Cedefop newsletter

Organised in cooperation with the Romanian EU Presidency, the seminar attracted over 70 participants from a wide range of Brussels-based organisations including the European Commission, the European Parliament, permanent representations, trade union organisations, business organisations, representatives of the civil society and NGOs etc.

The Presidency's Chair of the Education Committee Augustin Mihalache, the European Commission’s Jan Varchola and Cedefop Head of Department for Learning and Employability Antonio Ranieri opened the event and set the scene for the day’s discussions.

Cedefop expert Lidia Salvatore presented the draft analytical framework aimed at supporting stakeholders to develop upskilling pathways for adults which was discussed with EU stakeholders at the Second policy learning forum on upskilling pathways: a vision for the future.

Representatives from Italy and Romania commented on the framework and highlighted their national priorities and challenges. Overall, the need for a well-functioning governance grounded on a shared vision, drawing strong political commitment, with strong stakeholder engagement as well as cooperation and partnerships at all levels, were identified as key ingredients for establishing coherent and coordinated approaches to upskilling pathways.

Cedefop expert Irene Psifidou presented online resources and tools developed by Cedefop to support countries in implementing upskilling pathways. She highlighted the importance of adopting a preventive approach to ensure that the young people of today do not become the low-skilled adults of the future.

Successful preventive approaches drawn from vocational education and training (VET) are illustrated in Cedefop’s VET toolkit for tackling early leaving from education and training. Its newly launched enriched resources offer to policy-makers and VET providers practical guidance, tips, good practices and tools to feed into activities and policies aiming at helping young people to attain at least an upper secondary qualification.

In the final panel discussion, the European Commission’s Anna Nikowska presented the main messages from the report taking stock of the upskilling pathways recommendation implementation, focusing on what the Commission has planned to sustain countries’ implementation efforts. ETUC’s Lodovic Voet and BusinessEurope’s Robert Plummer presented their organisations’ priorities and next steps on adult upskilling and reskilling.

While stakeholders may choose to focus their efforts on specific priorities, the debate highlighted how they generally hold similar views on aims and challenges of upskilling pathways. All panellists stressed that upskilling pathways is a shared responsibility of all stakeholders, highlighting the need to establish an adequate social dialogue involving social partners and relevant stakeholders in the design and implementation of the upskilling vision.

Hosted by the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA), and forming part of the ongoing South Africa-EU dialogue, the PLF provided an opportunity to reflect on lessons learned from the implementation and use of learning outcomes in modernising education and training systems.

The forum brought together 100 experts and stakeholders from Africa and Europe and also marked the 21st anniversary of the South African national qualifications framework.

Cedefop expert Jens Bjornavold presented European experiences as regards the shift to learning outcomes, reflecting on the extent to which high aspirations are being realised or not. Cedefop expert Anastasia Pouliou discussed the learning outcomes’ significance for strengthening the labour market relevance of qualifications, underlining their role in boosting the feedback loop between education/training and the labour market.

The forum fed into the ongoing work of Cedefop and UNESCO in developing an international handbook on the use of learning outcomes in education and training. Building on Cedefop’s 2017 European handbook on learning outcomes, the discussions in Johannesburg will be followed by similar events in other regions of the world during the next year, exploring the extent to which the learning outcomes approach can support and improve education and training policies and practices. 

In a separate meeting between Cedefop, UNESCO and SAQA, in Pretoria on 26 June, SAQA’s concrete contributions to the international handbook were discussed. Given the richness of experiences gained in South Africa in this area over the past 25 years, this will provide an important input to the handbook.

The Presidency states that ‘our aim should be to make European education, training and research the best in the world,’ adding: ‘The EU needs a future-oriented, wide-ranging strategy for continuous learning that takes into account the transformation of work and digitalisation. To promote education, skills and mobility and strengthen European universities, we also need a much stronger Erasmus programme.’

Youth unemployment is falling across the EU but the Presidency acknowledges that there is more work to be done in order not to lose a generation: ‘We need to better enforce the rules and implement the policy measures agreed on.’

Another priority is to increase the number of skilled workers: ‘With the European economy expanding and employment increasing, we are facing a new challenge: shortages of skilled workers. The EU policies under the Social Dimension are key to increasing the availability of skilled workers in the single market. This will also benefit those who are outside the labour market, since increases in the employment rate contribute to strengthening the financial base and stability of the welfare state.’

Another key measure proposed by the Finnish Presidency for maximising the availability of skilled workers is to increase the labour market participation of women.

Labour mobility remains a priority: ‘We need to remove the remaining barriers to mobility and deepen the European labour market.’

In the context of the EU becoming ‘a global leader in climate action’ a transition to a bioeconomy and circular economy is championed. It ‘will help in modernising our economy and industry, creating jobs, generating sustainable growth and protecting the environment.’

Events

The Presidency will host in Helsinki the regular meeting of Directors-General for vocational education and training (VET) on 14 October and the VET for all – skills for life conference on 16 and 17 October, both held during the 2019 European vocational skills week. The conference will discuss increasing VET’s attractiveness and promoting inclusiveness as a response to the changes occurring in working life.

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