For about 30 years, the European Union has been politically active in the field of Education and Training with a broad set of aims, measures and tools. All member states were involved in these politics, creating a kind of European profile. Adult education was an important pillar. A number of adult educators involved in various organisations at…

Several concurrent trends are increasing the likelihood that short courses, microcredentials, and flexible learning pathways will become a regular and even dominant feature of education and training globally. This policy paper reflects on these trends with special reference to the post-secondary education sector, and explores ways to organize…

The EU Working Group on Learning for Sustainability (LfS) is currently exploring how policy action can assist in the development and introduction of school curricula and appropriate pedagogies to improve opportunities for learning for sustainability in Europe's schools. This paper brings forward input on how learning for environmental…

The role of higher education towards social, economic and cultural development of our societies is certainly unquestionable from various aspects. In that sense, synergy and mutual dependence of higher education and society & vice-versa is a constant of modern times. However, one must acknowledge that all these aspects very often are highly…

This article explores the tools and strategic options for policymaking of two European intergovernmental organisations in the area of citizenship education. The first section analyses the policy tools used to date, whereas the second section presents current global, political and education-specific challenges in the field. The third section…

The aim of this article is to identify the contexts and conditions that allow for successful education transitions and opportunities for the Roma minority in Europe. Thus far, transnational and national policies have failed to ensure Roma inclusion and education equality, even though some progress is visible. Using a combination of policy analysis…

Blended learning, a pedagogical approach that uses a mix of different physical environments as well as digital and non-digital learning tools, has emerged as a cornerstone of modern education. In particular, integrating traditional face-to-face teaching with technology-mediated instruction has gained momentum through the digital revolution and the…

This is the first briefing in a new European University Association (EUA) series focused on evolving university governance. The present publication explores the governance set-up of the European University Alliances formed under the EU's European Universities Initiative. For the first time, the document presents a comparative overview of the…

Previous Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and European Union (EU) work has shown that even native-born children with immigrant parents face persistent disadvantage in the education system, the school-to-work transition and the labour market. To which degree are these linked with their immigration background, i.e. with…

This article contributes to the comparative literature on the growing role of "validation of prior learning," by analyzing the emergence and implementation of VPL in North Macedonia. Based on documents and qualitative interviews, the article provides an historical- institutionalist perspective on these processes. The article argues that…

Since the early 1990s, lifelong learning has become a major policy concern for the European Union, being seen as a means for enabling individuals to be more competitive in social and economic contexts that are continually changing. After a series of white papers and strategies in the field of lifelong learning, the EU launched the Lifelong…

This paper is a discussion of the challenges to equity faced by the education and training systems of the 28 EU countries (at time of writing), based on secondary sources and official reports by individual countries. The data are descriptive and simply summarised for this paper. The systems of all countries are fairly similar, modelled on those…

The overall aim of the study was to gather evidence on effective policy reforms for broad competence development in school education, including better achievement of basic skills. The six key objectives are: Objective 1: To understand the key features of policy design and implementation of reforms for broad competence development and achievement…

This European Training Foundation (ETF) assessment provides an external, forward-looking analysis of Azerbaijan's human capital development issues and Vocational Education and Training (VET) policy responses in a lifelong learning perspective. It identifies challenges related to education and training policy and practice that hinder the…

Young European graduates are crossing borders to work abroad more often than in the past. This trend is particularly evident in Southern Europe, where recent economic downturn has significantly diminished professional opportunities and career prospects. This study will investigate Spain, a country where unemployment has increased dramatically…