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Joint Meeting on Lifelong Learning in the
Twenty-First Century:
The Changing Roles of Educational Personnel
Geneva, 10-14 April 2000
Background
This Meeting was the second of the regular joint or tripartite sectoral meetings
organised under the auspices of the International Labour Organization during the
period 2000-2001. These meetings are convened by the ILO Governing Body to discuss
current employment and labour issues of importance in the sector or industry concerned
and to provide guidance for action, at national and international levels, by employers'
and workers' organizations, governments and the ILO itself.
The Governing Body decided to include a meeting for the education sector in
the programme of sectoral meetings for the 2000-01 biennium at its 273rd Session
in November 1998. It did so with consideration to a number of major issues affecting
education. Among these are:
- accelerating technological, social and economic changes;
- the need for universally accessible and high-quality education and training
services;
- expectations for education to assume a life-long character, with more flexible
financing and structures, up-to-date content and appropriate teaching approaches;
and
- the desirability of a stronger relationship between general education provided
in schools, and institutional or enterprise-based training for employment and
skills improvements.
Within this broader framework, the meeting concentrated on two principal linkages
with the concepts and organization of lifelong learning systems. One is the actual
or anticipated trends in ways that personnel - teachers, administrators and support
staff - are trained, recruited, paid and carry out their work. The second concerns
changing roles of employers and workers in fostering workplace learning as part
of a broad investment in human capital formation. Important transversal issues
were examined, including gender and the role of social dialogue in decision-making
in education and training by means of consultation and negotiation.
Participation
The participants invited to this meeting represented government ministries
or agencies, employers and workers involved with education and training. From
the list established by the Governing Body on the basis of the criteria for such
meetings, fourteen (14) governments sent participants, and one Government was
representatived by an observer. Ten (10) Employers’ representatives from the private
sector, and 27 Workers’ representatives drawn largely from organisations of teachers
and other educational personnel, invited on the basis on nominations by the employers'
and workers' groups of the ILO Governing Body, also attended. In addition, representatives
from seventeen (17) intergovernmental (IGO) and international non-governmental
(NGO) organisations involved with education and training services were present
as observers.
A full list of participants is contained in the Note
on the Proceedings (pdf, 295k).
Purpose of the Meeting
The Governing Body decided at its 274th session in March 1999 that the purpose
of the meeting would be to exchange views on policies and practices which concern
lifelong learning, to adopt conclusions that include proposals for action by governments,
by employers’ and workers’ organizations and by the ILO, and to adopt a report
of its discussion. The meeting could also adopt resolutions. These outcomes have
been published in the Note on the Proceedings
(pdf, 295k).
 Agenda
and report to the Meeting
As a basis for the discussions the International Labour Office (the secretariat
of the International Labour Organization) prepared a report Lifelong
learning in the twenty-first century: The changing roles of educational personnel
in English, French
and Spanish.
It includes information and analysis of the following issues:
- recent developments in the education sector, including training, educational
financing, enrolment trends, structure and governance, employment of educational
personnel, and trends in workplace training in relation to schools and training
institutions;
- definitions, concepts, policy, funding, organisation and evaluation of lifelong
learning, the scope of its coverage to various population groups, curriculum and
technology issues, and relations between formal, informal and workplace education
and training;
- expected roles and responsibilities of administrative, teaching and support
personnel (with a focus on teachers), the initial education and continual training
of staff, and their professional and career development;
- remuneration levels and structures, as well as the teaching and learning
environment - hours and organisation of work, use of information technology, and
safety in schools;
- the framework for making decisions which facilitates greater social dialogue
at educational sites involving the principal actors, via consultation, collective
bargaining and dispute resolution mechanisms;
- the roles of employers and workers in fostering workplace learning.
At the end of the report is a list of Points
for Discussion for the Meeting which guided discussions in plenary during
the first three days.
A timetable of the Meeting
was finalized on the first day.
A panel and a roundtable in two parts were held in the course of the meeting
and included participants as well as outside speakers. The subjects of the panels
and the list of speakers were as follows:
Photo: EFA Forum/Ademola Idown
Wednesday, 12 April
Afternoon
Human capital investment, social cohesion, personal development:
What kinds of learning, for what purposes in the 21st Century?
- Mr. Olchert G. Brouwer, President of the Board, Institute
for Higher Vocational Education, Arnheim, Netherlands
- Mr. David Fretwell, Principal Employment and Training Specialist,
Europe and Central Asia Region, Human Development, The World Bank
- Mr. Jacques Hallak, Assistant Director-General of UNESCO and
Director, International Bureau of Education (IBE)
- Mr. Bob Harris, Education International, and Chair of the
Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) Working Group on Education, Training and
Employment
- Ms. Stefanka Hristoskova, Higher Education and Research Division,
Directorate of School, Out-of-School and Higher Education, Council of Europe
Thursday, 13 April
Roundtable in two parts on the theme: Technology and Learning:
What does the future hold for education?
Morning
The Electronic Classroom: Learning developments, pluses
and minuses
- Dr. David Beckett, Senior Lecturer and Specialist on Lifelong
Learning, the Centre for Human Resource Development and Training, University of
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Mr. Robert Bubendorfer, Director, Fiji Institute of Technology
- Mr. Gerard Gunaratne, Vice-President for Asia, World Confederation
of Teachers
- Ms. Kgomotso Motlotle, Education Specialist, Distance Learning
and Teacher Training, Commonwealth of Learning, Vancouver, Canada
- Mr. Siva Subramanian, Secretary General, National Union of
the Teaching Profession, Malaysia
Afternoon
Virtual universities: Is the bell tolling for traditional
campuses?
- Ms. Monique Fouilloux, Education Coordinator, Education International
and Chair of the NGO Liaison Committee with UNESCO
- Mr. Frans Lenglet, Director of Training, International Training
Centre of the ILO, Turin (by video conference)
- Ms. Ricarda O’Driscoll, Professor, Open University, United
Kingdom (by video conference)
- Mr. Richard Yelland, Head of Programme, Institutional Management
in Higher Education, OECD
Related Papers and Information
One study commissioned by the ILO on a topical issue in education related to
the meeting's themes was published as a working paper and available at the meeting:
Trends in feminization of the teaching
profession in OECD countries, 1980-1995. Additional papers published since
the meeting include Recruitment of educational personnel, The changing
conditions of higher education teaching personnel, and the impact of decentralization
and privatization (forthcoming). Texts of international normative instruments
concerning teachers and reports of the Joint ILO/UNESCO
Committee of Experts on the Status of Teachers (CEART), 1997 and 1999
were made available in English, French, and Spanish.
For additional information on ILO activities and publications on this sector,
please visit the ILO sectoral Website page for education.
Priced publications related to this and other ILO meetings and activities can
be obtained from ILO Publications
Note on the Proceedings
Following the meeting, the ILO published a Note on
the Proceedings (pdf, 295k) which includes a summary of the principal
speeches, debates, panel and roundtable discussions and adopted conclusions
and a resolution.
Mr. Bill Ratteree,
Education sector specialist,
Sectoral Activities Department,
International Labour Office,
4, route des Morillons,
CH-1211 GENEVE 22
Tel. +41.22.799.7143, Fax +41.22.799.7046,
e-mail: ratteree@ilo.org or sector@ilo.org
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