Matching Competences Conference in Zenica
Graz. From September 17-18, 2009, the second conference in the frame of the Tempus project COMPETENCE took place at the University of Zenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Seven different countries shared their knowledge and good practices with regard to matching competences developed at universities with those required by the labour market.The project COMPETENCE aims at developing tools for improving the match between competences developed by higher education institutions and those required by the labour market.
More than 40 participants – representatives of eight international project partners, local business representatives as well as the Minister of Education of the Zenica-Doboj Canton – attended this very interesting conference which was organized by Prof. Darko Petkovic and Nino Serdarevic from the University of Zenica.
In his key-note-speech, Mr. Peter Wilhelmer, Head of Quality Development and Management at the University of Applied Sciences FH Joanneum, Austria, gave a general assessment of Austrian universities of applied sciences. In particular he pointed out how his university tries to meet the labour market needs when developing and modernising curricula. Furthermore, Mr. Wilhelmer addressed problems and challenges related to competence based curriculum development in Austria. His speech was followed by a lively discussion involving stakeholders from SEE as well as from the EU. The presentation can be downloaded here.
In a subsequent workshop the project partners from the EU presented the “competence-matching-tools” which they use at their institutions. Furthermore, the new COMPETENCE webpage, which serves as an information and download centre for all involved project partners, was introduced.
The presentation of the first part of the “COMPETENCE Manual” marked the opening of the 2nd conference day. This manual – which will finally consist of four parts - aims at serving as a guideline for competence based curriculum development at the partner universities.
The project partners from the Western Balkan (WB) countries presented the current developments with regard to the project implementation at their home universities. The managers for the newly to be established “Competence and Observation Centres” are nominated and an action plan for setting up and equipping the centres has already been developed by each WB partner university. Moreover, two partners conducted already focus groups in order to have a baseline for the development of detailed competence-questionnaires which will be handed out at each WB partner university in 2010.
Finally, during a project planning workshop led by WUS Austria, the activities timetable for the coming twelve months was adapted and it was agreed upon the next trainings and study visits in Graz, Skopje, Girona and Novi Sad.
WUS Austria uses this opportunity to thank the University of Zenica for organising and hosting this meeting and all project partners for their active participation and contributions.
