Cedefop

They provide succinct information about the occupation, its future prospects and key trends in skills based on a thorough analysis of the most pertinent drivers of change as well as potential responses to the key skills challenges identified. The new analytical highlights can be found online on the Skills Panorama webpage here.

On top of the new analytical highlights, you can now use improved navigation and layout to explore all indicators, updated with more recent data, and a range of new indicators regarding the skills used at work. Further Skills Intelligence will be coming in the course of the next period. Stay tuned and visit regularly the Skills Panorama.

The conference brought together employers, trade unions, teachers and policy-makers from education and the labour market, experts in VET, ISFOL officers as well as high political figures from the regions of Piedmont, Puglia and Lombardy and the national scene. 

Fondazione della Scuola and Associazione TREELLLE jointly support a roadmap for a reform system in initial VET at national and regional levels based on quality assurance, qualifications based on learning outcomes, work-based learning and labour market needs, recognised certification across the national territory and more structured social partner participation in the design and execution of educational programmes.

In his speech, Cedefop Director James Calleja said that European VET's key challenge is to recover 70 million low-skilled adults who may have abandoned education and therefore lifelong learning as a result of one-size-fits all systems of education.

Mr Calleja spoke about four overarching questions: problems facing Member States in VET, the issues at stake, the preferred solutions and the expected benefits if solutions are applied to VET reform.

VET's image across EU Member States continues to suffer. But European initiatives that started with the Copenhagen process should lead to attractiveness of systems of education and training based on quality, transparency and relevance to employment. There are increasing targeted objectives through the Riga Conclusions and the New skills agenda for Europe initiative which Commissioner Thyssen launched earlier this month. Both provide platform for VET reform, upskilling and reskilling of the workforce and a more focused service to European citizens to plan their education and training and achieve better guidance to preferred careers.

Facts and figures illustrated unemployment’s state-of-play, VET unattractiveness and the need for more work-based learning as a tool to recover young people from unemployment and provide skills for jobs and for life.

The need to bring education and employment closer together was stressed throughout the conference generating debates in a culture where practical learning is still gaining ground.  Mr Calleja said that ‘it is time to walk the talk; reform VET systems to attract learners to lifelong learning, ensure transparency and quality in qualifications, obtain stronger social partners’ participation and aim at employability, a certified workforce and that no one is left behind.’

President of Associazione TREELLLE Attilio Oliva, a former entrepreneur, and VET quality assurance expert at European level Giorgio Allulli presented the new roadmap for a VET system in Italy that diversifies education and training by engaging social partners and setting up nationally agreed quality assurance systems across Italy. In his concluding remarks, former Minister of Education Francesco Profumo said that in planning VET today we will reap the fruit in 2030. There should be a sense of urgency and not complacency to reform VET systems and give a better future to young people.

Cedefop and ETF organise every year two joint thematic meetings to ensure knowledge-sharing and complementarity in activities.

The experts participated actively in the various sessions, exchanged ideas and identified potential areas of complementary work.

Cedefop expert George Kostakis presented work on quality assurance of certification in initial vocational education and training (IVET) and the impact of globalisation on VET. The study on globalisation will run over two years and will explore the responsiveness of national VET systems and qualifications to changing requirements in Europe and across the world.

ReferNet coordinator Sylvie Bousquet presented the coordination process of the network created by Cedefop in 2002 to provide information on VET systems and policies in the EU Member States, Iceland and Norway. She focused on monitoring through partnership.

Head of Department for VET Systems and Institutions Loukas Zahilas updated ETF colleagues on the IVET mobility scoreboard developments. The mobility scoreboard will help identify and monitor the conditions for supporting IVET learner mobility in Europe and will provide an evidence base for policy-making to achieve the 6% IVET mobility benchmark.

Several bilateral meetings took place during the seminar to discuss ETF’s contribution to the monitoring and reporting of the 2015 Riga conclusions on VET, the global national qualifications framework inventory and VET governance.