EU conference on lifelong guidance policies and systems
The Ministries of Education and of Labour and the University of Jyväskylä will host an EU Presidency Conference entitled Lifelong Guidance Policies and Systems: Building the Stepping Stones at Jyväskylä Paviljonki - International Congress and Trade Fair Centre on 6–7 November 2006.The conference will be opened by Aino Sallinen, Rector of the University of Jyväskylä, and the discussion on lifelong guidance policies will be introduced by Mr Antti Kalliomäki, Minister of Education and Mr Ján Figel', Member of the European Commission for Education, Training, Culture and Multilingualism.
The conference will discuss the opportunities of guidance policies to promote citizens’ lifelong learning and to support competences to manage one’s career and learning. It is considered at the European level that guidance provision for managing one’s career and learning is a prerequisite for lifelong learning. Guidance is an important part of, for example, the implementation of the Education and Training 2010 programme as part of the Lisbon Strategy and the Commission evaluation of the labour administration. Furthermore, guidance provision is closely linked with workforce development and economic competitiveness. The theme also supports Finland's EU Presidency educational objective to discuss equity, effectiveness and quality of education, which the feasibility of guidance policies partly affect.
The aim of the conference is to exchange experiences of lifelong guidance policies and to consider, how such policies could be developed both at national and European levels. After the keynote addresses, the themes will be further discussed in five workshops which will compare the solutions and experiences in the different countries. Results of the workshops will be reported and the conference conclusions will be presented by Professor Tony Watts, University of Cambridge. The conference will be closed by Mr Markku Wallin, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Labour, Finland.
The conference theme is topical for the sphere of education and labour administration in the EU Member States, acceding states and candidate states. The conference is expected to be attended by 200 participants from the education and labour administration sectors.
Further information:
- Raimo Vuorinen, Researcher, University of Jyväskylä, tel. + 358 14 260 3271, mobile +358 50 361 1909, [email protected]
- Johanna Haahtela, EU Advisor, Ministry of Education, tel. +358 9 160 77304, mobile +358 400 874 135
For the media:
- Tiina Palomäki, Press Officer, tel. +358 9 160 77484, mobile +358 40 704 2545