About the conference

Exploring the latest developments towards the realization of the European Higher Education Area, the international symposium Towards a European Education Area: Promoting Higher Education in Europe brings together policy-makers, higher education specialists, and key stakeholders to assess the progress, implementation, and success of recent initiatives. Delegates will have the opportunity to discuss current challenges facing higher education in Europe, examine existing and proposed strategies to overcome these, and suggest approaches for the future.

About the workshop

The notion of the learning eco-system has often been highlighted as being of key importance (e.g. a need to shift from a notion of ego-based towards eco-based learning, a need for a holistic approach when designing policy measures, a need to acknowledge the roles of all key stakeholder groups and how they are interrelated etc.). Findings so far clearly indicate a need to see online training as part of a bigger picture (i.e. overall learning eco-system of small and Medium-Sized Enterprises – SMEs- or lack of it), and a need to develop suggestions for support measures with a good understanding of how these online training solutions fit this bigger picture and are interrelated with other processes within SMEs and outside.

The workshop 'Towards an efficient learning ecosystem for European SMEs: Fully exploiting the potential of online training' aims to further develop a common vision for promoting online training among SMEs in Europe. The workshop will feature good practice examples, as well as address promising strategies and approaches for developing efficient learning ecosystems for European SMEs.

This initiative aims to explore the role of online training in tackling the skills-related challenges in Europe, with a particular focus on high-tech SMEs. It implies performing an extensive state-of-play analysis, developing a common vision, and formulating recommendations for supporting measures. Examples of the key issues that are addressed include:

• What exactly needs to be done and by whom to stimulate the uptake of online training by SMEs in Europe?
• How should the funding of online training-related initiatives for the workforce be organized?
• How can online training best complement other (more traditional) forms of training?
• What are the most promising ways of reaching out to the workforce (particularly within SMEs), to engage them into online training?

Online training here refers to a broad range of technology-enabled training solutions (i.e. bespoke and off-the-shelf e-learning, including video content, mobile learning, MOOCs, Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality, gamification etc.).

The outcome of this initiative will play a prominent role in forming future European Union policy-making regarding online training.

About Nadine Roijakkers

Dr. Nadine Roijakkers is program director yOUrMBA at the Open Universiteit in Heerlen, the Netherlands. Besides her career in academia, she was a senior strategy consultant at Atos-KPMG Consulting in the Netherlands, where she advised global companies on their collaborative strategies and practices for a number of years. Nadine has published numerous articles and books on alliance management and (open) innovation management.