Bulletin 03/05: 4 April 2005

 

NEWS FROM EURELECTRIC: WE ARE GETTING OLDER
 

Brussels 17/03/2005.  The EU is facing unprecedented demographic changes that will have a major impact on the whole of society. Figures in the Green Paper on Demographic Change launched today by the Commission show that from now until 2030 the EU will lack 20.8 million (6.8 per cent) people of working age. In 2030 roughly two active people (15-65) will have to take care of one inactive person (65+). And Europe will have 18 million children and young people fewer than today.
 

The issues are much broader than older workers and pension reform. This development will affect almost every aspect of our lives, for example the way businesses operate and work is being organised, our urban planning, the design of flats, public transport, voting behaviour and the infrastructure of shopping possibilities in our cities.
 

People are living longer and older people are enjoying better health. By 2030, the number of "older workers" (aged 55 to 64) will have risen by 24 million as the baby-boomer generation become senior citizens and the EU will have 34.7 million citizens aged over 80 (compared to 18.8 million today).  Average life expectancy at 60 has risen five years since 1960 for women and nearly four years for men.  The number of people 80+ will grow by 180% by 2050.
 

Fertility rate
 

The EU's fertility rate fell to 1.48 in 2003, below the level needed to replace the population (2.1 children per woman).  The paper shows that the EU's population will fall from 469.5 million in 2025 to 468.7 million in 2030.  By contrast, the US population will increase by 25.6 per cent between 2000 and 2025.  However, demographic decline is already here: in one third of the EU regions and in most of the regions of the new member states the population was already falling in the late 90s.
 

Ageing work force
 

From 2005 to 2030 the number of people 65+ will rise by 52,3% (40 mio), while the age group of 15-64 will decrease by 6,8% (20,8 mio).
 

The ratio of dependent young and old people to people of working age will increase from 49 per cent in 2005 to 66 per cent in 2030.  To offset the loss of working-age people, we will need an employment rate of over 70 per cent.
 

Implications
 

These demographic changes have major implications for our prosperity, living standards and relations between the generations. Modern Europe has never had economic growth without births.  It is the result of constraints on families’ choices: late access to employment, job instability, expensive housing and lack of incentives (family benefits, parental leave, child care, equal pay).  Incentives of this kind can have a positive impact on the birth rate and increase employment, especially female employment, as certain countries have shown.  However, 84% of men surveyed by Eurobarometer in 2004 said that they had not taken parental leave or did not intend to do so, even when informed of their rights.
 

What should we do?
 

Many of the issues are the responsibility of the Member States but they concern the whole of the EU.  The Commission wants to open a debate on how to tackle them and what role the Union should play. For example, should EU policies for work-life balance and equal opportunities be harnessed to boost the population?  How should immigration into the EU be managed?
 

NEWS FROM IRCA –ENGAGING IN TRAINING
 

It is a common misconception that the best way to impart knowledge is by lecturing on a new subject.  But learning is actually more effective when students are given the opportunity to interact through tasks and activities and learn for themselves, explains Vincent Desmond, IRCA’s business manager.
 

Given a fighting chance, children manage to learn everything they need to know before they go to school: how to communicate, how to survive socially, how to judge consequences, and therefore how to plan.
 

By the time they arrive at corporate training courses their expectations of learning are set by what they have experienced at school, at college and at the training courses they have been sent on.  They expect:
 

	a small group of ‘delegates’
	a smart, professional tutor
	PowerPoint slides
	lectures - during which the tutor presents the material and fills them with knowledge
	a impressive folder to put on the shelf back at the office
	a fine lunch.

 

These deeply embedded expectations do not make for effective learning.  The transmission method (ie telling people information) has given way to the theory that learning happens most effectively when people practice things and therefore when the trainer knows how to guide learners through appropriate practice activities.

 

IRCA is developing auditor training course syllabuses that move away from long lectures to interactive learning sessions that allow students to learn for themselves by completing tasks and activities.  Of course, this needs to happen within a well-managed learning process such as the version of Kolb’s learning cycle in figure 1 below, which many management systems professionals will recognize as a close cousin of the plan-do-check-act cycle.

 

Figure 1. IRCA's version of the Kolb learning cycle

 

 

 

 

 

 

If implemented successfully in the corporate training context the following should be observed in a classroom:

 

Students:

	doing tasks with defined outputs
	experimenting with new ideas and notions
	asking lots of questions
	helping each other
	working in teams
	being relaxed and confident
	working at their own pace and in their own way.

A classroom that:

	has an atmosphere of comfort, relaxation, and even fun
	is set up for active, team-based project work, not listening and reading
	changes in mood regularly
	is owned by the students and contains their own work outputs.

Trainers:

	operating as facilitators not lecturers
	setting up tasks and activities with clear output requirements
	encouraging students
	questioning students to challenge their understanding of new ideas
	encouraging students to answer their own questions
	requiring students to review their own performance and understanding
	helping students to identify learning achievements and areas for improvement.

The benefits to this approach are clear: students learn things more thoroughly and retain knowledge and skills for much longer.
 

Breaking it down

In fluid business environments where markets, products, software and people change constantly, learning must also happen constantly. However, for many, the training budget has much in common with the marketing budget: you have a feeling that only some of the activity is effective, but which parts?  

Given that knowledge is power, those companies spending money on training need to consider the following in their selection of training providers.
 

	remember that content experts are not necessarily good at training
	send staff who perform regular in-house or on-the-job training on a train-the-trainer course  It will pay for itself many times over
	if you buy a lot of external training expertise, it is also worth sending key purchasers on a train-the-trainer course so they can ensure they can define appropriate training requirements, talk the same language as the training providers who pitch to them, and assess training delivery
	you need to assess training before you buy it, not after your staff members have completed it and you have already paid. Consider observing trainers before you buy their training
	make sure trainers, both internal and external, have an acceptable professional trainer qualification from a recognised body.

NEWS FROM US!

Open Learning Courses

AFAQ-ETA  are working on two new open learning courses dealing with the ISO 9000:2000 Quality Standard and the ISO 19011 Auditor Standard.  These will be on interactive CD format and will be tutor supported and will result in an AFAQ Group certification.  We expect the courses to be ready in the summer.

Power System Protection Courses

Students who have completed our Introduction to Protection of Transmission and Distribution Systems course are now able to start on our Premier Protection course at a discounted rate.  Details on www.afaq-eta.com  or from Tyla Davis tyla-davis@afaq-eta.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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