COME-HR: Successful Conference Conclusion!

Dec. 27, 2011 - PRLog -- The proceedings of the 5th European Conference: "Competence Modelling for European HR and Policies: Bridging Business, Education, and Training" (COME-HR) came to a close on the 10th of November, marking the end of a productive event in Brussels. 64 participants from 16 countries gathered at the Thon Hotel Bristol Stéphanie 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 COME-HR conference’s turnout and results,” says Prof. (KR) Christian M. Stracke, coordinator of the European research project and hosting organization eCOTOOL. “A true exchange of information was able to occur, supporting the efforts of all involved participants.”

Highlights from the conference include keynote speeches from Prof. Dr. Kenji Hirata from Toyo University in Tokyo, Japan, and Prof. (KR) Christian Stracke from the University of Duisburg-Essen. Their speeches provided a theoretical foundation concerning competence modelling, allowing for later speakers to develop the conference dialogue towards competence modelling in the European context. In addition to other speakers, the European Commission Directorate Generals of Education and Culture, Enterprise, and Employment, spoke to the theme of competence modelling in Europe. The Directorate Generals were represented by Carlo Scatoli, André Richier, and Martin le Vrang, respectively. Their three presentations, “Europas and EQF”, “ICT Skills”, and “ESCO” provided a substantial contribution to the discussion and a reference framework for the presentations of the accepted conference papers. The second day of the conference was comprised of a practical workshop with all conference participants led by Prof. (KR) Stracke, in which the question regarding the actual modelling of European competences was addressed.

The European COME-HR Conference focused on new ways and approaches for vocational training through competence models, E-Learning and social communities. The conference continued the discussion developed at the first four related European conferences in Vilnius (Lithuania), Budapest (Hungary), Bucharest (Romania) and the European conference "Innovations in the Environmental Sector" (INES) which took place in Brussels (Belgium) in September 2011. The eCOTOOL consortium organized and utilised these previous opportunities, along with national workshops in each of the eCOTOOL partner countries, to raise the awareness of the stakeholders in the agricultural sector, human resource development, and vocational education and training concerning the benefits and implementations of competence modelling in relation with Europass and qualification standards.

The COME-HR conference was organized together with an experience session on the 10th of November which gave all participants the opportunity to exchange their experiences face-to-face. On the 9th of November 2011, besides to the key note speeches, the results of the eCOTOOL project were presented: the Europass CS eco-tools and the Competence Model, supporting a better description and recognition of competences and their online representation. Together they contributed to European competence standardisation and aimed to improved vocational education and training and mobility within Europe.

All accepted papers have been published in the official proceedings of the 5th European Conference COME-HR 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 Human Resources Development and European Policies, ISBN 978-3-942183-53-6. An electronic copy of the proceedings as well as the presentations themselves can be downloaded from: www.competence-conference.eu or www.qualitydevelopment.eu. More information about the eCOTOOL initiative for European certificate comparability online at: http://www.competencetools.eu.

Direct enquiries about the conference can be sent to the eCOTOOL project manager Karna Wegner, University of Duisburg-Essen, via e-Mail to: karna.wegner@icb.uni-due.de.

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eCOTOOL focuses on:

(1) the improvement of the development, exchange, and maintenance of vocational education and training (VET) certificates and their accessibility and transparency and

(2) the increasing of the European mobility and transparency in general.

To achieve these objectives eCOTOOL develops the adaptable Europass CS eco-tools based on the European policies Europass Certificate Supplement (CS), EQF, ECVET, and PAS 1093. The Europass CS eco-tools will be tested and evaluated in the agricultural sector.

Finally the eCOTOOL results are submitted to the European Standardization Committees (CEN/TC 353) to achieve a European consensus and standard for VET competences.

More information about eCOTOOL online:
http://www.ecompetence.eu