Few places are still available for Cedefop’s forthcoming policy learning forum on vocational training for the long-term unemployed: learning from inspiring practices in Thessaloniki on 15-16 June.

Are you a ministry official, public or private employment service adviser, vocational education and training (VET) provider or practitioner involved in the design and implementation of recent national/regional policy programmes focused on VET provision and skills matching of the long-term unemployed?

Cedefop’s forthcoming policy learning forum will provide the right setting for you to interact, learn and exchange experiences with colleagues from other EU countries.

The aim of the forum is to inform approaches to VET and skills matching within activation measures that target the long-term unemployed. It will seek to ‘put policy into practice’ by moving beyond theory and empirical analysis and towards a deeper understanding of features, mechanisms and triggers underpinning effectiveness of innovative examples from across the European Union (EU).

The forum will serve as a platform for debate and mutual learning for key stakeholders involved in the design and delivery of VET and skill matching programmes as part of activation policies.

Keynote speakers will include John P. Martin (UCG Geary Institute for Public Policy), John McGrath (SOLAS), Seamus McGuinness (ESRI) and a representative of the European Commission. Several examples of policy initiatives focused on VET and skills matching of the long-term unemployed will also be presented from representatives of more than 10 EU countries.

The event will build on Cedefop’s recent publication on Tackling unemployment while addressing skill mismatch: lessons from policy and practice in EU countries.

Check out the draft agenda.

Contact Konstantinos Pouliakas Konstantinos.Pouliakas@cedefop.europa.euor Eleonore van de Veerdonk eleonore.van-de-veerdonk@cedefop.europa.eu to express an interest in participating, or to inform us about relevant policy initiatives or programmes focused on the upskilling and skills matching of the long-term unemployed in your country, which you would like to present in the workshop.