Autumn is full of meetings, conferences and seminars on vocational education and training.
The Centre for Education Development is holding a series of 12 sectoral seminars during which representatives of ministries, Centre experts, the Educational Research Institute and the Central Examination Board will join in a discussion with industry representatives about the directions in which a given sector and its occupations are developing. The meetings are being implemented as part of the Partnership for Vocational Training project, aimed at adapting vocational education and training to the needs of the labour market. These activities are carried out in cooperation with employers and other social partners.
During the project, representatives of employers, industry associations and employers' organisations are developing curriculum for vocational training, diploma supplements, professional development pathways, and other program documents.

The European Commission, in collaboration with public and private partners as well as Cedefop have developed the latest version of the ESCO (European Skills, Competences, Qualifications and Occupations ) classification system. This is a multilingual European classification system that defines and classifies the skills, competences, qualifications and occupations relevant to the EU labour market and vocational education and training. Classification helps to identify and manage the skills, competences and qualifications in the vocational education and training system. The role of ESCO is also to reduce barriers to job mobility and to help establish cross-border co-operation between employers and training institutions. ESCO is part of the Europe 2020 strategy. The classification is made up of three modules: occupations, skills and qualifications.
The latest version of the classification was released in July 2017. The update is the result of pilot work and testing conducted in public and private institutions co-operating with the European Commission. Successive versions of the classification will ensure that it reflects reality and is useful for its various target groups.
A conference presenting the latest version of ESCO v1 will take place in Brussels on 9-10 October 2017. During the presentations, interactive workshops and discussions, conference participants will have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the ESCO classification and structure. The conference is addressed to a wide range of partners from: public and private employment agencies, human resources departments, education and vocational training, employers, professional organisations and others.
More information about the ESCO classification system can be found at: https://ec.europa.eu/esco/portal

One of the most important activities in preparing qualified staff for industry is to provide vocational training combined with practical training in the workplace. To this end, close cooperation between vocational training institutions and employers is required to organise practical vocational training, for example, through dual training.

The aim of the competition is to prepare model solutions for involving employers in the organisation of practical vocational training. The competition is intended for: employers’ and employees’ associations, self-governed business and professional groups, academic units, academic and vocational higher education institutions. The activities planned within a proposed project must focus on defined economic sectors: administration and services, construction, electrical and electronics, the arts, mechanics, mining and metallurgy, agriculture-forestry, tourism-food services, medicine and social services.

The main activities to be carried out are:
I. Determining the cost of vocational education for the occupations in a given economic sector
II. Developing a model programme of practical education for an occupation in a given economic sector
III. Conducting a pilot of the developed model in the 2018/2019 school year
IV. Developing guidelines for the quality assurance of the practical training occurring in a workplace
V. Developing recommendations on amendments to the law on education

Applications are being accepted from July 31 to September 15, 2017.

Additional information about the contest is available from efs.men.gov.pl