to furtherdestroy the existing infrastructure.

“If we want to stop these countriesfrom sliding into structural poverty it isextremely important to use theopportunities we still have today,”says Peter Grootings.

10 Live&Learn Skills to counter impoverishment – ETF Yearbook enters new territory

11Live&Learn Skills to counter impoverishment – ETF Yearbook enters new territory

Borrowing experience

How best to exploit these remainingopportunities is the central theme ofthe 2006 Yearbook. The editors begintheir argument by stating that if skillsdevelopment is to be accepted oncemore as a tool for poverty reduction indeveloping countries, it should alsobe accepted as such in impoverishedtransition countries.

The 2006 Yearbook looks at threedifferent types of experience that canbe of value to transition countries.First, the experience from developingcountries; second, the experiencefrom European Union member statesand, third, the experience fromcandidate countries and recent newmember states, before, during andafter accession.

These three very different sourceseach has a useful role to play inETF-facilitated assistance toimpoverished transition countries.

“Experience from developingcountries can illustrate how skillsdevelopment can be usedeffectively to tackle povertyreduction on a large scale,” saysPeter Grootings. “Experience fromnew EU member states can beparticularly useful to demonstratethe effectiveness of different waysof addressing vulnerable groups insociety. These countries can showus the effectiveness of differentforms of intervention insafeguarding social inclusion andavoiding a further polarisation ofwealth and influence.”

“Finally,” Peter Grootings concludes,“experience from EU member statescan be particularly useful to show theevolution of reform in an industrialisedsetting and in general to familiarisepartner countries with cutting edgedevelopments in education andtraining.”

Being of such versatile origins andapplications, these experiences needto be translated in order to becomeuseful. They must be adapted to thecontext of transition countries withhigh levels of poverty.

Protection versus qualification

A review of experiences of vocationaleducation and training reforms showsthat many partner countries, and

Photo: ETF/A. Ramella

especially those that have seendramatic impoverishment, have beenunable to revitalise their vocationaleducation and training systems. Theyremain centralised, input-based andunderfunded and they lack thecapacity for change and innovation.This has held back their generaldevelopment and is having a negativeeffect on the groups in society thattraditionally depend most on this typeof education.

According to Peter Grootings, inmany countries vocational educationand training schools have becomethe only option for children from poorfamilies. “Better-off parents buy theirchildren into the general and higher

education tracks,” he says, “sovocational schools have becomeschools for the poor.”

“At the same time, their lack ofmodernisation and reform means thatthey can offer little more than socialprotection, while what vulnerablegroups really need is qualifications.These schools do not provide thekind of skills development that canhelp poor families to escapepoverty.”

In the 2006 Yearbook, chapters onthe experience of the RussianFederation and the countries ofCentral Asia provide ampleillustrations of this trend.

Linking innovators to education

Over the past decade, internationaldonors and charities have carried outnumerous small-scale projects aimedat civil society in these countries.

Many of these projects weredonor-driven, short-term, of limitedscope and duration and remain –often on purpose – insulated frominstitutional forms of skillsdevelopment, such as throughvocational education and training,even though there are schools inpractically every community.


Vocational schools do not provide the kind of skills development that can help poor families escape poverty

Photo: ILO/J. Maillard

13Live&Learn Skills to counter impoverishment – ETF Yearbook enters new territory

On the other hand, in terms ofpedagogical approach and learningcontents, these projects were oftenvery modern and innovative and didaddress the specific learning needs ofreal people.

The ETF Yearbook argues that, tohave a more lasting impact, suchprojects must be better integratedwith local, more formal vocationaleducation and training.

“This has some consequences forvocational education and trainingschools,” says Peter Grootings. “Togive their cooperation a chance ofsuccess, they need more autonomyand real opportunities for cooperatingwith other skills developmentinitiatives in their environment. Thiswill create win-win situations foreverybody involved, in particularchildren from poor families whoselearning needs can be better servedby schools.”

In the 2006 Yearbook, the chapterson local development initiatives in the

Western Balkans and Central Asia,and on the preparations for theEuropean Social Fund in candidatecountries tackle these very issues.The final chapter puts forward anumber of more practical suggestionsas to how skills development canbetter address the learning needs ofpoor people.

Policy lessons

Poor families are not the only oneswho can benefit from a betterintegration of local activities. Sharinginnovation experiences locally willalso provide a rich alternativeexperience for vocational educationand training reform policy learningfrom the bottom up.

This obviously calls for someinnovative thinking as far as theorganisation and management of thevocational education and trainingreforms is concerned: developing andimplementing reform policies inconditions of high uncertainty is bestperformed as a collective learning

process for all the majorstakeholders, rather than as aprocess of copying some kind ofbest-practice blueprint fromsomewhere or someone else. Policylearning is not only about introducingeffective policies, it is also aboutdeveloping sustainable capacities.

In the 2006 Yearbook, chapters onthe Sector-wide Approach and onpeer review and peer learningdiscuss these issues in detail.

Old approaches

In their concluding chapter, theYearbook editors warn that therenewed attention to skillsdevelopment as a tool for povertyreduction should “not simply mean areturn to old approaches” but shouldbe firmly based on modern conceptsof vocational education and training.

Although it seems an obvious thing tostress, it is stressed for good reasonsbecause the interpretation of ‘skillsdevelopment’ in the context of poverty

A greater emphasis on vocational education and training

Sipke Brouwer, director in theDirectorate-General for Development,confirmed the implications of thisrecognition of EU policy in Africa inhis editorial for the February 2006edition of e-Courier, the onlineNewsletter of ACP-EU developmentcooperation:

“For too long donors haveconcentrated only on how to teachAfrican children reading and writingskills. We need to be more ambitious,as we need to provide African youthwith the skills, knowledge and‘can-do’ values to re-create their cities

and re-build their societal belonging.

Today’s young people are the humancapital of tomorrow: workers, talents,entrepreneurs and leaders. Theymust all be given a chance to improvetheir potential and become activeplayers in the economic and socialgrowth of the continent. Therefore theEU is going to put a greater emphasison vocational education and trainingin connection with job markets. Thiswill help turn the current brain draininto a ‘brain gain’ for the wholecontinent.”

Photo: ETF/A.Martin

reduction seems to differ from theinterpretation of ‘skills development’in current European discourse.

In the context of poverty reduction,skills development is still mainly seenas the transfer of essentialbehavioural skills: relatively simplemanual abilities for lower qualifiedpeople. The European discourseabout competence-based educationand training, on the other hand, goeswell beyond this narrowinterpretation.

Thus, the editors of the ETFYearbook conclude that the way inwhich EU member states have basedthe European QualificationFramework on a combination ofknowledge, skills and personalcompetences should also guidepolicy learning for vocationaleducation and training reforms inimpoverished transition countries.

This combination of behavioural andcognitive aspects of skillsdevelopment has proven to be asuccessful mix in the EU where it hashelped to develop a more effectiveresponse to labour market needswhile at the same time retaining theattractiveness of vocational educationand training as an alternative to otherlearning routes.

It must be remembered throughoutthat policy change will not take placeunless – in the words of the lastchapter of the Yearbook – “those whoare in a position to take policydecisions themselves are convincedthat a particular policy issue isimportant and are broadly familiarwith policy measures that can betaken to address it.”

Thus, according to Peter Grootings,the most important task now is toraise awareness on important policy

issues and to develop knowledge oneffective policy measures throughpeer learning among policy makers.

“In the Yearbook we recommendusing peer reviews for policy learningto achieve this,” he says. “We explainhow these peer reviews differ fromtraditional peer reviews in that wevalue the process - the review itself -as much as the outcome.”

“Peer reviews can be helpful indeveloping this awareness andunderstanding in a sensitive policydomain such as skills developmentfor poverty reduction only if they arewell-organised and properly focused.”

Read the publication:ETF Yearbook 2006 -http://www.etf.europa.eu/pubmgmt.nsf/(getAttachment)/A11E9FA13677324CC1257243003744B0/$File/NOTE6WFDSF.pdf


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How the labour market works in Egypt, Jordan,Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia

Jobs are a key issue in the MEDA countries – countries which aretypically home to a fast-growing, overwhelmingly young populationand where a shrinking public sector has forced a growing numberof people to look to the informal sector for work in recent years. Yetefforts to improve the situation are hampered by the dearth ofup-to-date information. A new ETF publication, Employment policyreforms in the MEDA region, provides a timely analysis of how thelabour market functions in five MEDA countries.

Since the launch of the BarcelonaProcess in 1995, a dense fabric oflinks and cooperation has beenwoven between the countries of theEuropean Union and those of thesouthern and eastern Mediterranean.During these ten years, theEuro-Mediterranean Partnership hasstrengthened cooperation fordevelopment via the MEDAProgramme, while the slow adoptionof the sector-wide approach and theadvent of a new EuropeanNeighbourhood Policy are providing aframework for an ever closerrelationship between the two regions.

However, in spite of its vitalimportance for MEDA governments,the issue of employment hasreceived little attention from theMEDA Programme. None of thehigh-level meetings between EU andMEDA ministers and experts over thepast ten years has been specificallydedicated to employment. Thereseems to have been a tacitassumption that the creation of newjobs is something that willautomatically follow on fromeconomic growth, rather thansomething which has to beaddressed in its own right. What is

more, the region suffers from a lack ofaccurate data on how the labourmarket functions in each of thecountries, leaving the politicians withlittle information on which to basetheir decisions.

Filling the gap

It is in order to help fill this gap thatthe ETF has produced its latestreport, written by Ummuhan Bardak,Henrik Huitfeldt and Jackline Wahba,focusing mainly on the labourmarkets of Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon,Morocco and Tunisia. The firstchapter provides the reader with anoverview of the main characteristicsof MEDA labour markets in the formof a set of key statistics. These coverlabour force participation rates andemployment and unemploymentrates broken down by gender, ageand levels of educational attainment.It also identifies some of the mainchallenges and distortions. Theseinclude the low participation rates ofwomen and non-university educatedyoung people in the workforce andthe high unemployment endured byuniversity graduates.

Chapter two homes in on therelationship between investing ineducation and training andstimulating economic growth.Whereas there is generally

15Live&Learn How the labour market works in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia

A growing number of people in the MEDA countries are looking to the informal sector foremployment

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considered to be a strong linkbetween the two, in the MEDA regionthis is not necessarily the case.“..Large investments in education andtraining have failed to be translatedinto economic growth and higheremployment levels,” says the report.It tracks the massive expansion thathas taken place in MEDA educationsystems in recent years and analysesrelevant criteria such as the returnson education, where people leavingthe education system end up andwhat job opportunities are available tothem. The report finds that expandingthe region’s education system has notworsened its quality and that forindividuals the return on educationcan be substantial. But malfunctionsin the labour market mean individualgain does not add up to collectivebenefit. “MEDA economies havefailed to match large investments ineducation with reforms in the labourmarket that make effective use oftheir pools of educated workers,” itconcludes.

Labour mobility

Labour mobility and segmentationtakes up the whole of chapter three.The report concludes that while mostcountries export labour and a fewsuch as Jordan and Lebanon alsoimport labour, domestic or internalmobility between trades andindustries or between the private andthe public sectors is limited. This itputs down to distortions in labourmarket policy such as the excessiverole of the public sector in job creationwhich in Egypt, for instance, makestaking jobs outside this sectorunattractive. Often the formal privatesector is too small to generate jobsfor a growing population while strictregulations on hiring and firing incountries such as Morocco havecreated rigidities. Two ways ofintroducing more flexibility areproposed. First, rationalisation of thepublic sector “as an efficientgovernment role in the economyfocuses on the provision of public

services rather than the production ofgoods and services.” Second,developing a more conducivebusiness climate for the private sectorwhich will encourage it to take a moreactive part in job creation.

Chapter four examines the role ofinstitutions in employment policy inMEDA. Massive youth unemploymentin the MEDA region since the early1990s has pushed employment to thetop of most governments’ agendas.But although employment is arecurring theme of official speechesand declarations, “the pressing needfor labour market reform has not yetled to a comprehensive policy”according to the report. It describesthe types of approach favoured byeach of the five countries in recentyears before turning its attention tothe detail such as labour law, the roleof social partners or vocationaltraining systems. The authorsconclude that the working of labourmarkets and limited social securitysystems in MEDA tend to benefit thebetter-off sections of the population atthe expense of the poor. They roundoff the chapter with a plea for “apolicy shift towards meeting theneeds of the neediest members ofsociety” through actions such asimproved support to the unemployedfrom public employment services andbroader access to active labourmarket programmes and vocationaltraining.

Ways forward

Suggesting some feasible waysforward makes up the meat of thefinal chapter. The evidence of theprevious sections has shown thatlabour markets in the region arefailing to fulfil their role of efficientlyallocating human resources and thatthis is having a negative impact oneconomic growth. The authorsprovide a review of reform initiatives

16 Live&Learn How the labour market works in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia

There has been massive expansion in MEDA country education systems in recent years

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17Live&Learn How the labour market works in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia

to-date, which have usually beensupported by donor-funding. Theythen examine which factors, bothpositive and negative, are likely toinfluence the future prospects forchange. MEDA governments areunder a lot of pressure to tackle thesocial and political consequences ofhigh unemployment. “This positivepolitical environment helps interestgroups and lobbies that support asmaller public sector and a largerprivate sector to push for a morecomprehensive reform agenda,” theynote. The willingness of internationaldonors to get involved is a secondplus point, although efforts totranslate isolated pilots into broadersystemic change have so farproduced only modest results.

Stacked up against this are a host ofnegative factors however. A weakinstitutional capacity limits the abilityof public bodies to absorb donorassistance. Policy options importedfrom other, usually more developed,countries may have little relevance tothe MEDA context. Restructuring ofboth the private and especially thepublic sector is likely to come upagainst resistance from people whofear they will lose out, while culturalattitudes such as the high prestigeattached to white-collar public sectorjobs further complicates matters. Thereport cites the example of Morocco -where unemployed universitygraduates often refuse to evenconsider jobs in the private sectorand insist they have a right to a job inthe government sector - as asymptom of this malaise. It concludesby quoting the author Tarik Yousef1

who believes that “a new socialcontract based on a review of therights and responsibilities betweenindividuals and the state may be anecessary precondition for anycomprehensive reform.”

The report will be available todownload from the ETF website(www.etf.europa.eu).

Despite the pressing need for labour market reform in the MEDA countries there is nocomprehensive yet

Photo: ILO/J. Maillard

1 Yousef, Tarik M (2004). Development, growth and policy reform in the Middle East and North Africa. Paper prepared for theWorld Bank, June 2004, Washington DC.

Mediterranean countries move ahead withETF-backed observatories

18 Live&Learn Mediterranean countries move ahead with ETF-backed observatories

Photo: ETF/A.Ramella

Mediterranean countries move ahead withETF-backed observatories

The Observatory Functions ofSyria, Egypt, Jordan and Moroccohave reported good progressduring 2006 and have setthemselves some clear targets for2007 for promoting networks tosupport decision-making in humanresource development. MeanwhileAlgeria is preparing to build itsown Observatory Function.

Training and labour market experts in agroup of key European-MediterraneanPartnership (MEDA) countries aremaking good progress towardsimproving human resource decisionmaking with the help of the EuropeanTraining Foundation and an Italiangovernment fund. The concepts ofteam work and sharing expertise andknowledge is central to the project.

The ETF-supported HumanResource Development ObservatoryFunction Network (OFN) in Syria,Egypt, Jordan and Morocco all madestrides towards creating effectivenetworks to analyse VET, labourmarket and human resourcesdevelopments to help providedecision makers with the informationthey need. In another of the MEDAcountries, Algeria took steps towardsbuilding capacity for developing itsactivities in the field.

The ETF’s work with OFNs, backedby a trust fund of the Italian Ministry ofForeign Affairs, is designed topromote capacity building to supportdecision making on HR issues as partof a move to help drive forward theBarcelona Process which aims toestablish a Euro-Mediterraneanfree-trade area by 2010.

Regional leaders believe that majorsocio-economic benefits can beachieved through such a levelling ofthe trade playing field.

Focus on networks

In a series of dissemination eventslate last year, progress on creatingthe information and decision makingnetworks essential to anyimprovement in labour market trainingand HRD development was sharedwith key local actors, ETF staff1 and

19Live&Learn Mediterranean countries move ahead with ETF-backed observatories

1 The following ETF team is involved with the work in the target countries: Ulrike Damyanovic, team leader and countrymanager for Syria, Gérard Mayen, country manager for Jordan, Elena Carrero Pérez, country manager for Egypt, AliBellouti, country manager for Morocco and Algeria, Jens Johansen, an ETF expert on statistics, Sabina Nari and Filippo delNino, project assistants.

other interested parties. Majorproducts and project results werealso presented to participants.

Ulrike Damyanovic, the ETF’s teamleader of the Observatory FunctionUnit, was closely involved with thework in the target countries.

“The Syrian meeting wascharacterised by the high rank of itsattendees, including the deputy primeminister Abdallah Al-Dardari whochairs the OFN,” Ms Damyanovicsaid.

“The high-level presence shows theSyrian government’s commitment toHR reforms and investment in itspeople. This is a priority in theFive-Year Plan (2006-2010) which isguiding the transition from a centrallyplanned to a social market economy.The work of the OFN - its analysis,recommendations, institutionalcooperation for well-informeddecisions – will contribute toeducation and labour market reformsthat will require new skills,” she says.

Egypt has a long record ofcommitment to HR reforms and,following recent policy decisions, itsgovernment is giving priority tocapitalising on its demographicopportunities – a young populationwith the potential to achieve theeconomic, political and socialobjectives of the country. Theseobjectives include competitiveness,sustained growth, employment andcombating poverty.

A measure of the importanceEgyptian society attaches to theseobjectives can be gauged by themedia response to the Cairo OFNworkshop late last year,Ms Damyanovic said.

“Egypt’s presentation and discussionof OFN strategies for the next fiveyears and analysis of major labourmarket issues in 2006 wasimpressive enough to attract theattention of the Egyptian media; themeeting was filmed by Egyptiantelevision and also resulted in anumber of newspaper stories.”

Milestones

The dissemination meetings wereimportant milestones in the countries’moves towards more effective labourmarket analysis and HR developmentbecause they offered a chance topublicly review progress and air plansfor the future.

In Syria, the OFN’s major products forthe year – a handbook on TVETindicators and a second one onoccupational classifications - werepresented and a work programme for2007 agreed at the meeting. It wasalso attended by vice-industryminister, Haytham Al-Yafi, deputyeducation minister Fouad Al-Ghalouland Frank Hesske, head of the ECDelegation in Syria.

The seminar was attended by afurther 50 participants from VET andlabour market organisations who, MsDamyanovic says, enjoyed theopportunity to discuss with the highlevel attendees the role,responsibilities and outputs of theOFN.

Dr Al-Dardari’s clear support for theOFN reflects the importance Syria isattaching to labour market and HRdecision making. He told the meetingthat the OFN plays an important rolewithin the context of reform bysupporting macro-decision making inSyria.

Dr Al-Yafi echoed the deputy primeminister’s remarks and emphasisedhow important regional cooperationwas in an area with commonchallenges in labour market and HRdevelopment. Syria was alreadycooperating with Jordan in this, he said.

OFN staff in Syria now plan to contactseminar participants to discussimplementation of the TVEThandbook and classifications during2007 and discuss further ways of

20 Live&Learn Mediterranean countries move ahead with ETF-backed observatories

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21Live&Learn Mediterranean countries move ahead with ETF-backed observatories

cooperating. They plan to produce ananalytical report on TVET withparticular reference to Syria’s fiveyear plan.

Egypt’s workshop presented anddiscussed strategy for OFN functionsover the next five years, with thefocus on developing HR relevant tothe labour market. Two reports thatwill help decided HRD priorities forlabour resources in 2007 will beprepared during the coming year.They are likely to reflect recentgovernment policy decisions. Theseinclude identifying how education andtraining can help combatunemployment by bridging the skillsgap between VET output and theneeds of the labour market; movingtowards a more integrated approachto HR development that emphasiseslifelong learning; and bettermonitoring of progress in achieving amore coherent and integrated HRdevelopment strategy.

Zakaria Ragab, director of Egypt’sNational Centre for HRD, which isaffiliated to the Investors’ AssociationUnion, said at the Cairo workshopthat a unique feature of the EgyptianOFN was that public and privateinstitutions and NGOs had formed anetwork and were cooperating tosupport HRD decision making.

“The supply and demand side cometogether, which allows for decisionsto be based on comprehensiveinformation, analysis andrecommendations in a complexenvironment,” Mr Ragab said.

It is an example, Ms Damyanovic says,that could usefully be shared with othercountries where high level governmentofficials and public and privateinstitutional stakeholders aredemonstrating a shared commitment tocapacity building in HR development.

OFN progress in Jordan and Morocco also showspromise

Jordan’s OFN is busy helping develop an overall HR strategy –something the Jordanian government has identified as a national priority– and presented a draft analytical report on TVET indicators for decisionmaking in the Human Resource field at its dissemination event. Workwill continue during 2007.

In Morocco sector statistical profiles – which are used as analytical andplanning tools to monitor developments and forecast skills needs in thelabour market – were produced on tourism, metallurgy and IT. 2007 willsee training activities for Moroccan representatives to encourage thetake-up of these new methodologies.

In Algeria, the OFN reported that capacity building for creating a OFNunder the EU MEDA II programme, to be hosted by CERPEQ, is nowunderway. ETF has provided training to prepare staff for this newchallenge.

‘Learning does not stop when you finish school or university. We live in a

rapidly changing world in the Information Age, and our workforce must

make sure it has the general skills required by our demanding globalised

environment. Also, as our society ages, it is more important than ever

before that adults continue to learn new skills or refresh old knowledge

throughout their lives.’

Ján FigelEuropean Commissioner for Education, Training,

Culture and Multilingualism

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Designing Adult Learning Strategies:The Case of South-East Europe

Acknowledging the importance of adultlearning, the European Training Foundationhas just published a paper looking at how acomprehensive and coherent adult learningpolicy framework can be developed, usingrecent data gathered from countries of SouthEastern Europe. The publication aims toprovide guidance not only to those countries,but also others operating in a similar context.

The quality of human and socialcapital is a key determinant of futureeconomic growth, wealth creationand social progress in any country. Ifno action is taken to raise overall skilllevels in the transition countries andterritories in question, this is likely tobe a major constraint on productivityand competitiveness, but also onefforts to reduce poverty. While it isself-evident that improving skillsacross the board will not on its ownsolve chronic unemployment norreverse economic decline, investmentin people’s skills is a central part ofintegrated measures to tackle theseproblems.

The overall objectives of an adultlearning strategy are to improve thecompetitiveness of the economy andthe labour force by raising theaverage skills level of the workforceand making people more adaptableand able to accept and cope withchange, and to promote the socialaims of equity and participation.These are general lifelong learningaims that relate to initial educationand training and adult learning. Theyare also in line with the generalobjectives of the EU’s economic andlifelong learning strategies.

Good governance

In order to achieve these objectivesand help overcome the difficulties inthe current adult learning in SouthEastern Europe, strategies will needto be based on a number of principlesof good governance. These principlesinclude a clear policy lead fromgovernment in adult learning; thesharing of responsibilities for policyand strategy formulation, actionplanning and implementation with thesocial partners and otherstakeholders; the adjustment ofprovision in terms of learning offers,modes and settings to suit learners’needs; a shift in balance to supportemployee development; and arational financing system thatachieves a balance betweenefficiency and equality objectives.

Implementing adult learningstrategies, creating diverse learningopportunities for all and raisingparticipation hinge on whethergovernments and stakeholders playtheir full part in promoting a learningculture and increasing the value oflearning for enterprises andindividuals. Government andemployers must visibly and

concretely signal the importance oflearning for economiccompetitiveness and individualemployability.

The government needs to take thelead in developing and finding theresources for adult learning inconsultation with key partners. Thismeans that all the relevant ministrieshave to contribute, within their areasof responsibility, to the formulation ofthe strategy and its implementation,which is a long-term commitment.Determining ministerialresponsibilities and departmentalbudget commitments to adultlearning, having a shared vision,agreeing priorities and adopting anintegrated approach are complexmatters, but they are necessary forthe coherent and comprehensivedevelopment of adult learning, theoptimal use of public and privateresources and mutually reinforcingactions.

Empowering stakeholders

An important catalyst for partnershipworking is the shift in governanceaway from central control toframeworks that empower

22 Live&Learn Designing Adult Learning Strategies: The Case of South-East Europe

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23Live&Learn Designing Adult Learning Strategies: The Case of South-East Europe

stakeholders. New coordinatingstructures at national and regionallevels are needed. The membershipof a future national council for adultlearning would need to reflect therange of interests and involve all therelevant ministries, the socialpartners, the employment service andthe (macro) regions, if relevant. Sucha council could act as a usefulsounding board for providinginformed opinion and advice to thegovernment on strategy proposalsand action plans, and supporting theirimplementation. The immediate taskof this partnership could be to definethe adult learning strategy, thepriorities in line with governmentguidelines and the responsibility for

delivery. The council could overseethe drafting and monitoring ofNational Employment Action Plans inline with the European EmploymentStrategy; provide general supervisionof infrastructure and supportstructures; ensure overall planningand monitoring of national, EU andother donor interventions inpartnership with the institutions incharge, as well as superviselower-level partnerships.

Below national level, regionalpartnerships are important in bringingthe planning and delivery of adultlearning closer to where people liveand work and ensuring that provisionmeets labour market needs more

effectively. These partnerships couldidentify the main learning needs oftheir areas through labour marketassessments; assess the supply oflearning opportunities and howprovision might be developed;coordinate research and survey work;assure the quality of learning offerswithin the region; assist theemployment service in its provisionfor unemployed people; and possiblyallocate government and donorfunding within the region.

Effective partnerships rely onconsultation and open dialogue. Theywork best when there is legitimacy,mutual respect, a shared vision andcommon goals, and when partners

An adult learning strategy will help improve the competitiveness of the economy and the labour force


have a genuine desire to work together.In order to establish and run successfulpartnerships, South Eastern Europeancountries require substantialcapacity-building and support.

The strategic objectives of an adultlearning strategy are achieved througha series of specific measures, each ofwhich needs its own action plan,budget and implementation timetable.The measures must be realistic,achievable, measurable andtime-bound and they must be brokendown to cover the short, medium andlonger term.

Basic skills problem

Key measures to implement the adultlearning strategy include theimprovement of basic skills amonglow-skilled adults and overall supportto the acquisition of skills relevant forthe market economy.

Responsibility for the allocation ofresources and the development ofappropriate measures to address thebasic skills problem in South EasternEurope clearly lies with government.

Improving basic skills and keycompetences is likely to besuccessful when learning ismeaningful and relates to people’sprior knowledge and competence,and when occupational skills areintegrated into the curriculum.Investment would need to be madein teacher training and in developingadult-friendly learning environmentsand processes. Whilst ministriesmay prefer to work through formalpublic institutions, there areadvantages to opening up training toa wider range of providers andconsortia following a competitivebidding procedure. NGOs are closerto hard-to-reach populations.Partners need to work together todevelop local services and adjustprovision to meet the scale andpattern of demand. Employers canmake a valuable contribution byproviding information on the keycompetences that are likely toincrease prospects for employmentand, perhaps, by offering workplacements. The partnership wouldneed to monitor and evaluate theeffectiveness of local skillsprovision.

The approach that employers shouldbe responsible for training their ownemployees has not been entirelysuccessful in ensuring a sufficientlevel of company training. In manyEU Member States, governmentshave intervened to try to achieve amore efficient solution. Wherefinancial considerations preventcompanies from training, the case forproviding targeted financial incentivescan be made. It may be possible, forexample, to provide free orsubsidised assessments of trainingneeds or of the existing stock of skillsof small and medium-sizedenterprises, or to fund training forworkers under threat of redundancyin enterprises facing restructuring.Joint funding arrangements betweenemployers and the employmentservice are also useful, for example inapprenticeship schemes. A numberof EU countries have experimentedwith levy schemes. Financialincentives for individuals to undertaketraining also boost participation,although they may be difficult toadminister and may not reachlow-skilled people without appropriatetargeting built into the frameworkconditions of programmes and theselection of beneficiaries.

Management development

Ensuring that the managers ofleading companies are well trainedand competent will lead to betterbusiness performance and higheroverall training levels. Governmentsand their partners from the privatesector can promote this byintroducing high standards inbusiness and management training,and by assisting intermediary bodiesand providers that supportmanagement development. Formalmanagement training courses shouldbe assessed to ensure that what they


The importance of basic skills among low skilled adults is just one measure toimplement the adult learning strategy

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offer is in line with best practice inother more developed economies. Inorder to increase the transfer ofmanagement training expertise,existing links between institutions indifferent countries could beexpanded. Centres for managementtraining could be established to bringtogether existing providers, and todevelop their provision to suit newand established companies and tomeet the needs of different regionaland local economic profiles. A keyarea of management training isflexibility and diversity of provisionand quality.

A thorough understanding of acompany’s market position and how itcould be improved is the basis of acompany’s business strategy and foridentifying the contribution thatemployees can make by upgradingtheir skills and competence. Furthercapacity-building is necessary for thedesign of HRD strategies and thecreation of learning systems.

Networks of companies involved andinterested in management trainingcould be established at anappropriate level. This action is likelyto be taken forward by the economicand crafts chambers or otheremployers’ associations and largerenterprises who might act as mentorsfor other companies, and in particularfor small businesses. Managerswould benefit from a better use of thepower of trade associations,entrepreneurs’ networks,standard-setting agencies, qualitycentres and technology networks.

Clusters in particular have the potentialto enhance access to information,services, technology and specialisedskills. Special programmes formanagers could help them toovercome any hesitation they may

have in forming clusters andsupporting their development. Clustersare geographically focused groups ofrelated businesses and institutions.They typically include buyers andsuppliers, distributors, related servicefirms, training organisations or others.Specialised courses could bedelivered locally to train people oncluster support technology, theeconomic and regulatory environmentand aspects related to humanresource development. Some peoplecould develop as experts in certainclusters. Small laboratories placedwithin a cluster could be funded andwould provide local solutions to localproblems. An important area ofsupport within clusters could be theuse of information and communicationtechnologies and the development ofrelated e-skills.

Governments, the social partners andintermediary organisations couldcomplement the above mentionedefforts by carrying out campaigns toraise awareness amongst managersabout the benefits of training and byreducing regulatory or administrativeburdens affecting entrepreneurialactivity and training.

The adult learning strategy mustmake the best use of all adult learningproviders. There is currently littleinformation on their numbers andtypes in each country and territory, oron the quality of their provision. Oncethis information is available it should

be possible to identify serious gaps inprovision at different levels and indifferent areas, and for the regional orlocal partnership to encouragenetworking and links betweenproviders and users. Key priorities forproviders include training the trainersto ensure that learning is based onup-to-date teaching practice andupdating its content to meet newlabour market needs.

Challenge for adult learners

Adult learning represents ademanding and complex challengefor teachers and trainers of adults.Adult learners need to have choicesand be able to influence whichcourses or programmes they follow.Teachers and learners both shareresponsibility. Adult learning supplyhas to be open and expanded toprovide a wide range of learningoffers, in diverse settings, usingappropriate methodologies. It alsohas to make learning attractive,interesting and meaningful for adults.The environment, organisation andcontent of learning are important.Many adults learn best when learningconditions and relations betweenteacher and learners are warm andtolerant. Learners welcome aparticipant-centred approach. Whenthe content of learning is based onreal life or work issues related to thelearners, this helps people makeconnections between prior knowledgeand experience and new learning.

It is necessary to establish networks of companies involved in management training

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Meaningful indicators of the quality ofadult learning provision include:allowing adult participants to choosecourses and course content, theavailability of a wide variety of adultlearning opportunities, a favourablelearning environment and coursecontent based on real issues, and theexistence of a system for thecontinuing training of adult teachersand trainers.

It is important that stakeholders in thelearning system have confidence inits operations. Individuals want toknow that what they have learnt isrecognised, and is of high quality andof benefit to them. Employers want toknow, when recruiting people, thattheir qualifications meet recognisednational standards. It is thereforerecommended that frameworks fornational qualifications are developed.Assessing an individual’s priorlearning and experience is anotheraspect of accreditation that helps toimprove access to learning andshape learning by providing ademonstrable base on which furtherlearning can be built.

Evaluation mechanisms

In addition, anyone undertakingformal learning will want to knowwhether the provider is efficient andeffective in what it is supplying.Countries may have a system ofaccreditation or certification ofproviders, using national guidelinesand possibly regional administrationto reduce and shorten bureaucraticprocedures. Accreditation systemsneed to ensure that private providersare financially sound, that they arenot making exaggerated claims intheir publicity literature, and that theirpedagogy and teaching areappropriate.

With regard to monitoring andevaluation, at the national level thereneeds to be a mechanism forregularly reviewing the progress ofthe adult learning strategy as a whole.This would cover both the process –for example, national and regionalpartnerships – and the outputs. Thelatter would, for example, includetracking how many people are trainedin particular skills, whether theygained a qualification (if applicable)and whether those whose trainingwas intended to get them into workhave in fact got jobs. This will help toestablish whether publicly fundedadult learning programmes aremeeting their objectives and givinggood value for money. In order forevaluation to have credibility it needsto be undertaken by an independentprofessional body.

As educational and employmentoptions have become more volatile,less secure and less transparent,people potentially need more supportin finding their way through theeducation system and into the labourmarket. The importance of careerguidance and its contribution to policygoals in lifelong learning, labourmarket efficiency and social inclusionis widely acknowledged in the EU.Guidance also includes thedevelopment of an individual’s careermanagement skills through any formof education, including adult learning.What is needed in South EasternEurope, where respective schemesare underdeveloped, is a policy andlegislative framework for the provisionof high-quality lifelong guidanceprovision for all citizens, includingadults. The framework would need tospecify the roles, responsibilities andmechanisms for cooperation betweenpublic education and labour marketauthorities at national, regional and

local levels; the infrastructure andinformation used; the standards ofguidance delivery and thequalifications of guidance experts;and the mechanisms for includingother key stakeholders, such associal partners, guidance agencies,parent, young people and consumerassociations, and guidancepractitioners in policy and systemsdevelopment.

There is a need in the short term todevelop a strategy for data collectionfor adult learning, labour marketintelligence and future skillsforecasting. The aims of the strategywould be to increase the quality andnumber of relevant datasets, to fillgaps and systematise mechanismsfor collecting data, and to developcapacity to analyse trends andforecast future needs. Public andprivate training providers includingNGOs could provide participationdata at the time of enrolment.Companies could include trainingdata in their annual business reports.


Financing strategies

In drawing up financing strategies,countries and territories must pursuetwo main objectives. The first is toensure an adequate level ofinvestment in adult learning, whichmeans increasing the aggregatefinance level from all sources.Incentives are needed to encourage(co)investment in learning bycompanies and individuals. Thesecond aim is to ensure an equitabledistribution of adult learning, which iscurrently biased in favour of the moreadvantaged members of society andlarger enterprises or certain sectors.Unless societies can increase thelifelong learning participation ofgroups who are currently excluded orunderrepresented, there is a risk ofwidening existing social divides.Finance is one of the crucial policylevers for balancing efficiency andequity gains, but information isessential for underpinning thisbalance.

The lack of adequate resourceshinders the development of adultlearning. In most countriesexpenditure on education and trainingis seen as a cost by individuals andemployers rather than an investmentfor the future. The fact thatvalue-added tax is imposed on coursefees gives the wrong signal when thefocus should be on encouragingpeople to learn. Some incentives, suchas the voucher system in Serbia, canbe attractive for individuals. Others,such as introducing tax incentives toencourage companies and/orindividuals to invest in training, couldwork in some countries, but are not anoption for countries where taxcollection systems are weak. Creativesolutions can be found to encouragecompanies and individuals toparticipate more widely in educationand training. This report lists a numberof incentives and financing

mechanisms available to companiesor individuals that exist in othercountries. Donor or other funds arelikely to be available in all countriesand territories: these could be pooledor redistributed to adult learning.However, South Eastern Europeancountries need to prioritise thepopulation groups and economicsectors that should be targeted bynational programmes.

Steps that could be taken in the shortterm to build consensus and providea basis for developing acomprehensive adult learningstrategy and its subsequentimplementation include an agreementwithin government of:

� a timetable for increased resourcesto be spent on education andlearning, specifying the share to beallocated to adult learning;

� the establishment of a ‘learningpartnership’, bringing togetherrelevant ministries and the variousstakeholders with a view toconsidering the priority areas foraction and funding in adultlearning;

� strengthening the policy capacity ofthe lead ministry and other relevantministries to develop acomprehensive strategy for adultlearning in consultation with keystakeholders; and,

� the development of partnerships atand below national level (e.g.allocation of funds, definition offunctions, membership, objectives)

and capacity-building for ministries,the social partners and otherstakeholders to enable them toengage in effective partnerships,using international experience anddonor or expert assistance.

The scarcity of resources acrossSouth Eastern Europe warrantsconcentration on a few priority actions.These could include a policy andaction plan (i) for the development ofwork-based learning, particularlymanagement and entrepreneurshiptraining for small businesses, as wellas the development of specialprogrammes to address particularskills shortages, where there is robustevidence of demand and where thetraining cannot be met by employers;(ii) to improve basic literacy andoccupational skills including keycompetences; and (iii) to expand anddevelop active labour marketmeasures for the registeredunemployed and inactive peopleseeking work.

Evelyn Viertel,Team Leader for knowledge

management, and key competencesand country contact person

for the former Yugoslav Republicof Macedonia

Read the publication:Designing adult learning strategies:the case of South Eastern Europe -http://www.etf.europa.eu/pubmgmt.nsf/(getAttachment)/4F49C4BAB8F7D6CFC125727A0052CF80/$File/NOTE6Y6KAM.pdf


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Timing is of the essence for the Copenhagenproject

In international cooperation yousometimes come across very goodideas which just happen to comealong at the wrong time. Occasionallyyou will see initiatives which are toobadly thought-out to seize theopportunities for change on offer.Rarely however do you come acrossa project with such impeccable timingas the Copenhagen DisseminationProject. With a small budget but a bigagenda, this project has been quietlyfeeding into the VET reform processin countries from Romania through toTurkey over the past two years.

This project is designed to let ETFpartner countries know about all thetools for VET reform that their EUcounterparts are developing as partof the Copenhagen Process.Examples include Europass, theEuropean Qualification Framework orEuropean quality assurancemeasures. The project comes at atime when partner countries such asAlbania, Bosnia and Herzegovina andCroatia are immersed in far-reachingeducation reforms of their own. Itaims to help this process along byencouraging policymakers toconsider the Copenhagen issues andhelping them learn from each otherand from the experiences of their EUcounterparts when it comes totackling educational reform.

During 2005, each of the tenparticipating countries appointed anational co-ordinator to act as the keylink between Copenhagendevelopments and the reformprocess at home. Each was allocateda budget of between €20,000 and€25,000 and was asked to choosewhich activities they would fund totake the Copenhagen agendaforward. The national co-ordinatorsalso identified which of the manymessages coming out of the LisbonAgenda were most relevant to their

process of VET reform, eventuallysettling on the four themes of nationalqualification frameworks or NQF,quality assurance, social partnershipand the sectoral approach todeveloping qualifications and careerguidance.

Tailored activities

In 2006, international conferenceswere organised on these four themesin Belgrade, Sinaia, Zagreb andSofia. At the same time, each countrycame up with a national action planwhich aimed to boost the capacitiesof policymakers when designing VETreforms, while at the same timeincorporating key messages from theCopenhagen Process. Rather thansponsoring the same activities inevery country, the flexibility of theproject allowed them to tailor theiractivities to the specific stage of VETreform each had reached. Manyorganised national or localdissemination events or participatedin study visits to Romania, Scotland,Ireland and Denmark to brush up ona particular subject. In December2006, a large group, including most ofthe co-ordinators, seven deputyministers and five representatives ofEC delegations, came to Turin toinform each other about theirprogress during 2006 and plan howto keep up the momentum in 2007and beyond. “We are moving fromsimply disseminating theCopenhagen messages to discussingwith countries what it would mean toactually implement them at home,”says Karl-Axel Skjølstrup, projectcoordinator for the ETF.

Albania has designed a nationalstrategy for VET reform until 2009 inwhich developing a nationalqualification framework is a highpriority. As part of the CARDS project,there are currently five groups

working on different aspects of NQFand two major policy papers haverecently been produced. Albania hasused the Copenhagen project toincrease key people’s know-how onNQF by participating in several studyvisits. “We see this process as auseful part of the wider VET reformprocess in our country,” says MaksimKonini, Albania’s nationalco-ordinator, “it has definitely givenour VET reforms an extra push.”

It has also facilitated consultation andhelped generate new input into thereform process. “As part of theCopenhagen project, we heldworkshops in five cities to discuss thepolicy papers,” says Lindita Xhillari,executive director of NGO HumanDevelopment Promotion Centre. Theparticipants included people fromlocal education authorities, principalsand teachers from VET schools andlocal business people. Xhillaribelieves that involvement from thegrassroots is vital if reforms are tosucceed. “Only if you have input froma broad range of people can you seeif your methods and goals arerealistic,” she says.

Changing landscape

In Turkish VET, the landscape ischanging fast. The Turkishgovernment has recently establisheda new authority in charge ofvocational qualifications which aimsto bring more coherence to itsfragmented VET system. The law thataccompanies the new body isexpected to pave the way for muchmore structured relations between thedifferent actors in VET, giving thesocial partners a permanent role indeveloping and maintainingqualifications for the first time.

cont'd. on p. 30

28 Live&Learn Timing is of the essence for the Copenhagen project

Dissemination to be more country-focused in 2007

Dissemination of EU policies on education and training,otherwise known as the Copenhagen disseminationproject, has been one of the major undertakings of theETF's operations department during 2006. The projectwas sub-divided into four sub-projects aimed at candidatecountries, the Western Balkans, Eastern Europe andCentral Asia and the MEDA countries, with the bulk of ETFsupport going to the first two groups of country. After twoyears of intense activity, the results were presented at aclosing conference in Turin on 18 - 19 December 2006.

"The results we achieved are down to the outstandingwork carried out by the Copenhagen co-ordinators andtheir colleagues in the partner countries," says Karl-AxelSkjølstrup, project coordinator for the ETF, "the projecthas clearly made a big contribution to the ongoing processof reform." Over the coming year, the dissemination of EUpolicies on education and training will continue, butsupport will be more focused on specific countries in linewith the new cooperation framework on policy learningadopted by the ETF for the period 2007 - 2010.


29Live&Learn Timing is of the essence for the Copenhagen project

Unsurprisingly, Turkey has chosen toconcentrate on social partnership andthe sectoral approach as one of itspriorities under the Copenhagenproject. Career guidance is a secondpriority. Employers and unions werepart of the group that drew upTurkey’s national action plan,approved last September. With thehelp of the ETF, the group organiseda symposium for 120 people on therole of vocational guidance in theCopenhagen Process in Ankara lastNovember. During 2007, it plans tocarry on capacity-building at the newqualifications body, currently busyrecruiting staff, and to organiseseveral activities for raisingawareness of the EU’s 2010 workprogramme.

Although active social partnership isrelatively new to Turkey, tradeunionist Osman Yildiz does seeprogress being made. He believesthat governments have to changetheir attitudes to the involvement ofNGOs and civil society in socialdialogue if it is to become more thanjust token involvement. “There are

several dimensions to social dialogue– personal relations, institutionalrelations, the legal framework,” hesays, “it takes a lot of ingredients tocreate a space where different peoplecan harness their energy towards thesame goal.” Participating inCopenhagen activities such as studyvisits together has been one way ofcementing those relationships, saysYildiz. As one example of this newworking relationship, at the Turinmeeting in December, the membersof Turkish delegation decidedtogether to offer to host the nextmeeting of national co-ordinators.

Building consensus

Bosnia and Herzegovina is keen tointegrate its Copenhagen activities intothe wider reforms currently underway.Its national action plan was developedin consultation with stakeholders, butalso with personnel from the EU’sCARDS and VET II programmes. Thisambitious plan, which aims to create acomprehensive strategy for humanresources is being laid out within theInstrument for Pre-Accession

timeframe of 2007 – 2013. Building aBosnian national qualificationframework will form the cornerstone ofthis strategy which involves setting upan NQF authority by 2009 and linkingthis to the European QualificationFramework. “Maybe we are being tooambitious,” says Suad Muhibic, tradeunionist and Bosnian nationalco-ordinator, “but we can but try.”

For Muhibic, the main benefit of theCopenhagen project so far has beenits usefulness for building a consensusbetween the different actors. “It ismuch easier to work together andgenerate ideas now,” he says, “in thefuture we expect to reach a muchmore precise analysis of the situation.”Pushing for a consensus is not justidle talk in Bosnia and Herzegovina;with a total of 13 different educationministries, the country currently hasthe most complicated political structurein the world.

It is hoped that by bringing allqualifications under a single structure,an NQF will increase the mobility ofstudents and workers, not just abroad,but also within the country itself.Currently qualifications from onecanton may not be recognised in thenext. Bosnians also hope that workingon areas such as NQF could act todraw the education ministries closertogether. “I believe ministers willunderstand that if we don’t join in, wewill lag behind our neighbours and thiscould make it very difficult for us to jointhe EU,” says Pero Zelenika, deputyminister of education in WestHerzegovina Canton, “we are quitestubborn people and are doingsomething in spite of everything so wedon’t want to be the last ones to join.”

Montenegro first considered thebenefits of NQF in 2004 and this hassince become a firm priority. Buildingon earlier work under CARDS, anational commission began work on

30 Live&Learn Timing is of the essence for the Copenhagen project

Grassroots involvement is vital if VET reforms are to succeed in South-Eastern Europe

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31Live&Learn Timing is of the essence for the Copenhagen project

building a Montenegrin NQF in early2006, while a parallel TEMPUSproject is currently focusing on anNQF for higher education. As part oftheir Copenhagen activities, thegroup has organised a seminar formembers of the NQF commissionand joined in a study visit to Denmarklast December. Four workshops heldduring 2006 have produced a draftblueprint for the NQF which iscurrently being presented to a widergroup of stakeholders.

Slow growth

Ivana Petričević, Montenegrinnational coordinator, believes NQFwill be slow to grow and may have noreal end in sight. “I don’t expect wecan sort things out and have themfunctioning in just a couple of years,”she says, “we have done a lot of workon VET, higher education is next, butthen we will have to go inside eachsector such as civil engineering orconstruction, look at the referencelevels and try and see where they fitand how they link to the rest of thesystem.” Integrating informal andnon-formal learning will be a secondchallenge. “The specialists in eachsector will really have to sit down andthink where this specific qualificationor reference level could berecognised in the formal system orwhat non-formal learning would haveto be assessed to provide anequivalent,” she says.

For Petričević, the Copenhagendissemination project has beenabove all a case of very good timing.It came at a time when a lot ofchange was underway inMontenegro’s education system andseveral major projects were about toend. “Montenegro is a small countrywith a very limited number of keypeople,” she says, “we were worriedthat we could lose our momentum.”The government and its partners had

already identified the need for anNQF and had set up the commissionto work on it and saw theCopenhagen project as a naturalcontinuation for supporting capacity

building. “It is only rarely that you geta situation where everything matches– the needs, the timing, the resources– fortunately this was really the casewith this project,” says Petricevic.

No limits to the Copenhagen messages

The main beneficiaries of theCopenhagen project are Bulgaria,Romania, Montenegro, Turkey,Albania, Bosnia andHerzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo,Macedonia and Serbia.Nevertheless, others are alsointerested in the Copenhagenagenda. Delegates from Armenia,Azerbaijan, Georgia, RussianFederation and Ukraine attendedthe Turin meeting in December2006 and a series ofCopenhagen disseminationevents were held in Moscow,Kiev and Tbilisi last autumn. Keypeople involved in MEDA projectsfrom Syria, Tunisia, Egypt andMorocco took part in a study visitto Romania in May 2006.

Ukraine is beginning to plan forits own national qualificationframework and TimofyiDesyatov, director of vocationaleducation at the UkrainianMinistry of Education andScience, believes it will be ofgreat benefit to his system. "Wedo hope we will be able toincrease transparency and alevel of competences that willallow us to reach a balancebetween supply and demand forlabour," he says.

Find out more:Copenhagen Process -http://ec.europa.eu/education/copenhagen/index_en.html

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Policy learning for sustainable VET reform

by Peter Grootings

European Training Foundation

Multilateral and bilateral donoragencies increasingly issuedeclarations about the need tocontextualise knowledge and secureownership of development policies byinvolving local policymakers andother stakeholders in policyformulation and implementation. Yet,policy transfer through imposing orcopying (selective knowledge about)policies and models taken from othercontexts still dominates theday-to-day operational practices ofthe donor community. Knowledge asprovided by the donors continues tobe considered the only relevant kindof knowledge (King 1993 and 2005;King & McGrath 2004; Ellerman 2005).

Accordingly, development or reform isnormally seen as a process of socialengineering that will be successful ifproperly managed technically andwith the right implementationcapacities. In reality, as we know,most reform projects are short-livedbecause they do not fit in context andthere is no local ownership. Reformshardly ever develop the way theywere planned and are usually notsustainable. On the contrary, theytend to come and go with the donorsand their agencies.

One reason for the gap betweendeclaration and actual behaviour is aparticular understanding, often onlyimplicit, of why and how people learnand develop new knowledge andexpertise (Hager 2004) . Manydevelopment agencies and their staffrely on traditional approaches tolearning. They think and act as

classical school teachers who havethe right knowledge and know bestwhat has to be done. Theirknowledge just needs to betransferred to partners who don’thave this knowledge yet and theyshould implement measures that arepresented to them as best practice.Local policymakers and localstakeholders are regarded as passiveknowledge and instruction receiverswho do not possess enough relevantprior knowledge and experience.They are in the true behaviouristtradition treated like students in oldfashioned - vocational – schools,carrots and sticks included.

New – constructivist - learningtheories, instead, argue that learnersare more successful in acquiring,digesting, applying and retrieving newknowledge when they have beenactively engaged in these processes

(Simons, van der Linden & Duffy2000). Facilitating active policylearning rather than policy transfermay therefore have better chances tocontribute to sustainable reformedsystems.1

Facilitating policy learning

There are many similarities betweenthe current international discussionsabout new learning, the newprofessionalisation of teachers andour own view about the role ofinternational policy advisers.Educationalists are discussing theneed for teachers and trainers to shiftfrom being transmitters of expertknowledge and skills to students -who are largely considered to bepassive receivers of information -towards becoming facilitators oflearning processes of persons whowant to become competent

32 Live&Learn Policy learning for sustainable VET reform

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1 Others would argue that good governance, participation of civic society, fight against corruption and sound legalframeworks are more important. This paper will simply pay attention to the learning aspects which have been neglected sofar. The black box approach to learning has become a surprising characteristic of many educational reform projects but isalso apparent in other policy reform domains.

33Live&Learn Policy learning for sustainable VET reform

themselves. Much of the newlearning debate is about how todevelop abilities to cope withsituations of uncertainty instead ofapplying standardised rules andprocedures. If “ownership” is aboutnational stakeholders having – andbeing willing – to learn new policiesthen international advisers shouldtake proper notice of thesediscussions. After all, the newlearning paradigm is firmly based onnew insights about how people learnand about how more experienced‘experts’ can help them to becomecompetent (Schön 1983).

A policy-learning approach maytherefore also be the appropriateresponse to some of the keychallenges related to the VET reformprocess in transition countries.2

Policymakers and other keystakeholders should be enabled tolearn to develop and implement theirown policies. But in practice there areconsiderable obstacles for facilitatingpolicy learning. These stem mainlyfrom the many tensions between“what” and “how” in the relationshipbetween experts and novices.Several of these obstacles are knownfrom the search for operationalapproaches to make active learningwork in classical education settings.3

However, others are particular to thefield of reform policy development.

Understanding the context

Understanding ofcontext-boundedness or institutionalfit is not easy and it is a challenge thatboth local policymakers andinternational advisers share. Whiledonors usually do not have a good

understanding of local context (oftenthey even do not speak thelanguage), it can also not simply beassumed that local policymakersunderstand the characteristics andchallenges of their own VET system.It is difficult to question what hasalways been normal and the rule.Often, local knowledge production isnot well developed or – as is the casein transition countries -impoverished.

Moreover, international consultantsdo not always understand that theadvice they provide is perhaps firmlyrooted in the institutional context thatthey come from themselves and theyare often not well informed aboutpolicies and systems from othercountries. How can localpolicymakers assess the fitness ofwhat is sold to them as the latestinternational trend? How caninternational advisers properly assessprior knowledge and develop

contextualisation of new knowledge?Policymakers are also under stress tocome up quickly with solutions. Theirpolitical mandate does not leave themmuch time. Advisers are bound by thefinancial and time resources that thedonors have reserved for theirprojects.

Ownership

Also the ownership issue raisesproblems when this is restricted to afew cooperative nationalpolicymakers and – simply becauseof the design of the donor project –leaves out the vast majority ofteachers and trainers in schools. Weknow very well that nationaleducation reforms cannot becompletely developed at the centrallevel given the diversity of localconditions and the specificknowledge that can only bedeveloped locally. There is a vast

A policy learning approach may be the appropriate response to some key VETchallenges

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2 The policy learning approach has been formally endorsed by the ETF Advisory Forum (AF) conference in 2003 andreinforced by the AF conference in June 2006. See formal Statements on www.etf.europa.eu More detailed discussionsand analyses can be found in the ETF Yearbooks 2004, 2005 and 2006. See Grootings 2004; Grootings and Nielsen 2005and Grootings and Nielsen 2006.

3 The key issue remains how a learning situation can be established where the expert acts as a learning process facilitatorand the novice can be stimulated to actively engage in learning.

reform space that can only be filled bystakeholders at the community andschool level. Policy learning needs totake place at all levels of the system.But who needs to learn what?

The basic assumption underlying theconcept of policy learning is not somuch that policies can be learned butthat actual policies are alwayslearned policies. But learning is notsimply the transfer of expertknowledge or behaviour from oneperson to another but rather theacquisition of understanding andcompetence through participation inlearning processes. Moreover, asmentioned before, policymakers arenot only policy learners. They alsohave to act, and acting on the politicalscene, especially in environmentsthat are undergoing radical changesuch as in transition countries, notalways leaves a lot of space and timefor careful and gradual learning.

On the other hand, policymakersengaged in systemic reforms are inneed of new knowledge which veryoften contradicts with establishedknowledge and routines. Forpolicymakers therefore, because theyare under pressure to act, learning ismore than merely a cognitiveprocess: learning is practice. Theirlearning is situated learning as it is anintegral and inseparable aspect oftheir social practice.4 How can thepolicy making process be organisedas a policy learning process?

Policymakers in transition countriescan be regarded as highly motivatednovice learners and policy learningcan be facilitated by letting themparticipate in relevant communities ofpractice. Such communities ofpractice could be created by bringingtogether policymakers from differentcountries that have gone through orare undergoing reforms of theireducation systems. International andlocal policy analysts, researchers,advisers and other practitioners couldbe part of such communities as well.

However, policymakers in transitioncountries may be seen as “novices” interms of knowledge and expertiseconcerning the development ofmodern educational systems inmarket economies but they are also“experts” as far as their own countrycontext is concerned. Similarly,international policy advisers mayperhaps be the “experts” with respectto educational policymaking indeveloped economies but they areoften “novices” in terms of knowledgeabout the particular context of thepartner country. Neither localstakeholders nor internationaladvisers really exactly know what“fits” with regard to modern educationpolicy in a partner country’s context.

The community of practice concepttherefore needs to be furtherdeveloped to properly take intoaccount these differences in learningexperience and high levels of

uncertainty. Since old and newknowledge relate to different contextsthere are different peripheries andcentres and even those who arecloser to the centre remain learnersthemselves.

Policy learning through knowledgesharing

Reforming education and trainingsystems in transition countries impliescombining old and new knowledge inchanging contexts for both localstakeholders and internationaladvisers. Policy learning is not justabout learning the policies that othercountries have developed but ratherabout learning which policies can bedeveloped locally by reflecting on therelevance of other countries’ policiesfor the situation at home. Policylearning in this sense can onlyhappen when there is information andknowledge available and shared. Theprincipal role of donors thereforewould be to enable a reform policylearning process by providing accessto such information and experienceand by facilitating a critical reflectionon their relevance. However, donorsand their staff cannot do their learningfacilitation role well if they don’trecognise that they themselves arealso learners in the same policylearning process.

VET reform policy development seenas VET policy learning would have touse knowledge sharing to enabledecision makers from partnercountries to learn from – and notsimply about – VET reformexperiences from elsewhere for theformulation and the implementation oftheir own reform objectives.Knowledge sharing would also

34 Live&Learn Policy learning for sustainable VET reform

Policy learning needs to take place at all levels of the education system

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4 Lave and Wenger (1990) argue that all learning is situated learning and more particularly “legitimate peripheral participationin communities of practice”. Novice learners learn best when they are engaged in a community of more expert learners;during the learning process they become more competent themselves and move from the margin to the centre. See alsoWenger 1998.

35Live&Learn Policy learning for sustainable VET reform

enable donors and internationaladvisers to better understand theinstitutional context and history of thepartner country. For them, inbecoming familiar with localknowledge it will also be easier toappreciate and value the expertisethat partners bring into the reformprocess.

Thus, international donors and theirpolicy advisers would have to take arole similar to the one a modernteacher is supposed to play: not thatof the expert who knows it all andsimply passes on existing knowledgebut the one that recognises problems,does not know the solutions yet,organises and guides knowledgesharing and in so doing develops newknowledge for all involved in thelearning process. Policy learningtherefore can only happen inpartnership.

Policy learning is sharing experiencefrom the past to develop knowledgefor the future. It is also about sharingknowledge from abroad andknowledge that is locally produced.It is therefore about developing newknowledge. Policy learningcontributes not only to creating morecoherent system-wide reforms that fitbut also facilitates system-deepreforms of VET systems as it enablesall stakeholders to learn new rolesand develop new working routines. Itwill be a challenging task to developconcrete approaches that can makepolicy learning which is based onprinciples of active learning theorywork in practice.5

Further research and practice shouldreflect the new paradigm of sociallyorganised learning processes. The

setting up of research projects run byexternal education/VET scientists willnot in itself be of sufficient help in thedynamic processes of transition ifbased on a linear thinking abouttheory and practice. Participative andaction-based research will need toreceive more attention.

Obviously, even if policy learningtakes place, this will not guaranteethat new learning will lead to newpolicies and political action. Policylearning by policymakers is anecessary part of the policy processbut by far not sufficient on its own toproduce policy changes. Other,

collective and institutional factors arealso at stake. Policy change remainsafter all a political process.

However there will not be any policychange, unless those who are in aposition to take and realise policydecisions themselves are convincedthat a particular policy issue isimportant and are broadly familiarwith policy measures that can betaken to address them.

Peter Grootings,

ETF team leaderfor National Qualification Frameworks

in Central Asia

References

Ellerman, David (2005) Helping

People Help Themselves. From the

World Bank to an Alternative

Philosophy of Development

Assistance. Ann Arbor: TheUniversity of Michigan Press

Grootings, Peter ed. (2004)Learning Matters. ETF Yearbook

2004. Turin: ETF

Grootings, Peter & Nielsen, Söreneds. (2005) The role of teachers in

VET reforms: professionals and

stakeholders. ETF Yearbook 2005,Turin: ETF

Grootings, Peter & Nielsen, Söreneds. (2006) Skills development and

poverty reduction in transition

countries. ETF Yearbook 2006,Turin: ETF

Hager, Paul (2004) ‘TheCompetence Affair, or WhyVocational Education and TrainingUrgently Needs a NewUnderstanding of Learning’, Journal

of Vocational Education and

Training. Volume 56, Number 3,pp 409-434

King, Kenneth (1993) Aid and

Education in the Developing World:

Role of Donor Agencies in the

Analysis of Education. Longham.

King, Kenneth (2005) Development

Knowledge and the Global Policy

Agenda. Whose Knowledge?

Whose Policy? Centre of AfricanStudies, University of Edinburgh

King, Kenneth & Simon McGrath(2004) Knowledge for

Development? Comparing British,

Japanese, Swedish and World

Bank Aid. London: Zed Books

Lave, Jean & Wenger,Etienne (1991) Situated Learning:

Legitimate Peripheral Participation.Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress

Schön, Donald (1983) The

Reflective Practitioner: How

Professionals Think in Action. NewYork: Basic Books

Simons, Robert-Jan, van derLinden, Jos & Duffy, Tom eds.(2000) New Learning,Dordrecht/Boston/London: KluwerAcademic Publishers

Wenger, Etienne (1998)Communities of Practice. Learning,

Meaning and Identity. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press

5 ETF has launched several multi year projects that have been designed to further develop the policy learning approach.These projects deal amongst others with teacher training reform in the Western Balkan region, with the lessons that can belearned from the international debate on National Qualification Frameworks for the CIS countries, and with the implicationsof the Skills development for poverty reduction discussion for the countries of Central Asia. Information on these projects isavailable on the ETF website at www.etf.europa.eu

Women and Employment

36 Live&Learn Women and Employment

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Women and Employmentby Milena Corradini

European Union member states havea long history of promoting genderequality since the Treaty of Rome in1957. The current EU Treaty ofAmsterdam enshrines the principle ofequal opportunities and treatment ofmen and women in employment andoccupation.

The EU Council meeting in 2000 inLisbon adopted the “Lisbon strategy”to make the EU the “most competitiveand dynamic knowledge basedeconomy in the world, capable ofsustainable growth with more andbetter jobs and greater socialcohesion” by 2010, through:

� promotion of employability andreduction of skills gaps,

� promotion of lifelong learning (withthe involvement of all relevantstakeholders)

� fostering enterprise andentrepreneurship, innovation andskills for the information society.

To closely monitor progress inachieving the Lisbon objectives,quantitative indicators were identified.These included employment ratetargets and other benchmarks tomeasure the average performance ofEU education and training systems,

such as early school leaving rates,levels of educational attainment, andparticipation in lifelong learning. Twobenchmarks refer specifically togender, namely by 2010 to increase:

� the employment rate for womenfrom 51% to an average of morethan 60%;

� the total number of graduates inmathematics, sciences andtechnology by at least 15% whiledecreasing the gender imbalancein graduates in these subjects.

As regards women in education,recent figures show remarkableprogress in the EU. In general,female university graduatesoutnumber male. In 2003, 58% ofgraduates were women. Men’sperformance at secondary schoollevel, including school drop-out rate,is becoming a serious problem insome EU member states with theresult that specific gender biasedmeasures had to be undertaken tocounteract the situation. Womenrepresent 41% of PhD graduates,however, in 2002 86% of full timeacademic staff in the research fieldwere men. More women than menparticipate in adult education andtraining (lifelong learning) in 21 EUMS.

37Live&Learn Women and Employment

The situation of women in Turkeyhas, in recent years, been thefocus of increased attention. Inthis article, Live & Learn looks atthe current situation regardinggender equality within a Europeancontext.

Increased employment rates

In 2006 in the EU, the averageemployment rate for women reached56.3% and continues to increase forall age groups, in particular, olderwomen, but the pay gap remains aproblem. In the EU it is estimated thatmen earn 15% more than women forthe same job. Because of this, therisk of poverty is higher for women.

The share of female employeesworking part-time was 30.5% in 2004.The corresponding figure for menwas 6.6%. EU Member States areinvited to introduce measures tofacilitate flexible workingarrangements to help reconcile theprivate life with the professional life.However, the reality is women morethan men make use of sucharrangements creating a genderimbalance which has a negativeimpact on women’s position in theworkplace and on their economicsituation.

There is a widespread consensus inthe EU that women and men followtraditional education and trainingpaths, which very often place womenin less valued and less well paidprofessions. Education alsocontributes to continuing genderstereotypes in society and in careers.

Lack of uniformity

The most striking issue related togender equality and the situation of

women in Turkey is the lack ofuniformity across society. There is asharp contrast between the lifestylesand interpersonal relations ofeducated, urban, professionalwomen, who enjoy the rights to befound in any Western industrialsociety, and their counterparts in therural, poorly educated population inthe north, east and south-east of thecountry, and among the recent ruralmigrants that populate large cities.

Data show the employment rate ofwomen in Turkey (25.7%) to be farbelow the EU average of 53.6%.Further, it has fallen in recent yearsas a consequence of migration fromrural areas. Women’s share ofemployment in agriculture is 58%compared with 24% for men while28% of women employed inagriculture are unpaid family workers.The pay gap in 2002 was in line withEU trends of around 15% for peopleemployed in urban areas.

The adult population illiteracy ratedecreased at a faster pace for menthan for women - 28.5% of womenare illiterate in Turkey. Enrolment inbasic education in 2004 was 92% forboys and 90% for girls. Genderdisparity continues to be particularlyhigh in east and south-east Turkey;however the situation continues toimprove in particular thanks to theincreasing concern of nationalauthorities, international donororganisations and civil society.

At secondary school level, there is ageneral trend in Turkey to enrol ingeneral secondary schools to have abetter chance of admission touniversity. Vocational education forgirls remains based on traditionalstereotypes related to women’s rolein the family and society. Thesecourses do not prepare girls for theneeds of the labour market andworking life.

Female participation in highereducation is less problematic than atother levels. This indicates thepresence of social, structural andinstitutional mechanisms thatrepresent a barrier at lower andmedium levels of education, but notat higher level.

Education centres

A study carried out under the EUprogramme for support for basiceducation by Karadeniz University toassess the effectiveness of publiceducation centres (PEC), gives foodfor thought on gender participation invocational education and trainingactivities. 20 PECs were selected in 9provinces spread all over the countryand involved in field research. Theresults highlight that:

� all principals but one is male. Thejustification is that management ofa PEC is very demanding in termsof working hours and therefore notsuitable to women who have tocombine professional and privatelife. Of the total number ofteachers interviewed 7 weremales and 40 females.Management ranks aredominated by men, while womenteachers constitute the majority.

� 666 students of the PECs werealso interviewed, with the largestnumber in Istanbul and the lowestin Van. Those in Van apparently,had difficulties in filling in the

38 Live&Learn Women and Employment


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39Live&Learn Women and Employment

questionnaire. The sample ofstudents was made up of 93%women and 64% of them in theage cohort 10-29 years.

� 38% of women interviewedattended courses in ready-madeclothing, embroidery andhairdressing followed by computerand English courses. The restenrolled in a very fragmented list ofsubjects like handicrafts, childcare,aesthetics, etc.

Some studies by ISKUR (the Turkishemployment agency) show thatcompanies are not in favour ofemploying women, even in suitableoccupations. Many different reasonsare given, including family attitudes,lack of flexibility in working time andphysical strength. At the same timeISKUR carried out active employmentmeasures through EU support and50% of participants were women.

Studies in Turkey show that companies are not in favour of employing women even insuitable occupations

Conclusions

� There is increasing awareness inTurkey of the restrictive conditionsplaced on women by the the familyand society in general and thenegative impact this has on theirlabour market participation. This islargely due to the activeinvolvement of many civil societyorganisations.

� There is growing conviction amongwomen that work empowers themand gives them dignity and asense of freedom. Therefore,demand for work by women israpidly increasing.

� There is an urgent need to reformthe supply of vocational educationand training from a

gender-sensitive perspective tomake initial and continuingvocational training responsive tomodern society and the changingneeds of the labour market.Female students should get a fairchance of being employed withmore relevant vocational training.

� The business world in Turkey isstill male dominated and thereforenot promoting participation bywomen in the labour market. Thereis a need to start changing thementality through mediacampaigns, information, training,etc.

TISK (Turkish Confederation ofEmployer Associations) as a leading

social partner organisation, is willingto continue to contribute. It has aspecific role to play regarding thebusiness world. Certain programmesand campaigns can be launched tochange the attitudes of employersbiased towards males in theirrecruitment strategies and to supporthigher female participation in labourmarket-related training programmes.

Find out more:ISKUR - http://www.iskur.gov.tr/(in Turkish only)

Milena Corradini,

ETF expert on gender andcountry contact person

for Moldova and Armenia

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HOW TO CONTACT US

Further information can be foundon the ETF website: www.etf.europa.eu

For any additional information, please contact:

External Communication UnitEuropean Training FoundationVilla GualinoViale Settimio Severo, 65I – 10133 Torino

+39 011 630 2222+39 011 630 2200info@etf.

TFE europa.eu

Publications Office

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european trainingfoundation

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birth tothe european

partmediterranean countries