This is a concept paper to review the needs of holistic life planning as a new pathway towards retirement preparation. It is based on the review of literature on the importance of this knowledge to fulfil individual successful planning and preparation for retirement. It includes the review on a planning process theory by Friedman and Scholnick…

Researchers and policy makers agree that the relation between school and work is an important characteristic of vocational education and training (VET) and needs attention. The relation itself poses several challenges for research to be successful and useful for policy makers. In this article, we outline these challenges and answer the following…

Accelerating threats to a sustainable relationship between economic growth and the capacity of the global social-ecological system to support it require that the implications of competitiveness be reassessed. Today, the capacities that underlie economic competitiveness must also be brought to bear on policy and pedagogy to prepare the coming…

This article presents an argued case for making sustainable development a policy obligation for the European Training Foundation (ETF) and for vocational education and training (VET) reform in the partner countries that are served by ETF. In relation to ETF it points out that no major emphasis has been put to date on combining economic, social and…

Since 1986 when the National People's Congress ratified the Compulsory Education Law, China's achievement of nine-year compulsory basic education for its huge school-age population has been rapid and successful. However, the rate of achievement has grown unevenly across the country, reflecting the different economic development patterns of the…

The purpose of this article is to present the latest Education Lending Policy (ELP) of the European Investment Bank (EIB), adopted by the Board of Governors in 2008. It is structured in two parts. The first briefly presents the EIB in general and the evolution of its education lending portfolio in particular. This sets the stage for the second…

Beginning in the year 2000, higher education policies all over Europe were transformed by the launching and evolution of the Bologna Process, otherwise known as the process of creating a European Higher Education Area (EHEA). Initially, this process was flexible and informal, which makes the rapidity and scope of the changes it brought about…

Educational systems have been based on the assumption that the purpose and preferred activity in life is work, with the role of education to prepare students to make a living. Social and technological change forecast a world in which few people work, requiring drastically altered social and educational values. (Author/MSE)

The reduction of lifetime working hours in Western industrialized countries is increasing the need for research, particularly qualitative, on the leisure of the elderly. This approach has been taken in planning a new empirical study. (MSE)

Benefits and risks of expanding international student exchange in the European Union are weighed, at the levels of both the individual and the host and home nations. A variety of possible approaches to expansion are considered: regulatory; noncooperative; and cooperative (discipline-specific, bilateral, multilateral on norms, and multilateral on…

The United Kingdom's system of apprenticeships and its relationship to vocational education and employment are discussed, with focus on recent government initiatives, access to apprenticeships, and efforts to coordinate training with labor market needs. (MSE)

Statistics on college students in Czechoslovakia before November 1989 are presented, and a survey of 320 students after the massive political upheaval is reported. The survey assessed student views on the new social, economic, and political situation, the status and changes in higher education, changes in higher education funding, and future…

Issues in vocationalization of the two-tier system of higher education in France are considered, including vocationally oriented professional courses; the impact of mass education; changing aims of university studies; and issues for the future, such as the balance between short-term and long-term needs. (DB)

This paper examines developments in inclusive education in Bulgaria (BG) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) in the context of actual and desired accession to the European Union respectively. It seeks to provide insights into the national special education traditions in these countries and aims to establish how these have influenced current…

The unique contribution of grandparents to families of children with and without disabilities is often overlooked in the clinical and empirical literature. Perceptions and practice of teachers regarding grandparents were examined. Eighty-two special education teachers and 80 teachers from regular classes completed a 30-item questionnaire tapping…