LLinE Lifelong Learning in Europe

Orientation 2/2006

DEFINING KEY COMPETENCIES AND BASIC SKILLS

Carolyn Medel-Añonuevo
FROM BASIC SKILLS TO KEY COMPETENCIES

UNESCO articulated the longtime concern on the need for people to learn, called lifelong education, permanent education or lifelong learning, and produced ground breaking reports with visionary thoughts. The demands in society and the concepts have been focused, and contents of the concepts have changed, the central targets are the same: to empower people as individuals, citizens and managers of their own lives with basic skills and competencies.

Dominique Rychen
KEY COMPETENCIES CALL FOR ADULT EDUCATION

After the OECD DeSeCo project, the framework offers a basis for identifying overarching educational objectives in terms of key competencies. Today at the heart of the key competencies we have reflectivity or a reflective practice that assumes relatively complex mental processes. Key competencies seem to become a lifelong learning process changing its focus from time to time.

Tapio Säävälä and John Macdonald
EQUIPPING EUROPEANS FOR LIFE. THE KEY COMPETENCES FRAMEWORK AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE FOR EUROPE

Five years ago, the Report on Education and Training 2010 set the target into the future. Where are we now? To give the background, the article cites some facts on the European education table. The lifelong learning strategies are often imbalanced and only few countries are moving towards national approaches that are truly comprehensive and coherent. The EU has now defined a framework for the Key Competencies. The eight Competencies are discussed in the article, and some implications given.

Vibeke Hetmar
DEVELOPING COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCES

‘Language is the most direct expression of culture; it is what makes us human and what gives each of us a sense of identity.’ Communicative competencies are becoming central in the diversifying Europe and world. Communication situations cause more unnecessary misinterpretations if we do not become more aware of the diverse, pluralistic linguistic and cultural contexts. The point is solely to widen the understanding of communication by stressing the assumption that all meaning production and all interpretation are situated in more than one sense.

BIGGEST CHANGE SINCE THE MIDDLE AGES?

Kauko Hämäläinen and Jouni Välijärvi
WHAT ABOUT EUROPEAN EDUCATION AFTER 2010

The article lists an alarming number of profound inter-dependent changes in societies in Europe, not only demographic, but concerning economy, health, structure of working life, structure and contents of education, etc. All of them not unfamiliar, but the pace of change is accelerating, the demands for radical pedagogic reform to enhance the learning motivation of those left out today, and therefore the demands for teachers’ competencies run ever higher. The writers conclude with a list of key recommendations.

Per-Arne Brunvoll and Ellen Gard
NORWAY CREATES NATIONAL CRITERIA FOR DIGITAL COMPETENCE

To prevent exclusion from the digital world of today and tomorrow, the Norwegian Government has devised a rationale to let education, the public sector and businesses benefit more from governmental and non-governmental investments in ICT infrastructure, systems and services, and avoid digital gaps in the population. Another social and cultural dimension brought to today’s political agenda is eInclusion. Now they are developing national criteria for digital competence in working life and in society.

Two European Adult Education Organisations comment EU Policy Statements
EAEA STATEMENT ON KEY COMPETENCIES
LEARNING INNOVATION FOR THE ADAPTED LISBON AGENDA. THE EDEN POLICY PAPER
A list of official EU documents concerning adult education in www.lline.fi

Bonnie Dudley Edwards
NEW KEY COMPETENCES LOOKING FOR A HOME. THE EUROPEAN CERTIFICATE IN BASIC SKILLS PROJECT EUCEBS
EUCEBS, originally a Leonardo project, targets mainly people easily marginalized in education and society – therefore especially vulnerable in an information society. But also people who need certification of their skills when they plan moving to another country. No one’s potential can be wasted.

EUROPE AND ASIA LEARNING FROM EACH OTHER

Arne Carlsen
COOPERATION BETWEEN THE ASEAN COUNTRIES AND THE EU IN EDUCATION

The ASEM cooperation has an education strand with Lifelong Learning Initiative and workgroups on different aspects of education and learning. A network of 18 universities is to initiate bilateral and multilateral research projects, increase the exchange of students and academic staff, and establish and test an advisory group to advise the university network. The need in Europe and in Asia to develop new basic skills goes hand in hand with the need for evidence-based competence policies, so the University Hub has joined forces to produce information for contribution on a partnership of practitioners, researchers and policy-makers.

Jørn Skovsgaard
CHANGES IN SOCIETY IMPACT EDUCATION. THE ASEM LIFELONG LEARNING INITIATIVE AND THE DANISH CONTEXT

Education reflects the society it functions in and for. Comparing four consecutive stages production mechanisms, the article reflects on the disjunctures taking place in the development of production modes and education. The example given is the development of the Danish adult education system called folk high school. The article also provides a check-list that might serve education systems and policy makers in innovative pre-reform processes.