Newsletter for European Research in Learning and Work [L&W]

Newsletter for European Research in Learning and Work [L&W]

Edition: August 2012 [www.news.wifo-gate.org][Impressum]

[Conferences] [Networks] [Programmes] [Projects] [Publications]

Dear Colleagues

This is the latest edition of the L&W Newsletter, which will reach you via a mailing list of over 1200 experts in and beyond Europe. As always, it focuses on transnational research activities in the field of human resource development (HRD) and vocational education and training (VET), centred on major categories: conferences, networks/ centres, programmes, projects and publications. Many thanks to all who contributed information for this edition of the Newsletter!

Particularly worth noting in this edition are several calls for papers related to events: the VET Congress 2013 in Bern, the HRD conference 2013 in Brighton, the HELIX Conference on "Innovative Practices in Work, Organisation and Regional Development" in Linköping and an international section on "Cultural Challenges in Vocational Education" at a conference in Tampere (see Conferences/Networks).  There are further calls for papers related to the thematic issue of RELA on "Lifelong learning and a new(?) competence regime" and the special issue of "Knowledge Management Research & Practice" (see Publications). Also, not to overlook, the deadline to apply for Doctoral Programmes in Tourism and in Innovation and Land Use Management at the University of Algarve is 3 August 2012 (see Programmes).

The next edition of the Newsletter will appear in early October 2012. You are invited to submit short pieces of news (texts of 100 to 200 words, without attachments, but including links to web resources) - please by 30 September 2012 at the latest!

With best wishes
Sabine Manning
Research Forum WIFO
Editor of the L&W Newsletter 

Conferences

VET Congress 2013: Call for papers
Vocational Education and Training Research: Supporting Teachers, Practitioners and Policy Makers, Bern/Zollikofen, 13-15 March 2013
For the third time since 2009, the Swiss Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training SFIVET invites researchers to exchange VET research findings and reflect on VET issues.
In general, VET research can be structured as follows: a) knowledge is created for teaching and learning purposes or b) knowledge is produced with regards to the overall VET sector. Examples of type a) questions include topics such as the definition of skills and competencies for a given occupation; the teaching and learning concepts that enable one to acquire these skills and competencies; and the specificities of the cooperation between different learning locations. Knowledge production for type b) questions is more oriented towards VET governance and deals with topics such as the individual choice of education and training programmes; the reasons that motivate companies to offer apprenticeships; social integration and exclusion processes within the VET sector; reasons for youth unemployment and skills shortage and so on.
The congress seeks to make a contribution to these topics and provide an overview of VET research activities, to facilitate academic exchanges between leading institutions and to present the latest international research findings. The deadline for submission is 15 September 2012. Further information: www.congress13.sfivet-switzerland.ch
(Received from: Carmen Baumeler Carmen.Baumeler@ehb-schweiz.ch)

HRD Conference 2013: Call for papers
The Annual University Forum for Human Resource Development (UFHRD) conference will be held at the University of Brighton, 3-5 June 2013. Please see conference link for further detail, including the conference streams: http://www.brighton.ac.uk/bbs/ufhrd2013/.
The conference theme is: "HRD in Turbulent Seas - Continued Global Economic Uncertainty: Challenges and Opportunities". This theme reflects the location of the conference – Brighton, a popular seaside town (see http://www.visitbrighton.com/) - and the anticipation of continued global economic volatility and turbulence. It also reflects the forecasted general global slowdown in growth - including within the BRIC countries, and economic stagnation and an increasing probability of a return to recession in key countries such as the US and Japan (the UK is now in a "double dip" recession).
Key dates: Final date for abstract submission: 3rd October 2012; Decision on abstracts: 30th November 2012; Registration deadline for presenters: 22nd April 2013; Conference Registration closes: 29th May 2013. Please send any queries to: UFHRDConference@brighton.ac.uk
(Received from: Maura Sheehan M.Sheehan@brighton.ac.uk)

HELIX VINN Excellence Centre at Linköping University Invites You to:
The International HELIX Conference on "Innovative Practices in Work, Organisation and Regional Development – Problems and Prospects", June 12 – 14, 2013, Linköping, Sweden
Six tracks will be running through the conference: • Innovative Work Systems for Production, Products and Services; • Learning and Innovation at Work; • Health, Work Ability and Competence; • New Forms of Organisation - New ways to organise; • Entrepreneurship Regional Development; • Managing Projects - Measuring Impacts.
The International HELIX Conference is organized by HELIX VINN Excellence Centre, Linköping University, together with Jönköping University, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, and Luleå University of Technology, and in collaboration with the Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems (VINNOVA), the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research (FAS), the Swedish ESF Council, and the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth. 
We invite you to submit an abstract, and for those who so wish to extend the abstract into a full paper. Submission deadline for abstracts is 15 December 2012, and the deadline for submission of full papers (not mandatory) is 15 April 2013. For more information please visit www.helixconference2013.com or sign up to receive our newsletter by sending an e-mail to info@helixconference2013.com
(Received from: Per-Erik Ellström per-erik.ellstrom@liu.se)

NOTE: Forthcoming and recent events related to European research in work and learning are listed on the WIFO Conference page [www.conferences.wifo-gate.org]. 
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Networks

NECE - Networking European Citizenship Education - Conference
"Participation Now! Citizenship Education and Democracy in Times of Change" 21-24 November 2012, Córdoba (Spain) 
This year´s NECE Conference will focus on current concepts of democracy and participation in the face of worldwide processes of change in politics, society and the economy. The NECE Conference in Cordoba will discuss appropriate responses to these various and ongoing crises - not only in the West. Which initiatives can help to foster the internationalisation of citizenship education in the coming years? Are there any lessons for the contents and methods of citizenship education resulting from emerging protest movements and spontaneous citizen initiatives – inside and outside Europe? The well-known political scientist Claus Leggewie, Director of the German Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities, is going to deliver a keynote lecture with reference to these developments.
We would be pleased to welcome you in the beautiful city of Cordoba in November – a centre of Islamic culture during the Middle Ages and one of Europe’s most interesting historical locations. For pre-registration please use: nece-spain@lab-concepts.de. The programme is published in brief at www.nece.eu
(Received from: lab concepts GmbH)

NOTE: References to research networks in the field of European work and learning are available on the WIFO page Networks at a glance [www.networks.wifo-gate.org].
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Programmes

NOTE: Contributions are welcome for the next edition of the Directory of Doctoral Dissertations (www.ddd.wifo-gate.org), provided as part of the WIFO Gateway, which focuses on European research in the field of vocational education (VET) and human resource development (HRD). Please provide information on expected or newly completed doctoral dissertations investigating issues of HRD, VET or work-related adult education, according to the following pattern: 1*Theme of dissertation (original language AND English); 2*Year of (expected) completion or publication; 3*Author (name and email address); 4*Tutor (name and email address); 5*Institution of tutor (name and home page). Contributions should be posted by email to the editor (sm@wifo-gate.org).
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Projects

EIPPEE conference review
The first conference of the Evidence Informed Policy and Practice in Education in Europe project "Advancing the use of research in education across Europe" took place on 9-10 May 2012 in The Hague, the Netherlands. It included representatives from international, national and local government, commercial businesses, teachers, think tanks and trade unions. Keynote speeches were given by: Micheline Scheys, Department for Education and Training, Belgium; Bruno della Chiesa, OECD; Susanne Conze and Richard Deiss, European Commission; and Frans Leeuw, Ministry of Security and Justice Research Center and Maastricht University.
Parallel workshop sessions focused on: Gaining a better understanding of how and why policy-makers and practitioners use research evidence; Developing understanding about the role of knowledge centres in facilitating evidence use; Providing better access, and improving strategies, to find research evidence relevant for policy and practice; Increasing knowledge and understanding about the range and effectiveness of different ways that research evidence is used in decision-making; Raising awareness about how research evidence can be used to develop innovative practices; Utilising the new EIPPEE web portal to create customised and searchable 'maps' of research resources.
More details available at: http://www.eippee.eu
(Contributed by: Caroline Kenny C.Kenny@ioe.ac.uk)

NOTE: Contributions are invited to update the Overview of European research projects [www.projects.wifo-gate.org], provided as part of the WIFO Gateway. The overview focuses on transnational research projects, mainly supported by EU programmes, in the areas of human resource development, vocational education, work and learning. Please send the following information to the editor (sm@wifo-gate.org):  (A) exact title and acronym (short name) of the project; (B) name and email address of the coordinator or main contact; (C) address of the website (or info page/ flyer) of the project.
(Contact and editor: Sabine Manning)

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Publications

Call for papers on Sustainable Quality: Knowledge and Information Management
Special Issue of Knowledge Management Research & Practice (KMRP) in conjunction with KIM2013: Inaugural Knowledge and Information Management conference 4 - 5 JUNE 2013 UK
This Special Issue, in conjunction with KIM2013 (the OR Society's inaugural Knowledge and Information Management conference), is dedicated to the theme of Sustainable Quality. This wide-ranging topic is relevant to organisations and individuals working in any sector of the economy. Knowledge Management has become a key process in understanding organisations and their use of resources and, ultimately, quality as a major differentiating factor when considering goods and services. Sustaining quality requires taking a strategic view that may present short to medium term challenges, and knowledge management should be able to help address such challenges. For large organisations, knowledge management may be seen as an intra-organisation activity, but sustaining quality for small to medium enterprises may require inter-organisational cooperation. Papers that relate to the theme and to knowledge and information management will be welcome. Areas of particular interest include (but are not restricted to) the management, practical application, limitations, implications, lessons learned and challenges related to KM and sustainable quality in the areas of services, education, health and manufacturing.
Submissions are strictly limited to authors submitting and presenting at KIM2013 (www.theorsociety.com/Pages/Conferences/KIM2013/KIM2013.aspx). Deadline for submitting conference paper titles and abstracts: 07 December 2012.
(Forwarded by: Monica Lee m.lee@LANCASTER.AC.UK via the Forum for HRD mailing list)

Study on a comprehensive overview on traineeship arrangements in Member States
This EU-wide study which was commissioned by DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities provides the first comprehensive and comparative overview of traineeship arrangements, including legislative/regulatory and quality assurance frameworks, in all 27 Member States. It was conducted by the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) (lead co-ordinator), the Istituto per la Ricerca Sociale (IRS) and the Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung (BIBB) in collaboration with an EU-wide network of regional and national experts. 
Traineeships are seen as an effective mechanism which allows young people to familiarise themselves with the world of work, thus facilitating their transition from education (or a period of inactivity or unemployment) to employment.  Indeed, the study found that traineeships are increasingly integrated into active labour market policies and/or curriculum requirements for both higher vocational and academic education qualifications. 
In recent years, there has been an expansion of traineeships which young people undertake after graduation, not least because employers increasingly put a premium on them having acquired work experience through such placements.  These traineeships in the open market have attracted most criticism since they tend to be unregulated and associated with reports of questionable employer practices including low quality, poor terms and conditions, including low or no pay.
The full results of the study can be found at: http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=738&langId=en&pubId=6717&visible=1
(Contributed by: Kari Hadjivassiliou Kari.Hadjivassiliou@employment-studies.co.uk)

European training thesaurus: A multilingual tool kit for training professionals
How can people working in the education, training and employment fields across Europe make sure what they all mean when using the a term? This is the problem that Cedefop’s linguistic tools have been designed to address. Our latest offering is the multilingual synopsis of the European Training Thesaurus. This publication, which is available online in pdf form free of charge, is a selection of 1207 terms and concepts which appear frequently in literature related to European vocational education and training (VET) research and policy. This tool forms the basis of the full-fledged online thesaurus Cedefop is currently preparing. Rather than having the full features of a thesaurus, the synopsis allows for a quick navigation by language, term and topic. Each term/concept is presented in 11 languages: Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, and Swedish. Topics covered include skills needs and shortages, lifelong learning, vocational education and training policy, assessment and certification of learning outcomes, recognition of certificates and diplomas, and vocational guidance.
http://www.cedefop.europa.eu/EN/publications/20031.aspx
(Received from: Bettina Brenner bettina.brenner@cedefop.europa.eu)

HRD 2012 conference: Papers on European issues 
At the HRD conference this year (Universidade Lusíada, Portugal) nine out of about 110 papers were directly related to European issues. This amount is well above the average of recent HRD conferences (about 6 annually between 2003 and 2011), and was only exceeded by the 2009 conference (Newcastle), which included a European symposium. 
The European issues addressed in 2012 are related to EU policy (Tomé), Europe as a whole (Claus et al./ Ferreira/ Wither et al./ Wuellner) or specific European countries in comparison (Kuznetsova/ Nemerzitski), and to Europe in a global context (Cseh et al./ Quast et al.). Previous conferences had a similar range of European topics, but also included the outcomes of EU projects. Authors presenting European papers in 2012 came either from continental Europe or the United States – in contrast to earlier conferences, where a number of authors from the UK or Ireland contributed studies on European issues. Could this factor perhaps be seen as a challenge for HRD 2013? 
An overview (incl. charts) of the European papers presented at HRD conferences since 2003 is now available as part of the EHRD Portal [www.ehrd-papers.wifo-gate.org].
(Contributed by: Sabine Manning)

NOTE:  The WIFO Gateway provides several updates on publications: "From the Journals" - an overview of articles on European research in VET and HRD [www.articles.wifo-gate.org], selected from European and international Journals related to education research [www.journals.wifo-gate.org], and  the WIFO Bookshelf [www.books.wifo-gate.org], a collection of references to publications focusing on cross-European issues of work and learning. 
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