The European Statistical Training Programme
Additional information for the IT Steering Committee, 11. October 2000
New Procedures and Activities in 2001
New procedures
Based on a call for tenders Eurostat plans to conclude a framework contract with TES Institute, Luxembourg, for three years. This contract replaces the former subsidy and will be a timely limited solution. Eurostat and the Working Group "Training for European Statisticians" developed also a Business Plan for the European Statistical Training Programme, which describes the current task allocation and procedures.
Within these new procedures Eurostat and the NSIs have to take a more active role in the planning, execution and evaluation of the training programme. They are responsible for the macro-didactical planning, while our contractor will take care of the micro-didactical planning of each individual course and the execution of the programme.
Eurostat has the general management responsibilities for the training programme. It defines the training policy and the annual training programmes in co-operation with the Working Group and the SPC, investigates the training needs, signs responsible for the contracting and the organisational framework and co-ordinates all programme activities.
The commitment of the NSI is a virtual point as they are the main customers of the training programme and all activities refer to their benefit. Both Member States and Candidate Countries have to be involved in the development, the execution and evaluation of the annual programmes in a large scale. European and national training scheme have to be linked in order to gain synergies. The Working Group will play a virtual role in this respect and should take the responsibility for a good co-operation between Eurostat and the NSIs.
Contracting and micro-management
The contracting procedure for the annual training programmes supports this new allocation of tasks. After Eurostat and the NSIs have defined the annual training programme, Eurostat will fix specific orders for individual training measures. The prices, general conditions and the quality of the services are already defined in the framework contract.
For the participants of the training courses nothing will change: They will send their registration directly to the contractor (TES Institute) and pay him their tuition fees. As before, participants from the National Statistical Services of the EU/EFTA Member States will pay a registration fee of 100€. All other participants will be charged a training fee, which will equivalent the total proportional costs of the individual participation. The collected fees will co-finance the implementation of the training programme. It is ensured that the courses will take place in different parts of Europe. The contractor can use his premises for 50% of the courses, for all other courses he has to find facilities in other European regions.
Communication
In order to improve the communication between all stakeholders of the programme, a CIRCA Interest Group was set up and shall be used for
· the publication and discussion of basic documents concerning the statistical training programme and related issues.
· the publication and discussion of the annual training programme (draft and final versions), publication of course details, collection and discussion of the proposals for new training courses and assessments, comments and ideas concerning already existing courses.
· Publication of documents concerning general and European training in statistics and national training programmes in statistics (concepts and programmes of the NSIs and other training providers)
· Newsgroups and virtual meetings in order to discuss new training concepts and didactical approaches in statistics, consulting in training activities, exchange of information on course programmes, etc.
Timing: the calendar year
Starting from 2001 the programme will work on the basis of the calendar year and not the academic year anymore.
For the annual programme 2001 this led to a very restricted timing for the preparation of courses and some difficulties in the announcement of the programme. The Working Group adopted a proposal of training courses in September 2000. The courses will be announced Mid November electronically and in December in a printed version. It is envisaged to postpone the first course to February 2001 in order to ensure a sufficient participation.
Programme 2001
The annual core programme 2001 includes already some courses, which can be counted as IT training. These are:
§ New tools and methods of Data Transmission
§ Measuring economic activity on the Internet
The course "Techniques of electronic data dissemination" will be conducted in end of October 2000. For the next years also IT courses are foreseen, but they might not be sufficient for the existing needs.
Resources
As in previous years Eurostat will finance the programme from its operational budget. The programme will be co-financed by EFTA and additionally tuition fees contribute to the financing of the programme. should be fulfilled by a public organisation. This might be an "Implementing Agency", linked to the organisational structure of the European Commission, or a public body in the form of a training institute, owned by the Member States and supported by the European Commission.