The 1st European Conference "Learning Innovations and Quality" has released its preliminary programme! The programme for the conference in Brussels on the 23rd of October announces the schedule for the event as well as the contributions of some of the most prominent participants. Keynote speakers at LINQ 2012 include policy officers from the Directorate General of Education and Culture for the European Commission: Godelieve van den Brande, policy officer in the area of ICT and Innovations in Learning, will discuss the role of learning innovations in the European Commission's work and visions for European Collaboration. Sophie Weisswange, involved in the DG's efforts regarding quality assurance for VET, will build upon this vision of learning innovations in Europe with her contribution concerning learning quality and the standards that are needed to ensure the efficacy of European VET.

Further speeches will be held by Christian M. Stracke from the University of Duisburg-Essen, Sofoklis Sotiriou head of R&D for the Greek school Ellinogermaniki Agogi, and Sandra Feliciano of the Centre for Research and Innovation in Business Sciences and Information Systems at the School of Technology and Management of Porto Polytechnic. Mr Stracke, who also chairs the CEN Technical Committee 353 and is active as an ISO Convener, will discuss the possibility of contradictions that may arise between learning innovation and learning quality. Mr Sotiriou's presentation on the other hand will deal with the learning innovations involved in his work in schools and science education. Finally, Mrs Feliciano will elaborate on her experience with learning quality and certification as chair of the Portuguese national technical committee CTA 25. Their speeches will be followed with the related presentations of submitted papers.

LINQ 2012, with its motto "Learning Innovations and Quality: How do they fit together?", addresses Lifelong Learning (LLL), Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL), quality standards and certification, human resources development, competences and skills, as well as learning, innovation and quality management systems. All experts from Learning, Education and Training (LET) are invited to contribute their own professional or academic efforts and to present them in a scientific paper and presentation and join in our dialogue on the Quality Certification in Learning, Education and Training (LET).

A call for papers in connection with LINQ 2012 will be open for submissions until the 10th of July. All papers should be of high quality and describe fully developed results, on-going work or innovative concepts on the following topics:

• Innovations and future trends in LET
• Quality Development and Certification in LET
• Competence and skills development in lifelong learning
• Implementation of learning innovations
• Technology‐Enhanced Learning for schools, universities and lifelong learning
• Web 2.0, Social Media and Online Communities for LET
• Learning outcome orientation and quality certification
• Standardisation of LET design, production and services
• Knowledge, innovation and ideas management in LET contexts
• Learning quality in vocational education and training and HR
• Certification of LET services and providers
• Quality and standardization of learning assessment and evaluation
• Harmonization of innovations and quality development in LET

Attendance at the European conference "Learning Innovations and Quality" (LINQ 2012) is subject to a fee (70 €) and requires online registration as places are limited. The conference fee includes all provisions including a warm 3-course lunch, two coffee breaks, the conference bag and the official conference proceedings.

Submissions of papers related to the conference (max. eight pages) must be sent to the Q-Cert-VET Consortium by Tuesday, 10th of July 2012. The submitters will be informed about the acceptance of the papers by the 20th of August 2012. All accepted papers will be published in the official proceedings of the European Conference (with ISBN) and distributed to all conference participants and across all of Europe. Specific guidelines and requirements, as well as a full copy of the conference programme, can be found on the conference website at www.learning-innovations.eu and at the Q-Cert-VET project website www.edu-certification.eu.

Overview of the important dates:
- Paper submission deadline: July 10, 2012
- Notification of acceptance: August 20, 2012
- Camera-Ready copy due: September 7, 2012
- Conference program: October 23, 2012

Direct enquiries and full papers can be sent to the Q-Cert-VET project manager Tatiana Shamarina-Heidenreich, University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE), Germany, via e-Mail to: tatiana.shamarina-heidenreich@icb.uni-due.de

Q-Cert-Vet is the European research project for the quality certification (Q-Cert) of vocational education and training (VET) and is co-funded by the European Commission. The European initiative Q-Cert-VET develops a new quality standard and supports a related certification scheme for the vocational education and training (VET) sector in Portugal.

The project Q-Cert-VET develops a national quality standard and initiates the development of required tools for professional quality certification. The reference framework QPL (short for Quality Platform Learning), developed in Germany, provides the basis for the new quality standard and related instruments and tools for the certification scheme, including the first training course for lead auditors. A strong desire from the Q-Cert-VET consortium members goes beyond a national quality standard: the evaluated and optimized quality certification standard will be submitted to the European standardization CEN TC 353 to become an official European Norm (EN) for Quality and Certification in vocational education and training.

The consortium of Q-Cert-VET is coordinated and led by Centre for Research and Innovation in Business Sciences and Information Systems (CIICESI). It includes eight partners from four countries: Germany, Luxembourg, Portugal, and Romania. The University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, one of the Q-Cert-VET project partners and the project co-coordinator, is author and auditor of QPL and providing long-term expertise in learning quality.

More information about Q-Cert-VET is available online at www.edu-certification.eu

Dipl.-Wirt.-Inf. Tatiana Shamarina-Heidenreich

University of Duisburg-Essen, Campus Essen
Information Systems for Production and Operations Management
Universitaetsstr. 9 (FB WIWI: ICB)
D-45141 Essen (Germany)
Office: R09 S02 B89

Fon: ++49-(0) 201-183 4304
Fax: ++49-(0) 201-183 4067
Email: tatiana.shamarina-heidenreich@icb.uni-due.de
Web: www.wip.uni-due.de

This release was published on openPR.