Partners

OAED

OAED the Manpower Organisation of Greece (Greek PES), is a legal entity of public law supervised by the Hellenic Ministry of Labour, Social Insurance and Welfare. It is directed by its Governor and Administrative Board.

The operation of OAED is based on the following three pillars: (i) promotion to employment; (ii) unemployment insurance and social protection of maternity and family; (iii) vocational education and training. The main activities are:

  1. Active Labour Market Policies (ALMPs) for combating unemployment, promoting employment, and vocational training for both unemployed and employed citizens.
  2. Passive Labour Market Policies (PLMPs) concerning unemployment insurance measures (regular unemployment benefit) and other social security benefits and allowances (family allowance, maternity allowance etc.).
  3. ALMPs for initial vocational education combined with work practice/traineeship (Apprenticeship system) as well as Vocational Education and Training for employed and unemployed. The Main policy axes are:
  4. Employment Promotion through programmes aiming to reduce (a) wage labour costs (b) non-wage labour costs, by subsidizing social insurance contributions, facilitating transport from/and to work, with special emphasis placed on the population groups most severely affected by unemployment, as well as vulnerable population groups.
  5. Cooperation with social and local bodies within the framework of local employment programmes, in which the local PES (KPA2) play a central role.
  6. Counselling Services to unemployed people.
  7. Promotion of employees and employers’ adaptability in conjunction with employment preservation.
  8. Implementation of the Vocational Education Schools’ (EPAS’) Apprenticeship System.
  9. Vocational Education and Training for employed and unemployed
  10. Matching of Work Supply and Demand with the support of Employment Counsellors and through the new OAED portal.
  11. EURES network for the matching of work supply and demand at European level.

Ministry of National Education of Turkey

Ministry of National Education (MoNE) in Turkey manages one of the largest educational systems in Europe. Educational services at all levels are provided substantially (more than 90 %) by public education institutions. Administrative legislation and supervision related to formal and non-formal education (except for higher education) are performed by Ministry of National Education. MoNE also regulates the teacher employment and relocation and imposes the curriculum; timetables, textbooks used in the classroom, and explicitly use tests to monitor teaching practices in the classroom. Private education institutions also exist. Private education institutions mean private financing and administration. Individuals, corporations or other types of institutions (such as associations, foundations) can open and run private schools profit based at pre-primary, primary and secondary levels. Private education institutions are subject to the same regulations with public institutions in terms of educational arrangements and certification (curricula, teacher qualifications, length of school day/week/year, assessment, progression, diploma etc.). Public funds are given to private institutions in various ways to a certain extent. But “government-dependent” private institutions don’t exist. In higher education level, only ‘foundations’ can run private higher education institutions without making a profit. Public fund can be provided for private higher education institutions within some limits upon meeting certain criteria determined by regulation. Although private higher education institutions are substantially autonomous in terms of their administration and management, they are subject to the same regulations regarding educational standards with public institutions.

There is a centralized and selective system as the youth demography forces to be so. Out of the 75 million people in the country, more than 17 million are students at the formal primary (6 million students in grades 1 to 4), lower secondary (6 million students in grades 5 to 8) and upper secondary (5 million students in grades 9 to 12 General High Schools and VET High Schools) education levels, who are educated by over 950,000 active teachers on duty.

On VET mainstream pathways; Turkey participated in many national, EU, ETF and international reviews and assessments of the VET system between 2014 and 2016. It reports in accordance with the EU policy frameworks and monitoring mechanisms. Internationally, as a member of OECD and G20, Turkey participates in many international thematic reporting, the Commission and ETF thematic publications including the assessment of the human capital dimensions of the Small Business Act for Europe (SBA). Turkish developments in education and training are discussed and reported, in the EU-Turkey high-level policy dialogue on progress in education, employment and social inclusion, through sub-committee meeting and EC Progress Reporting, the assessment of the Turkey Economic Reform Programme (ERP) and in EU 2020 working groups. Nationally, the main actors in VET governance are: Ministry of National Education (MoNE), responsible for higher vocational schools (post-secondary VET is under the Council of Higher Education); Ministry of Labour and Social Security (MoLSS); the Ministry of Development (MoD) and Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology (MoSIT). MoNE is engaged in six out of seven functions of VET governance. Both MoD and MoLSS are involved in four.

Other strategic actors are the MONE’s directorates – Board of Education, Directorate General for Vocational and Technical Education, Directorate General for Lifelong Learning and Directorate for Strategy Development. All are involved in the majority of governance functions. The Vocational Education Council (VEC) has a crucial role, as it is engaged in six out of seven governance functions. It comprises representatives of the ministries, trade and employers’ unions, public institutions and agencies and other key social partners. VEC decides on planning and implementation of VET programmes.

DEKRA Akademie GmbH

DEKRA Akademie GmbH is one of the leading private education providers in Germany and boasts almost 40 years of experience in vocational education and training (VET) and adult education. It is part of DEKRA SE, a globally operating corporation in the field of testing, inspection, and certification with more than EUR 2.5 billion annual turnover and 33,500 employees worldwide, as of 2014.

DEKRA Akademie offers a wide range of training products and services for public and private clients. It is one of the biggest partners for public German employment services when it comes to designing and conducting vocational training measures. These are mainly aimed at enhancing the participants’ employability and ensuring their (re-) integration into the labour market. In this regard DEKRA is also strongly engaged into integration efforts for migrants / refugees. DEKRA Akademie also provides tailor-made educational services to private companies with a specific focus on five thematic fields: transport and logistics, crafts and industrial production, information and communication, as well as healthcare. In 2014, DEKRA Akademie trained approximately 200,000 people in about 10,000 training courses at roughly 130 permanent locations throughout Germany.

For the past several years, DEKRA Akademie has also been expanding its international business activities. By targeted investment, it has established affiliates in Denmark, Hungary, Romania and Greece, of which some have already achieved market leadership in specific VET segments. DEKRA Akademie also runs training projects in other countries such as Poland, Serbia, Albania, China, and Vietnam. On an international level, its national portfolio is complemented by further service lines, particularly in the fields of agriculture and tourism.

Moreover, DEKRA Akademie is actively engaged in R&D activities on a European and national level. Eight decentralised competence centres develop and maintain teaching content including e-learning tools and platforms in the above-mentioned fields. Beyond that, DEKRA University of Applied Sciences acts not only as a higher education institution, but also has its research focus on media and journalism. At a European level, DEKRA Akademie has contributed extensively to the development of standards and innovation processes in VET (e.g. EQF and ECVET). It has participated in about 25 transnational projects and is, among others, represented in ECVET network, ReferNet and TTnet.

KANEP

KANEP represents the Greek General Confederation of Labour in the area of Education and Lifelong learning, promoting the agenda of trade unions which includes employment policies, policies for combating social exclusion, and reinforcement of trade union presence in society.

KANEP –through GSEE– institutionally participates to all national and regional bodies dealing with lifelong learning and employment both on policy and implementation level. Furthermore, a KANEP representative participates in the EQF Advisory Group and also in relevant committees concerning NQF in Greece.

KANEP has significant experience in EU funded projects through lifelong learning program (Structural funds). Specifically KANEP has implemented an academy for unionists project and a project for promoting best practice examples of lifelong learning all around Europe to the educational community. KANEP has also implemented two Leonardo projects, one for developing e-learning tools for trade unions’ education and another one in cooperation with TUC for exchanges of trainers and trainers of trade union education.

In the field of apprenticeship, KANEP organizes in-service training courses for teachers, while it has participated in apprenticeship related workshops organized by ILO and CEDEFOP.

The aim of KANEP-GSEE’s actions is:

the study, record and evaluation of the Greek educational reality, and the research of best practices standards regarding the implementation of educational policies across the spectrum of education (formal, non formal and informal)•

the development of specific structures and strategies enabling the transition towards a knowledge society and establishing the connection between education and employment•

the design-development of educational actions on the one hand for participating members and executives of the trade union movement in order to enhance the trade unionist intervention, and on the other hand for public and private sector employees, as well as self employed so as to upgrade their professional and horizontal skills•

the cooperation with national, european and international educational-research oriented and labour friendly centres, for the adoption of common action concerning matters of educational policy.