European Trade Union Committee for Education
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an ETUCE project
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The ETUCE is the Education International Regional Structure in Europe
The ETUCE is a European Trade Union Federation within the European Trade Union Confederation
Welcome to Education International EUROPE
An ETUI-ETUCE Seminar on Inclusive Vocational Education and Training during the crisis took place on 8-10 March 2012 in Sesimbra, Portugal
The seminar gathered 30 participants: VET teachers, trade unionists responsible for VET sector, international secretaries and presidents of trade unions, representing 13 EU and 6 non-EU countries. The aim of the seminar was to provide information to teachers’ trade unions on how to maintain and improve quality in Vocational Education and Training (VET) when the economic and financial crisis contributes to increasing discrimination, social crisis. European Director Martin Rømer (ETUCE) concluded underlining that focusing on equality is more important in the economic crisis when the crisis contributes to social inequality. Education and improving VET education by teachers’ trade unions can make a change.
Toulouse shooting : Sympathy message
from the European Director
The news of the shooting at the Jewish school Ozar-Hatorah in Toulouse, France, in which a gunman killed one teacher and two young children yesterday 20 March 2012 , left nothing but shock and distress. In a letter to member organisations in France, the ETUCE European Director Martin Rømer, expressed the ETUCE solidarity with all family victims and teachers.
© Crédits photo : Remy
de la Mauvinere/AP
News from our Partners :
Stressless Project 4th Meeting, September 2012 : "Improving Educators resilience to stress" Find more info on EDU-OSH >>>
2 March : European Equal Pay Day
CRISIS CAMPAIGN : Have you already filled in your reporting scheme?
In the framework of the EI/ETUCE Campaign on the Economic Crisis, the ETUCE asks its member organisations to send information on all their activities related to the crisis.
They are kindly requested to fill in the reporting scheme for each activity they organise in relation to the crisis.
Featuring Hungary in the crisis
Hungary will be the first example published on this
website on how teachers‘ trade unions combat the crisis
since 2008.
It includes their opinion about the crisis at national level, their actions and reactions, and the effect of the crisis on the trade union and on their members.
The country examples were based on interviews with national teachers’ trade unions willing to contribute to the ETUCE crisis campaign filling in a mini-survey.
The last issue of the ETUCE Circular is published
The 1st issue of the Circular for 2012 has been published. It contains info on Education and training policies affected by the crises; the Concerns of the stakeholders on the Erasmus for All initiative ; the Entrepreneurship education and the Modernisation of higher education and many other topics and news.
The European Policy Network on School Leadership
organises a 6-week long e-learning forum
The European Policy Network on School Leadership organises a 6-week long e-learning forum intended for the parners of the School leadership initiative. Its objective is to generate interaction between different stakeholders (policy makers, practitioners, researchers and academics and social partners) on the issue of school leadership.
The forum comprises webinars, thematic forum discussions and videos, which are supplemented with a wide range of reference materials available in the network’s resource library.
The forum has been running since 26 March and is open until 4 May 2012. It is accessible on www.schoolleadership.eu
ETUCE solidarity with Spanish trade unions on this general strike day
The ETUCE sent a letter to all day member organisations in Spain for their participation in in the general strike on 29 March 2012.
All Spanish unions have called their members to join this strong protest action against the labour market reform imposed on Spanish workers by the conservative government under Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. During the last months the economic situation In Spain has sharply worsened. Unemployment has reached about 24%. Youth unemployment is particularly alarming and is running at about 50%.
ETUCE Committee meets
with European MEPs
On 28 March, the ETUCE Committee met with Ole Christensen and Alejandro Cercas, members of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats from the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs at the European Parliament together with 3 more MEPs. The union delegation presented the results of a survey on the impact of the crisis on education, and urged the European Parliament to adopt a resolution on this topic.
26 March : ETUCE Equality Standing Committee
"European unionists fighting for equality in times of crisis"
EI region, the European Trade Union Committee for Education (ETUCE) held its annual Equality Standing Committee on 26 March in Brussels, Belgium. Education unionists reaffirmed the importance of equality in unions, education and society, to improve opportunities for sustainable and socially fair economic recovery.
EI Senior Coordinator, Dominique Marlet, presented the EI Gender Equality Action Plan. She explained that this plan focuses on three main issues: equality for women within trade unions; access and participation of girls in education, and economic empowerment of women. She furthermore announced that a second EI World Women’s Conference is planned for 2014. Marlet also said EI women’s networks in the different regions will be maintained and reinforced, and a new women’s network set up shortly for Arab countries.
ETUCE policy coordinator, Susan Flocken, also detailed the ETUCE project for trade union actions challenging gender stereotypes and gender segregation in the labour market. This European Union-funded project started in November 2011 and will end in October 2012. It looks at the link between gender stereotypes in education and gender segregation in labour market. She also mentioned the gender aspect of the ETUCE Project on third-party violence in schools and education in general.
Germany: education unionists exchange experiences
at fruitful school leaders’ Congress
The German teachers’ trade union VBE, Verband Bildung und Erziehung, the First German school leaders’ Congress on 16-17 March, In Düsseldorf. More than 1,200 school leaders from all over Germany, as well as Austria, Switzerland, Finland and Italy, gathered to this event, whose theme was “Schools take the lead,” to exchange national and European experiences between school leaders.
ETUCE Vice-President, Jörgen Lindholm, in his contribution to the Congress made a presentation on “Organising school leaders”.
News from the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists & Democrats in the European Parliament :
EU COMMISSION ON WRONG PATH WITH OUT-DATED NEO-LIBERAL OUTLOOK WHILE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY DEMANDS GROWTH AND INVESTMENT
The EU Commission is not taking the right action to get Europe out of the crisis. This was the main message from Hannes Swoboda, S&D Group President, at the S&D Strasbourg press conference today. "All around the world we hear economic experts and politicians calling for European action for growth and investment. Yet the Commission is deaf to these voices. The Commission must understand that its neo-liberal strategy is out-of-date and will not help us out of the crisis."
The Socialists and Democrats state once more that the narrow focus on austerity cannot be the way ahead. We must fight for an alternative way out of the crisis and come up with different solutions for the people.
CRISIS campaign :
Analysis of the results of the ETUCE Mini-Survey
55 teacher trade unions, covering the sectors of early childhood education, primary education, secondary education, vocational education and training and higher education, and representing 26 EU and 14 non-EU countries, replied to the mini-survey between 17 February and 23 March, 2012.
To read the short report presenting the analysis of the results of the survey >>>
Recruitment and Retention in the education sector as a matter of social dialogue
In March and April 2012, ETUCE and EFEE affiliates met at two regional seminars in Madrid and Vilnius to discuss key challenges in the area of recruitment and retention in the education sector. The seminars were organised as a part of the European social partners in education project “Recruitment and Retention in the education sector, a matter of social dialogue”. The EC funded project has been launched with the aim to develop possible joint recruitment and retention strategies for the education sector at the European level.
A questionnaire based survey was conducted covering all ETUCE and EFEE members in the European Union. At the seminars, preliminary results of the survey were presented. The participants also benefitted from presentations on country cases from the following countries: Malta, Belgium, France, Germany, Scotland, Finland, and Hungary. Furthermore, Godfrey Perera, General Secretary of HOSPEEM, and Mathias Maucher, Policy Officer at EPSU presented their experiences in the area from the health sector highlighting the results obtained being the Code of Conduct on Ethical Cross-Border Recruitment and Retention in the Hospital Sector and the Framework of Actions on Recruitment and Retention adopted by HOSPEEM and EPSU jointly in 2008 and 2010 respectively.
During May and June 2012 four country case studies will be conducted to further enrich the research foreseen in the project. All results will be presented at the final conference scheduled in September 2012 in Brussels.
Joint commitment of the ETUCE / ETUC / ILGA Europe to combat homophobic bullying in schools, in workplaces and in society
On the 2012 International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, the European Region of Education International, the European Trade Union Committee for Education (ETUCE), the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), and the European Region of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Intersex Association (ILGA-Europe), signed a commitment to strengthen their collaboration at national and European level to prevent and combat jointly homophobia and transphobia at school, in workplaces and in society.
ETUCE Peer Learning Activity and Training Seminar on Gender Stereotypes
Around 50 participants from 18 countries of the European Region came to Brussels to discuss teacher trade union actions challenging gender stereotypes and gender segregation in the labour market during a peer-learning activity (PLA) and a training seminar on 9-10 May, in Brussels.
Martin Rømer, the European Director, underlined that “gender segregation leads men and women to achieve different jobs on the labour market. This is linked to gender stereotypes in the education system. Education unions have a crucial role to play in overcoming gender stereotypes. In the ETUCE Action Plan, we seek to raise awareness among teachers on how to challenge gender stereotypes, and help students make to choose their career path choice irrespective of stereotypes attached to their gender.”
Both the PLA and the training seminar will provide input for the ETUCE guidelines on challenging gender stereotypes in education which will be developed by the project advisory group and discussed and validated at the project closing conference in Warsaw, Poland, on 11-12 September 2012.
