21st Century Learning and Teaching

European Commission - Press Release - European Press release Brussels/Strasbourg, 20 November 2012 Commission The youth unemployment rate is close to 23% across the European Union – yet at the same time there are more than 2 million vacancies that...

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http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-12-1233_en.htm

For Safer Interent Day (SID) 2012 we ran two competitions a poster and video competition. The winning entries from both competitions can be seen below.

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European Commission - Press Release - European Commission Press release Brussels, 19 November 2012

The teaching of IT, entrepreneurial and citizenship skills is fundamental for preparing young people for today's job market, but, in general, schools are still paying insufficient attention to these transversal skills compared with basic skills in literacy, mathematics and science, according to a new European Commission report. Part of the problem is rooted in difficulties with assessment.

===> For example, only 11 European countries (Belgium Flemish community, Bulgaria, Estonia, Ireland, France, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Finland) have standardised procedures to assess citizenship skills, which aim to develop critical thinking and active participation in school and society. <===

Such testing does not exist at all for entrepreneurship and IT skills in any of the 31 countries which took part in the survey (27 EU Member States, Croatia, Iceland, Norway and Turkey). The report also outlines progress in teaching six of the eight key competences defined at EU level for lifelong learning in knowledge, skills and attitudes.

“It is only by equipping children and young people with the necessary skills, including transversal skills, that we will ensure that the European Union will have the means to remain competitive and to seize the opportunities of the knowledge economy,” said Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth.

"This study shows us where there is room for improvement and, most importantly, what we need to do to create more opportunities for our youth.

===> Rethinking education, a policy initiative that I will launch tomorrow, will outline concrete proposals for doing this." <===

Read more, a MUST:

http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-12-1224_en.htm?locale=en