The University of Maribor (UM) is participating in the EDU-LAB project, which aims to improve the employment opportunities for young people in the Danube region. The basis for building a new way of thinking is the development of capabilities and the integration of partners from the field of higher education, employers and representatives of the relevant ministries. More than 20 partners from 10 countries have participated and have developed a model of a sustainable link between education and employment. The objectives of the project focus on improving the institutional capacity in order to increase the relevance of education to the labor market by preventing young people leaving their studies and by convincing them to work within the Danube region. A two-day workshop was organized within the key 4th work package of the project on the topic of a new management model. In this regard, a special emphasis was put on how to keep the most promising young people in the region in order to put forward suitable jobs that would offer them a big challenge.

The project UM in cooperation with the National Examination Center is also preparing materials on the theme of promoting further development of higher education legislation. This focuses on the conditions for enrolment, which may be essential for excellent students in age of enrolling and for their subsequent employment. Based on international research that shows that enrollment in higher education requires promotion of quality and promotion of high standards in primary and secondary education, admission should reward quality and promote high standards in pre-tertiary education: 'Quality first, quantity second'.

The Institute of the Republic of Slovenia for Vocational Education and Training was involved with the presentation of the project Learning by Doing. LbD project aimed at improving the capacity of vocational education and training actors through regional, national and transnational partnerships, as well as facilitating the transition of vocational education and training systems in the Danube countries. The project involves chambers of commerce, vocational education and training policy-making institutions and transnational companies as associate strategic partners. The basic concept is based on a triplet: education + industry / enterprises + government / policy-makers. Identified synergies in both project are creating new networks to fill in knowledge gaps by linking actors with complementary thematic specialization, experiences, methodological approaches or territorial relevance. The LbD and EDU-LAB projects address diverse levels of education:

• LbD is targeting the secondary education by supporting transition towards Work-Based Learning (WBL) in VET
• EDU-LAB aims to increase the labour market relevance of higher education, to address brain drain and retain more young talents in the Danube region.

A web site has also been created: http://dtp.interreg-danube.eu/approved-projects/learning-by-doing  and  a FB page: https://www.facebook.com/LearningbyDoingProject.

Marina Trampuš