September 2003

Main ETUCO News page

Third course EFBWW-ETUCO EWC Coordination Network

ETUCO organised the third Dialog-on training seminaire for the network on EWCs coordination of its partner organisation European Federation of Building and Wood Workers. The course took place in Florence between 20 and 22nd of September 2003.
Working languages were English and French and the participants who all came from the building and wood sector had positions as coordinators for EWCs in their countries.
The trainers were the network animators Jan Voets, William Van der Straeten and Bo Carselid (ETUCO).

The course aimed to:

• Train new members to work online in a the virtual classroom
• Introduce the participants to the Dialog-On project
• Next steps and future of the network

see the programme

July 2003

Main ETUCO News page

Second course EMCEF-ETUCO EWC Coordination Network

ETUCO organised the second Dialog-on training course for the network on improving EWC coordination of its partner organisation EMCEF. The course was held in Madrid on 30 June and 1 July 2003.
The working languages were English, French, German and Spanish. The participants were members of the EMCEF Ad Hoc Committee for the coordination of European works council activities in the chemical sector.
The trainers were the network animator Harald Harazim and the EMCEF General Secretary Reinhard Reibsch, supported by Ivonne Jackelen (ETUCO).

The course aimed to:

• Train and integrate new network members
• Present and discuss EMCEF's IT strategy
• Discuss the needs and cooperation methods of European works councils, national and company coordinators and the EMCEF office
• Evaluate the progress and success of the network so far
• Decide upon the next steps and the future of the network

see the programme
see the full report

Extra training day for Higher Education, Research and Teacher Education Network

As one consequence of the evaluation seminar in Florence (March 2003), ETUCE invited members of the HERC group from Central and Eastern European countries to a special training day at the Freie Universität Berlin.

On 14 April 2003, five participants received a general introduction to the Dialog-On project and the work of the conference, together with a training session in FirstClass.

During the lunch break the group had the opportunity to meet the new ETUCE General Secretary, Martin Rømer. Time was used to share impressions and experiences and to get to know ETUCE's general position on the status of the network, etc.

EFBWW-ETUCO Course II: Risk Assessment Network

ETUCO organised the second training course for the Risk Assessment network of its partner organisation, the European Federation of Building and Woodworkers (EFBWW) in Florence from 12 to 13 April 2003. English, French and Dutch were the working languages.
The participants were again trade union officials or EWC members from the construction and woodworking sector with responsibility for health and safety issues. The trainers were the two network animators Rolf Gehring (previous EFBWW, now IGM) and Jan Voets (Bouw + Industrie) as well as William Van der Straeten (EFBWW), supported by Ivonne Jackelen (ETUCO).
The course aimed to:

• Evaluate the progress and success of the network so far
• Identify problems, look for possible solutions
• Decide upon the next steps and the future of the network

DIALOG-ON Concertation event

4 - 6 April 2003, International Training Centre of ILO (ICT-ILO), Turin, Italy

The partners of the Dialog-on project met for a concertation meeting, which aims where, after 16 months of project,

• To enable mini-project representatives to exchange information and share experiences within each strand about their activities (networking/CMDL/ web portals)
• To enable mini-project representatives to exchange information and share experiences across strands about their activities (networking/CMDL/web portals)
• To improve overall understanding of designing and delivering European networking and CMDL activities.

It was the first time during the project where partners from all strands met all together and also met the ETUCO staff responsible for the project. This was a great opportunity to get to know each other and put a face to the names in the FirstClass communication system.

Each strand organized a series of activities, that is
for the networking strand

• Presentation of projects
• Roles and profiles of animators and participants
• How to sustain and extend networks

for the CMDL strand and the web portal strand

• Talk about the first face to face experiences
• Give the rules for tutoring at a distance. The new ETUCO Tutor Toolkit was also presented
• How to structure the distance period

They also organized cross activities, such as

• How to avoid cross-cultural misunderstandings
• How to motivate participants

The pedagogical assistants and the participants organized an exhibition showing everything that had been produced so far within the project (CD-Rom, manuals, photos, etc). The event was welcomed as a creative element, bringing closer the different project partners and strands. It demonstrated all the efforts put into the project as a whole and was an emotional and successful activity.

After the project had been evaluated, by the Commission, by an internal evaluator and by the participants themselves, the participants concluded by deciding to maybe coordinate a number of supplementary activities and to keep the First Class Conferencing system running and to ensure a certain level of technical support.

The final conference will take place in November 2003 in Vienna.

CMDL strand: ÖGB - CGIL first transnational face to face session

The first session of ÖGB and CGIL mini-project "Atypical employment in Italy and Austria" was held from 28 March to 2 April in Vienna.

9 Italian and 8 Austrian participants met to learn how to develop an e-learning script on the topic " Atypical employment in Italy and Austria".
The areas covered by this session were following:

• Introduction to e-learning - opportunities and challenges
• First Class - working in virtual classroom
• Pedagogical and didactical basics for on-line courses
• Structuring of online-text and concise wording
• How to create a script for e-learning course
• Evaluation of e-learning courses

For more information please read the article from Martin Bolkovac - ÖGB (one of the course tutors) and the programme of the course.

ETUCE/ETUCO Course III: Higher Education, Research and Teacher Education Network
29 and 30 March 2003, Florence


ETUCO organised the third training course for the network on Higher Education, Research and Teacher Education of its partner organisation the ETUCE. The course was held in Florence on 29 and 30 March 2003. English was the working language. The participants were again senior officials of European teachers' unions nominated to represent their organisations in the higher education electronic network. The trainers were the network animators Monique Fouilhoux (EI) and Martin Rømer (ETUCE), supported by Ivonne Jackelen (ETUCO).

The course aimed to:

• Evaluate the progress and success of the network so far
• Identify problems and look for possible solutions
• Decide on the next steps and the future of the network
• Discuss the present situation in the Bologna process

see the full report
see the programme

FCT-ETUCO Course: EWCs Coordination Network II

ETUCO organised the second training course for the network on European Works Councils Coordination of its partner organisation the CC.OO.-FCT.
The course was held in Sesimbra, Portugal from 22 to 23 March 2003. English, French and Spanish were the working languages.
The participants were again trade union officals or EWC members from the transport sector.
The trainers were the two network animators Peter Luypaert (BBTK-DHL) and Hartmut Beckmann (ver.di-Air France).

The course aimed to:

• Evaluate the progress and success of the network so far
• Identify problems and look for possible solutions
• Decide upon the next steps and the future of the network

UNI-Europa Graphical Networking Course II with ETUCO on: Collective Bargaining & EWC Coordination and Cooperation
22 - 23 March 2003, Florence


Within the networking strand of the Dialog-On project, which receives financial support from the European Commission, ETUCO organised the second training course for the network on improving collective bargaining and EWC coordination of its partner organisation UNI-Europa Graphical.

The course was held in Florence on 22 and 23 March 2003. The working languages were English, French, Spanish and Swedish. The participants were chief negotiators from unions affiliated to UNI-Europa Graphical or their assistants or advisers as well as coordinators from European works councils.

The trainers were the network animators John Gennard (University of Strathclyde) and Simon Dubbins (GPMU) as well as Nicola Konstantinou (UNI-Europa Graphical), supported by Ivonne Jackelen (ETUCO).

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ETUCO/EFBWW Course II: EWC Coordination Network
Within the networking strand of the Dialog-On project, which receives financial support from the European Commission, ETUCO organised the second training course for the network on European Works Councils Coordination of its partner organisation the EFBWW.
The course took place from 15 to 16 March 2003 in San Daniele, Italy. English, French and Dutch were the working languages.
The participants were again national coordinators for European works council activities and EWC members from the construction and woodworking sector.
The trainers were the two network animators Jan Voets (Bouw + Industrie) and William Van der Straeten (EFBWW), supported by Ivonne Jackelen (ETUCO).

The course aimed to:

• Evaluate the progress and success of the network so far
• Identify problems
• Look for possible solutions
• Decide upon the next steps and the future of the network

First session of the CFDT/CC.OO. mini-project, "Knowledge Before Action: The European Social Dialogue"

The first session of the CFDT/CC.OO. mini-project, "Knowledge Before Action: The European Social Dialogue", was held from 5 to 9 March 2003 in Madrid.

14 French and Spanish participants found out how to devise a trade union training project using:
- A single pedagogical method: CMDL
- A single theme: the EUROPEAN SOCIAL DIALOGUE
- A single technical support system for transmission and discussion of information: FIRSTCLASS

The project aim was to promote knowledge of the European Social Dialogue to a range of trade unionists.

The commitment and fine contribution of the participants demonstrated the value they attached to the project. The excellent organisation of the meeting, welcome, expert speakers and working conditions provided by our friends at the Juan Muniz Zapico training school ensured the success of the meeting.

The distance learning period will focus on 4 key themes selected by the participants in Madrid :
Professional skills and mobility;
Equal opportunities and equality at work;
the sectoral social dialogue;
the key institutions of the European social dialogue.

The June session in PARIS will provide an opportunity to evaluate the work accomplished to date and decide on the follow-up.

Second Workshop of the ETUCO/ETUCE Network: Quality in Education

28 February - 2 March, 2003, Brussels, Belgium
11 persons participated in the seminar. Three major issues were discussed:

• evaluation of the network so far,
• quality in education and
• future actions.

Some participants still have some problems related to FirstClass and firewalls.
Martin Rømer, ETUCE General Secretary, informed about the present work within the EU and in ETUCE on quality in education. The participants reported about the situation in their countries.
It was agreed that there is a need to start an organised discussion on the developments in Europe concerning quality in education and teacher union policy.
The idea would be to produce a document to the ETUCE consultative conference in June this year.
There are basically two questions which need to be answered:

1. What policy developments can we observe in the area of quality education in the different countries and in Europe?
2. What policies should the teacher unions promote in the area of quality education in the different countries and at European level?

As far as the future work of the network is concerned, it will follow four steps:

1. Consolidate the network
2. Improve the network
3. Expand the network
4. Develop the network for the future