Europe’s Educational Training
Foundation
The Educational Training Foundation, an autonomous agency of the European Union (EU), started its activities
in Turin, Italy in January 1995. Its purpose is to coordinate and support all EU activities in the field of post-
compulsory education, as part of the overall TACIS (Technical Assistance to the Commonwealth of
Independent States) and PHARE (the equivalent for Central Europe) programs for economic restructuring in
the 24 partner countries in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
Objectives of the ETF include:
- support for the development of vocational education and training systems inside the countries of Central
and Eastern Europe and Asia;
- effective cooperation between the member states of the European Union and partner countries in the fields
of education and training;
- contributing to the coordination of assistance provided by the European
Union, its member states, third countries and organisations such as the World Bank, the European Bank for
Reconstruction and Cooperation, the OECD etc.; and
- provision of technical assistance to the European Commission for the implementation of the Tempus
program.
The European Training Foundation is currently responsible for the management
of the following three initiatives:
- A pilot project, “VET reforms in Northwest Russia.”
VET stands for “Vocational Education and Training.” The main objective is to contribute to the reform of
VET in four sectors crucial to the economy of Russia’s northwest region, such as telecommunications,
transport, tourism and wood processing. The period for the project is April 1996-April 1998. EU participants
are Austria, Finland, the Flemish community of Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands. On the Russian side:
Leningradskaya oblast, St. Petersburg, Novgorod, and Karelia.
- The European Training Foundation's “Observatory.”
The general aim is to set up a network of “observatories” throughout the
partner countries to provide a global overview of policies and actions
for vocational training reform with the view to converting the knowledge
gained into concrete advice. In Russia, due to its big territory, two observatories will be set up. The main one,
in Moscow, will collect information on the Russian Federation. The Regional Observatory in St. Petersburg will
focus on the Northwest region.
- The Tempus program.
“Tempus” is an instrument for the development and restructuring of higher
education. This includes the improvement of university administration and the restructuring and development
of degree courses and their content. In 1995 the funds allocated to the Russian Federation through the Tempus
program amounted to 11.7 million ECU.
For further information about ETF’s activities, contact:
European Training Foundation
Stolovy pereulok 7-A
Moscow, Russia
Tel: 230-23-21
Fax: 230-25-21
E-mail: [email protected]
Mark Jessel, Director, or
Mariana Markova
This article is from the July/August 1996 issue of
Civil Society ... East and West
For more information or to order a
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The URL for this page is: http://solar.rtd.utk.edu/~ccsi/csew/96-07/etf.htm
Last updated: October 8, 1996
