INES Conference: Successful Conclusion! -- The WACOM Project

Oct. 7, 2011 - PRLog -- The proceedings of the 4th European Conference “Innovations in the Environmental Sector” came to a close on the 21st of September, marking the end of a productive event in Brussels. Over seventy participants from a dozen countries gathered at the Bedford Hotel & Congress Centre in the heart of the city to discuss their experiences and contributions to competence modelling, e-Learning and social communities in the environmental sector. “We are very satisfied with the INES conference’s turnout and results,” says Prof. (KR) Christian M. Stracke, coordinator of the European research project and hosting organization WACOM. “A true exchange of information was able to occur, supporting the efforts of all participants.”

Highlights from the conference include speeches from Dr. Zafar Adeel, chair of UN-Water and director of the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), as well as Mrs. Naing Yee Mar, programme officer at the UNESCO International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (UNEVOC). Dr. Adeel presented a keynote on the United Nations’ approach to competence modelling in the water sector, including the importance of shared language and standards for the evaluation of personnel under the title “United Nations Competencies for the Future.” Other the other hand, Mrs. Naing Yee Mar’s keynote emphasized the potential of a constructive connection between competences and vocational training, arguing that the use of competences can make technical vocational training much more efficient.

The European Conference INES focused on new ways and approaches for lifelong learning by competence models, E-Learning and social communities. INES 2011 continued the discussion developed at the first three related European conferences in Vilnius (Lithuania), Budapest (Hungary) and Bucharest (Romania). The WACOM consortium has organized and utilised these previous opportunities, along with national workshops in each of the WACOM partner countries, to raise the awareness of the stakeholders in the water sector, human resource development, and vocational education and training concerning the benefits and implementations of competence modelling in the water sector.

The conference was organized in conjunction with the European Conference "Competence Modelling for the Water Sector" which presented the major outcome of the European WACOM consortium and initiative for competence modelling in the water sector: the Water Competence Model (WCM) with its tools for harmonized descriptions of job profiles and working places in the water sector. The overall objectives of WACOM are the transfer and adaptation of a competence model to the water sector and its integration and harmonisation with the European Qualification Framework (EQF), thus contributing to European competence standardisation and improving vocational education and training.

All accepted papers have been published in the official proceedings of the European Conference and distributed to all conference participants and across Europe. The publication can be found under the following information: Christian M. Stracke (Ed.), Competence Modelling for Vocational Education and Training: Innovations for Learning and Development, ISBN 978-3-8440-0341-3. An electronic copy of the proceedings can be downloaded from: www.learning-innovations.eu. More information about the WACOM initiative for water competences online at: www.wacom-project.eu.

Direct enquiries about the conference can be sent to the WACOM project manager Xenia Kuhn, University of Duisburg-Essen, via e-Mail to: xenia.kuhn@icb.uni-due.de.

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The department of Information Systems for Production and Operations Management at the University of Duisburg-Essen is involved in the R&D of the following fields:

E-Learning
Knowledge Management
Decision Support Systems
Skill/Competence Management

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