Swedish EU presidency logoDuring the Swedish Presidency, a conference on vocational education and training will be arranged in Stockholm on 12–13 November 2009. The purpose of the conference is to offer an arena for sharing experience, knowledge, ideas and possible solutions related to current issues and challenges in the development of vocational education and training (VET). The conference will focus on VET for adults at both upper secondary and post-secondary levels.


The conference is expected to bring together around 200 participants, representing decision-makers from the countries’ ministries and government agencies, the social partners, the European Commission and EU institutions working with VET, as well as representatives of research institutions in VET and adult education.

 


The conference will last for one-and-a-half days and will address two main themes:

  • The first theme concerns short-term challenges related to the current economic and financial crisis.
  • The second theme concerns the challenges of the future and in this perspective issues will be discussed that are shared by the Member States in our common need to develop VET. Under this theme various studies and findings will be presented, with opportunities for discussion and debate.

To help prepare the conference, a short questionnaire survey has been sent to the Member States. The intention was to obtain information about the measures Member States have taken to offer VET and skills development for adults in response to the economic and financial crisis. The questions in the survey were mainly intended to obtain examples of publicly financed measures. During the conference various development measures will be presented and there will be opportunities to share and discuss the various measures taken by the Member States.
The conference will be organised in plenary sessions and workshops. Priority will be given to opportunities for discussion.


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