Suitable Pathways – conference report

Role of Parents in Guiding their Children towards the Most Suitable Personal Careers

The European Parents’ Association held its annual conference on 24/25 November 2017 in the Tallinn School of Service under the auspices of the Estonian Presidency of the European Union and as part of the second European Vocational Skills Week on career guidance and suitable individual learning pathways for today’s children, with special focus on counterbalancing the bias towards university education (by the media, education policy and consequently very often by parents, too). The representatives of parents’ associations and students, VET providers, career guidance services and school heads participating at the conference looked at ways of home-school cooperation in career guidance, transversal skills for well-being, future life success and lifelong learning with special focus on entrepreneurship, and the role of parents and parents’ associations to improve the image of vocational secondary education and non-university tertiary education to help people understand that for most people it has always been and will always be a first and best choice. Bellow you will find a detailed report of the conference with download links for presentations and related documents.

Highlights of the Lifelong Learning Week 2017

The 7^th Lifelong Learning Week (LLL Week) took place in parallel and in collaboration with the 2^nd European Vocational Skills Week (VET Week), 20-24^th November 2017. This year the topic of the week was the topic of the year for Lifelong Learning Platform, EPA is an active member of: Education in a Digital World. Three subtopics were covered by the events as well as this year’s LLL Award: democracy, inclusion and innovative pedagogies. Thanks to the generous offer of the European Commission to host one representative of all EPA members on the occasion of the VET Week, the events could be held in the presence of the 5 EPA members that accepted the invitation.

EPA’s endorsement of the New Education Forum’s Smart Education Indicators

The Centre for Innovative Education invited EPA to participate at this year's New Education Forum. Janko Korosec and Claudio Masotti, EPA's Vice Presidents participated at their regional events during the year. The New Education Forum published  Smart Education Indicators closely linked with the UNESCO Smart Cities initiatinve at its closing event in the European Parliament on 22/23 November 2017. Before publication they asked EPA for an endorsement of the indicators that you can read below.

Parents are there to help #KidsTakeOver on Universal Children's Day

Today marks Universal Children’s Day, the anniversary of the UN adopting the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). So far all countries in the world except the USA have joined the Convention, showing political will to protect children and their rights.

The European Union, not a signatory of the Convention (yet), but having Member States that have all committed themselves to align their policies with the Rights of the Child, is facing its greatest challenges in decades. At the same time the current European Commission has recently announced measures that affect the lives of children in Europe – directly or by influencing the lives of their parents and the institutional framework around them.

The announcement to build the Pillar of European Social Rights was welcomed by all, including parents all over Europe. The EU Summit in Gothenburg last week has proclaimed the construction of the Pillar, a major demonstration of political will. The Summit also marked the publication of a new EU initiative on creating a European Education Area by 2025.

Role of NGO’s in the Holocaust Remembrance activities

Personal reflexions of Herminio Correa, EPA Ambassador

After many years of studying, reading, and listening to testimonies and watching movies and documentaries about the Holocaust, it was finally time to make a visit to Auschwitz and Birkenau.

A hard, cold and unforgettable experience, that have aroused in me an emotional roller coaster and left in the air a question: How could this happen?

Yes, why so many men and women, ordinary people just like us, suddenly became terrible predators and cold killers?

The Post-2020 MFF Must Invest In Children And Aim To End Child Poverty

This week the European Commission, European Parliament and Council of the EU will sign the inter-institutional proclamation of the European Pillar of Social Rights in Gothenburg,(1) which reiterates commitments to promote social inclusion and the rights of the child.(2) The future Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) should contribute to translate these commitments into action.

More than 20 organisations within the EU Alliance for Investing in Children urge the EU institutions and its Member States to invest in children and develop a future MFF that works to end child poverty and promotes the social inclusion of all children in Europe.