The Lisbon European Summit in 2000 has been a milestone in reframing education policies to foster a "knowledge economy", whilst amid the challenges of the new decennium Lifelong Learning (LLL) has been propounded as a powerful lever for attaining "sustainable growth". The present article aims to elucidate the development of an…

Historically, the university was an alien establishment for Russia, reflecting the political ambition of its leadership, not the organic impetus of Russian society. In Soviet academia, the notion of university education was replaced by the concept of vocational-technical training. As a creation of the Soviet government, Soviet higher education…

This brochure identifies key figures on vocational education and training (VET) and VET-related topics in Europe using harmonized data from Eurostat. Throughout, figures of candidate countries are compared to those of European Union (EU) member states. Background information on the education and training systems is as follows: increasing numbers…

The reforms undertaken in the vocational education and training systems and the public employment services systems of European Union (EU) candidate countries in the 10 years since the transition have resulted in the following achievements: (1) participation in upper secondary and tertiary education has increased and curricula for general education…

This document presents outcomes of a review of the Memorandum on Lifelong Learning (LL) consultation reports from member states of the European Commission and EEA (European Economic Area) countries that collected all views on how best to make progress in implementing LL at local, regional, and national levels. Section 1 provides an overview of…

This review develops a more systematic understanding of the contemporary significance of learning in Europe by considering the complex connections between the processes of economic restructuring, lifelong learning and partnerships. A brief introduction describes the contested terrain surrounding concepts such as lifelong learning, human capital,…

Three studies covering the tourism, chemical industry, and healthcare sectors in the European Union investigated patterns of cross-border mobility at the sector level. Special focus was on transparency of vocational qualifications and the relation between transparency and mobility. A serious lack of information on labor force mobility within…

A community initiative (called ADAPT) was intended to help the workforce in European Union countries to adapt to industrial change and prepare for the information society, as well as to promote growth, employment, and the competitiveness of companies in the countries. Between 1995 and 1999, 4,000 projects were funded to transform the ways in which…

Research synthesized from three studies of the Finnish labor market indicates that a rapidly changing working life in Finland (and the rest of Europe) sets many different challenges for the workforce. In Finland, the population is even more aged than in the other European Union (EU) member states, and the transition of older workers to retirement…