Cedefop newsletter

European and national employers' and workers' organisations were represented in the gathering of more than 400 stakeholders.

Addressing participants, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker affirmed the key role of social dialogue in dealing with Europe's challenges under the new Commission, adding: ‘Our aim is a job-rich growth which will make it possible for us to see many of our dreams come true’.

European Parliament President Martin Schulz said that ‘the European social model is part of the solution to the economic crisis.’ He argued that ‘if we want to assure a social Europe we need a social dialogue on a European level.’

Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility Marianne Thyssen stressed in her address: ‘I am really convinced that there cannot be a social market economy without a well-functioning social dialogue.’ She added: ‘We are committed to enabling the social partners to contribute to the cornerstones of the EU policy agenda.’

The Cedefop Director intervened at the workshop on skills, education and training needs in anticipation of a changing working environment, in which he stated that, in the context of the EU2020 and the Education & Training 2020, vocational education and training (VET) is central to transforming an economic crisis into a long-awaited educational reform.

In the context of creating jobs and greater synergy between the world of work and education, it is necessary to invest in educational reform from elementary to tertiary level, added Mr Calleja.  He stressed that Cedefop is in the forefront of providing social partners and Member States with the state-of-play of VET in Europe.

Mr Calleja concluded: ‘The monitoring report published earlier this year of the Copenhagen process which Cedefop coordinates with the Commission illustrates progress has been achieved since 2002 but a lot more needs to be done. Towards 2020, there is general consensus that VET reform should focus on and strengthen work-based learning and apprenticeships, quality assurance in VET, the acquisition of key competences in VET, access to different forms of learning and referenced qualifications as well as teacher training and more VET programmes which are industry-driven but also underpin an education for citizenship. ‘

The Cedefop Director met briefly with Commissioner Thyssen before she visited the agency’s information stand set up specifically for the conference.

Commissioner Thyssen (r) during her visit to the Cedefop information stand at the social dialogue conference in Brussels with Cedefop press officer Rosy Voudouri

'While Europe has too many individuals with low skills, it also has few jobs and too many bad jobs on offer,' he said.

Evidence from the new European Skills and Jobs (ESJ) survey that Cedefop undertook in spring 2014 has showed that the probability of higher qualified individuals accepting jobs that require lower qualifications and skills than their own has risen since the crisis.

Cedefop’s analysis of several European data sources has revealed that, typically, a fifth to a third of vacancy bottlenecks can be genuinely attributed to a shortage of applicants with the right skills. For the remainder, the failure to attract skilled labour arises because of the offer of uncompetitive salaries, or other inefficiencies in human resource practices.

According to Cedefop’s ESJ survey, in 2014 close to a half of all EU workers (47%) considered it likely that some of their skills will become outdated in the next five years: 'If we do not continue our reforms to improve the image, attractiveness and quality of vocational education and training, we will be poorly equipped to confront emerging skill shortages in our future job markets.'

But Cedefop's analysis also confirms that education and training cannot stand alone in the battle against skill mismatch. According to Mr Pouliakas, 'countries with lower shortages are also those in which firms adopt better human resource practices and offer higher quality jobs. What evidence alludes to is that our European skill strategies should not be geared towards a narrow aim of helping employers fill their immediate job vacancies. They should instead aspire to meet longer-term goals, such as strengthening key competences, creativity and innovation in education and training.'

The Cedefop expert highlighted the need for a stronger social dialogue and concluded: 'Unless there is multiple action and coordination on several policy fronts, including education, employment, innovation, competition and migration policy, skill mismatches and shortages will become more pronounced as we slowly exit from the prolonged economic crisis.'

Committee Vice-Chair Marita Ulsvkog, MEP said in her closing statement that 'the experts' input to this workshop and to the report on matching skills and jobs is very precious to the Employment Committee.'

This is the first out of a series of videos explaining the VET systems of all European Union Member States plus Norway and Iceland. Latvia is next, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, you can find more Spotlights on VET in the publications section of our website.