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Continuing vocational training and competence development in enterprises - Transversal competences increasingly important

Continuing training in enterprises is an important part of lifelong learning and therefore of great importance for the political sector, trade, industry society and all individuals. The European survey on the provision of continuing vocational training in enterprises - the European Continuing Vocational Training Survey (CVTS) - has been conducted in regular intervals for the last 15 years.

Read more Continuing vocational training and competence development in enterprises - Transversal competences increasingly important

Promoting Innovations in Vocational Education and Training 2009 - An Exchange of German Experiences

This journal wants to encourage people to learn from another and to pass on their experience and knowledge. Accordingly, the articles presented are a compilation of the contributions which have appeared in BIBB's German-language journal "Berufsbildung in Wissenschaft und Praxis (BWP)" in recent months, and are now published in English to bring them to the attention of a wider international readership.

Read more BWP Special Edition 2009

Manfred Kremer, President of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training, Bonn

In-company vocational training - A worthwhile investment for enterprises

Findings from the 2007 BIBB Cost-Benefit Survey

Even though it initially generates costs, it is worth a company's while to provide in-house vocational training, primarily due to the benefits that arise when an enterprise hires its trainees upon completion of their training: This saves recruitment costs and even newly 'graduated' trainees are more productive - at least initially - than skilled workers who have been recruited from the external labour market.

Read more In-company vocational training - A worthwhile investment for enterprises

EQF-Ref - launched with BIBB participation
The European Union adopted the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) in the spring of 2008 with the aim of fostering greater transparency in qualifications and permeability between the different education and employment systems in Europe. The European Commission is supporting project partnerships with the aim of developing transparent procedures and methods for referencing national qualification levels to the EQF. The EQF-Ref project began on 1 February 2009 and will run until 31 January 2011. It is being coordinated by the Austrian organization 3s Unternehmensberatung GmbH. BIBB - along with institutes from Bulgaria, Finland, The Netherlands and the Czech Republic - is a partner of the EQF-Ref project.
http://www.bibb.de/en/51275.htm

Indian vocational training striking out on new paths - and BIBB is on hand to help
The Indian government invited representatives from the German vocational education and training field to meet with Indian partners from 1 to 4 March to discuss how German players could help strengthen India's vocational education and training system.
http://www.bibb.de/en/51388.htm

BIBB research is well represented in the recently published Handbook of Technical and Vocational Education and Training Research
The first handbook that specifically concentrates on research and research methods in TVET has just been published edited by Felix Rauner, University of Bremen and Rupert Maclean, Unesco Unevoc.
http://www.bibb.de/en/26172.htm

6 - 7 May 2009 | Berlin
Unified for Joint Education - National Conference on Article 24 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Although the implementation of joint education is largely a matter for individual states, ideas and concepts for putting it into practice need to be developed at all levels. This is the objective of the conference "Unified for Joint Education", which will take place in Berlin on 6 and 7 May and the planning of which has involved close collaboration between the federal states, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the Federal Government Commissioner for the Interests of Disabled Persons. It also represents a robust continuation of the involvement of disabled persons themselves. The aim is to engage in debate with educational researchers and experts from school practice on possible steps for the implementation of Article 24 of the United Nations Convention.

13 May 2009 | Osnabrück
Shaping the future, being responsible - Conserving energy and resources in vocational training and at work
This conference is being held by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training and the German Federal Environment Foundation in collaboration with the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety and the Institute for Environmental Protection in Vocational Training.

23 May 2009 | Bonn
The Long Night of Democracy
60 years have passed since the Basic Constitutional Law of the Federal Republic of Germany was negotiated before being ceremonially signed and promulgated on 23 May 1949. This occasion provides an opportunity to reflect on the development of democracy in Germany and the world and to raise awareness of the significance of basic democratic principles and how these have been the source of conflict both in historical terms and against the background of current events. The venues chosen for the event centre on the whole of the former West German government district in Bonn.

BIBB will have an information stand at the Federal Press Office.

11 June 2009 | Berlin
Student guidance / Course guidance - Working with the conflicting demands of acquisition and deterrence
The introduction of bachelor and master degree programmes offers an opportunity to improve the information made available to prospective students and to re-examine the necessary guidance provided prospective and current students. One new tool used for student guidance is online self-assessment. This tool was developed to help foster the self-selection of suitable applicants. Centralized student guidance and decentralized course guidance are merging and being augmented by new players such as student counsellors and examination advisors. The conventional counselling that course guidance services offer during consultation hours can be turned into an efficient instrument for fostering learning by combining it with the use of agreements between instructors, students and advisors on objectives. This conference will examine all these aspects through stimulating lectures by noted experts and in workshops. Course guidance counsellors who would like to conduct their meetings with students on a more goal or results-oriented basis or who are looking for ways to optimize their guidance can attend additional supervision workshops which experts from the Center for Academic Advising and Counselling Service at the Free University of Berlin will conduct on Friday.

18 - 19 June 2009 | Berlin City Hall
avanti! 2009 - International Fair for Jobs, Education and Career Abroad
avanti! is one of the largest international career fairs in Berlin and Brandenburg. For eight years now, it offers a starting point for pupils, students and young professionals who want to study or work abroad.

23 - 24. June 2009 | Nuremberg
Training preparation and schemes-based vocational training provision
The purpose of this workshop is to act as a vehicle of debate between ongoing and relevant academic research projects relating to vocational (training) preparation and supplementary training provision in Germany.

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