„Innovations in the Environmental Sector“
Competence Models, E-Learning, Social Communities
The 4th European Conference „Innovations in the Environmental Sector“ (INES) has announced the venue for its event in Brussels, Belgium on the 21st of September, 2011. The Bedford Hotel & Congress Centre at Rue du Midi, 135 will provide the conference with facilities for the discussion of themes related to the environmental sector, human resources development, and competence modelling. Participants organized by the WACOM project consortium, host of the conference, include representatives from the European Commission, competence modelling experts, and European standardisation bodies, ensuring a competent and influential audience and thus a fruitful exchange of ideas.
Additionally, the WACOM consortium has created a new website for the INES conference. This website will serve as the centre for all information regarding registration and the conference itself in the coming weeks. The website is available under the previously existing URL www.learning-innovations.eu.
The European Conference „Innovations in the Environmental Sector“ (INES) is focusing new ways and approaches for the lifelong learning by competence models, E-Learning and social communities. INES 2011 continues the discussion developed at the first three related European conferences in Vilnius (Lithuania), Budapest (Hungary) and most recently in Bucharest (Romania) last September in 2010. The WACOM consortium has organized and utilised these previous opportunities, along with national workshops in each of the WACOM partner countries, to raise the awareness of the stakeholders in the water sector, human resource development, and vocational education and training concerning the benefits and implementations of competence modelling in the water sector.
The conference is organized in conjunction with the European Conference „Competence Modelling for the Water Sector“ that will present the major outcome of the European WACOM consortium and initiative for competence modelling in the water sector: The Water Competence Model (WCM) with its tools for harmonized descriptions of job profiles and working places in the water sector. The overall objectives of WACOM are the transfer and adaptation of a competence model to the water sector and its integration and harmonisation with the European Qualification Framework (EQF), thus contributing to European competence standardisation and improving vocational education and training.
Attendance at the European conference „Innovations in the Environmental Sector“ (INES) is free of charge and requires online registration as places are limited. No more submission of papers related to the conference is possible. All accepted papers will be published in the official proceedings of the European Conference (with ISBN) and distributed to all conference participants and across whole Europe. Specific guidelines and requirements can be found on at www.learning-innovations.eu.
Direct enquiries can be sent to the WACOM project manager Xenia Kuhn, University of Duisburg-Essen, via e-Mail at: xenia.kuhn@icb.uni-due.de.
WACOM is the European Leonardo-da-Vinci Project for the transfer of a competence model to the water sector and its integration and harmonization with the European Qualification Framework (EQF) for competence modelling throughout whole Europe.
The Competence Model can be adapted and used within any water sectors and also within all other branches in the future:
It will improve the transparency, competitiveness, and mobility both for the citizens as well as for the enterprises towards a better European VET and society.
Finally it is submitted to the European Standardization Committees (CEN/TC 353) as the input to launch a standardization project for a harmonized European Norm (EN).
More information about WACOM online:
http://www.wacom-project.eu
University of Duisburg-Essen
Sebastian Vermette
Universitätsstr. 9
45141 Essen
sebastian.vermette@icb.uni-due.de
02011834055
http://www.wip.wiwi.uni-due.de/