On 19th June 2013 DOCUMENTA carried out a meeting with more than 30 professionals from the fields of training, career counselling and business consultancy in Cantabria, to reflect on the role played by Lifelong Learning in the creation of opportunities for access to the labour market and the labour integration of different groups within the current socio-economic context.
The seminar, held in the facilities of the Cantabrian Institute of Health and Safety at work in Santander, has had the presence of Maria Angeles Sopeña, Director of the regional PES, which intervened in the first part of it and answered the questions of the attendees.
The event has been attended by organizations such as CEOE-CEPYME or IFES Cantabria, as well as the social services of the City Council of Santander, regional social assistance associations, local development agencies (municipalities of Colindres, Bárcena de Cicero, Alto Asón), and several non-profit organizations (Red Cross, Fundación Diagrama, AMICA,Foundation AFIM or Secretariado Gitano).
During the first part, an overview of Lifelong Learning from the European and regional scales was presented. In the second part of the event 4 workshops were carried out, focusing on topics such as age management concepts, key competences in the European Reference Framework, training for guidance practitioners or quality assurance for Vocational education, all of them linked to projects currently in progress in which DOCUMENTA actively participates.
The day began with the intervention of the Director of the regional Employment Services, who talked about the lines of action to be launched by the PES to address the above-mentioned problems in Cantabria, highlighting the importance of training as a means to adapt to the new economic and productive situation. She also pointed out that the efforts of this entity in the field of lifelong learning will be aimed at improving the quality of training and developing an employment-led vocational qualifications and training system, according to the needs of strategic job sectors underlined by the Regional Strategic Plan and adjusted to the needs of different groups.
For career counselling and support for job seekers, it was announced the redefinition of the current job placement instruments in order to improve its efficiency and results. Similarly, the orientation towards entrepreneurship was noted as a priority.
Afterwards, Javier Farto, President of DOCUMENTA highlighted the crucial role of Lifelong Learning in the current knowledge society as a means of achieving new employment opportunities facing social, economic and demographic change in the EU. He continued his speech stressing the importance of update the workforce skills, as well as the professional skills of the employment technicians. Besides, he mentioned the role played by the development of new professional profiles tailored to the current labour market, such as two profiles tested in the European projects INMA (Innovation Management Agents) and GETIR (European Manager of Intelligent and Responsible Territories).
The second part of the seminar focused on 4 specific topics themes in the frame of LLL through different European projects in which DOCUMENTA participates: development of case studies as specific training methodologies for guidance practitioners (GUIDE! project), innovative age management concepts to ensure transfer of knowledge of 50 + workers (LIKE project), training in Key Competencies of the European Reference Framework (CERF project), and development of a Common Quality Assurance Framework- VET (CQAF-VET online project)
In each workshop interesting contributions were taken on issues such as the required skills for career counselling by guidance practitioners and competence upgrading, and the importance of creating common quality assurance systems for VET training and adult education, or to promote training in key competences of the ERF for social and labour integration of groups at risk of exclusion.
