With the financial crisis becoming bigger and stronger, and updates rarer on this site, many readers might legitimately have asked themselves: what about all the country developments that we have discussed? Are they to take place, or are they, instead, doomed to the same fate suffered by many other projects in this current nefarious business climate?

For an educational product to be launched in a new market, it must fit the expectations of said labour market, particularly in terms of educational offering, in terms of social culture, and in terms of target group. Additionally, there needs to be some way to manage the quality assurance/ best practice application, as well as have a secure concept of what the implementation will likely be. All these are points that need to be addressed prior to any official launch in a new country.

For these very reasons, the official Kick-Off workshop between ECo-C Europe and the newly-selected ECo-C Country Representative for Slovenia is both a signal and a symbol: it signals that yes, the ECo-C cannot but grow and be implemented, that the needs are being adressed and is a symbol of the indubitable quality that forms the core of the ECo-C certificate: applicability. Of course Slovenia and Austria have a tradition of bilateral cooperation, for instance between the Austrian AMS and the Slovenian Employment service… and yet this tradition does not change the fact that applicability is why the ECo-C keeps on growing: this is what makes it important to the labour market all over the EU (and, we think, the world) and is the real ultimate reason why this certificate exists and expands.