The conference is organised jointly by the OECD's Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) and the Flemish Ministry of Education in Belgium. English is the official conference language.
The conference aims at disseminating the findings of CERI's New Millennium Learners project, focussing in particular on the issue of 21st century competencies, i.e. those required in our network society characterised by intensive use of technologies when dealing with information, knowledge management and communication.
More specifically the conference will address the following questions related to 21st century competencies:
- How have countries defined and incorporated these competencies into the curriculum?
- How do they support teachers and schools in the implementation of any related policies?
- How are 21st century competencies assessed?
To address these questions the conference will include active exchange of information and experience between the participants
through a series of keynote speeches, paper presentations and panel discussions.
In addition to the main conference programme, there will be an optional cultural programme in the afternoon of Wednesday 23
September.
Each country is invited to send representatives covering the following profiles:
- Educational policymakers and officials
- Programme leaders, teachers and educational practitioners
- Researchers and specialists in education, specialised in sciences and related fields

