Cedefop

The event was an opportunity to disseminate to European stakeholders the main findings of Cedefop's ongoing research on skill mismatch, most prominently the Cedefop European skills and jobs survey (ESJ survey), carried out in 2014 across approximately 49 000 EU adult employees.

Mirko van Muijen, Head of Education at the Dutch Permanent Representation, welcomed the 50 participants from 22 Member States, the European Parliament, the European Commission and other organisations.

In her opening speech, Cedefop Deputy Director Mara Brugia said that skill mismatch has a cost for individuals, enterprises and the whole of society.

‘It would be too simplistic to think that the issue can only be solved by improving education and training,’ argued Ms Brugia, adding: ‘Even if education reforms are perfect, that will only solve the issue of young graduates and not the one of people who are already in work. Therefore, we need to have policies to support on-the-job training. We also need a holistic approach to skills governance which combines different policies, including social and immigration policies’.

Ms Brugia invited Member States to participate in Cedefop's forthcoming thematic activity on governance of skills anticipation systems. Cedefop will be providing support to countries interested in building their own capacity and improve the governance of their skills anticipation systems.

Cedefop Head of Department for Skills and Labour Market Pascaline Descy highlighted that, even though many policy-makers have focused in recent years on the notion of matching people's skills to jobs, this static view of the world is likely to be misguided.

Skill mismatch facts

The Cedefop ESJ survey is the first EU-wide survey that has captured the dynamics of skill mismatch, namely how the skill mismatch status of individuals changes both when they change jobs and within their jobs. It shows that there is a marked degree of persistence in the skill mismatch status of people, particularly those who are in jobs that underutilise their skills (overskilled). About 8 in 10 overskilled workers remain in the same state over time.

But the survey also highlights that about 40% of employees who were matched in their previous job moved to a state of having 'mismatched' skills in their new job. About 20% decided to move to a job where their skills were below those needed, which is indicative that some people make conscious choices to move to demanding jobs even if they have skill gaps. The reason that some skill gap can be a good thing in this case is because such jobs are dynamic and offer ample skill development opportunities for the individual.

Cedefop expert Konstantinos Pouliakas presented Cedefop's research on skill shortages from the employer perspective. He highlighted that it is critical to be able to distinguish whether employers’ reported difficulties in finding talent are due to a genuine lack of skills in the labour force or because of issues such as uncompetitive wage offers by firms. This is crucial for being able to allocate scarce resources to the most effective of active labour market policies and vocational education and training (VET) programmes. 

Mr Pouliakas highlighted that since 2006 EU countries have experienced divergent experiences in skill mismatch. Few EU countries have moved towards a situation of widespread skill shortages, whereas most have seen their recruitment difficulties subdued as unemployment has risen markedly. Nevertheless, since 2011 many EU economies are shifting towards a situation of higher recruitment bottlenecks coinciding with falling unemployment rates.  

University graduate or apprentice?

Professor Ken Mayhew of SKOPE, Oxford University and Maastricht University, corroborated Cedefop’s findings by arguing that evidence from the UK shows a marked divergence between the type of degree needed to be hired and the degree needed to actually do the job. He said that in most cases the true question is whether hiring a university graduate is better than hiring another graduate from an upper secondary VET school. In some cases, he added, evidence shows that an apprentice can be more productive than a university graduate from an unrelated field, so the true issue for policy is to focus on when and what type of skill mismatch is costly for labour markets.

Dan Andrews, senior economist of the OECD, presented research on the relationship between skill mismatch and labour productivity. He showed that there is a strong negative relation between the incidence of overskilling and productivity in OECD countries. This can be explained by the fact that there are important reallocation effects – firms that hire overskilled workers prevent those skills from being used by other firms in the economy.

He showed evidence that public policies such as easing product market regulation and housing policies can be key to enabling more effective labour reallocation across firms in the economy. This could have marked beneficial effects on labour productivity of some OECD economies – for instance, skill mismatch can account for about one-fifth of the difference in labour productivity between the US and Italy.

Cedefop expert Jasper van Loo spoke of the need for synergy, while European Commission's Director of Skills Detlef Eckert focused on the implementation of the skills guarantee, which forms part of the Commission's New skills agenda for Europe.

You can find a continuous stream of information on the ESJ survey on the Cedefop website.

A wide range of indicators on skill use at work and skill mismatch, including population breakdowns, based on the Cedefop ESJ survey have been uploaded on the 'Matching skills and jobs' section of the Skills Panorama website. 

Skills Panorama is being developed so that data on current and anticipation labour market trends, derived from Cedefop's skill forecasts and the ESJ survey, can be effectively translated to the audience in a reliable and smart way.

A prototype with information on 28 countries (26 EU Member States, Iceland and Norway) is available on the Cedefop website, while the interactive online tool is being finalised and will be launched during the vocational education and training (VET) week in December.

Cedefop Director James Calleja told participants in the event that mobility of learners should be seen as the rule, not the exception, and called the scoreboard a VET reform system. ‘People must learn about mobility as early as possible, as they will be mobile throughout their working life; for young people, especially, mobility is key,’ he said.

Participants included Erasmus+ agencies, IVET institutions, companies involved in mobility projects, teachers and trainers, guidance personnel, students’ associations, Cedefop’s ReferNet partners and EU-level stakeholders.

Cedefop’s Head of Department for VET Systems and Institutions Loukas Zahilas said that the scoreboard’s objective is to help move ahead in mobility by looking at factors that slow it down.

Cedefop expert Guy Tchibozo, the project leader, presented the mobility scoreboard focusing on 10 key areas for action and asked participants for their feedback to help finalise the online tool.

The scoreboard offers policy-makers, stakeholders and users EU-level overviews of countries’ structures, policies and performance, using maps, indicators and tables. It also provides country-specific information and analyses through country scorecards and fiches.

Addressing over 820 vocational education and training (VET) practitioners, the Cedefop Director said that ‘to improve the image of VET, skills must become the new language of education and training.’

Mr Calleja spoke about the process leading to the development of VET at European level – from Copenhagen to the Riga conclusions. He said that the process has been long but rewarding for many EU Member States who have acted promptly to reform VET systems and introduce European policies and tools that benefit learners in formal, non-formal and informal learning environments.

‘VET is always called upon when unemployment spirals up, when people not in education, employment or training (NEETs) increase, when adult skills are missing, when early leavers become a social burden and when mismatching of skills frustrates young and older workers and employers,’ he added.

Parity of esteem

Mr Calleja noted that the various declarations from Copenhagen to Riga have provided a useful roadmap to many Member States and social partners to engage in a rethinking of education and training and in bridging the gap created by the separation of education from employment targets. ‘A lot has been achieved since 2002 but much more needs to be accomplished to ensure that VET enjoys the same parity of esteem as other sectors of education,’ he said.

Echoing European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility Marianne Thyssen's approach to the acquisition of skills, Mr Calleja stressed that Europe is at the crossroads of recognising that skills for life and skills for jobs do not contradict each other: ‘They overlap and enrich a person's curriculum increasing his or her chances of employment throughout working life. Behavioural skills and professional and vocational skills are equally in demand by employers who seek knowledgeable and hands-on individuals that are also flexible, adaptable and possess the right attitudes.’

Mr Calleja touched upon challenges and targets that many Member States have set in their reform process: to change the image of VET, increase quality assurance, promote work-based learning and apprenticeships, create conditions for mobility, and involve social partners at all stages of the VET process. Canada and Europe have many of these challenges in common, and sharing knowledge is an enriching experience.

European tools 

Mr Zahilas presented Cedefop’s and European Commission’s work on the European tools, specifically on the latest European qualifications framework (EQF) and national qualifications frameworks (NQFs) developments, the learning outcomes approach and the work on creating synergies between them.

Canada has a keen interest on such developments being one of very few countries not working in this direction. It seems that this is changing and they are considering working towards a Canadian qualifications framework.

Learning together

Messrs Calleja and Zahilas presented Cedefop’s role in VET cooperation at European level in the workshop ‘EU cooperation: learning together – working together’. For more than a decade, the EU has prioritised VET reform to raise skill levels and improve employment prospects providing enterprises with the skills they need. Progress has been made as educational attainment is rising, VET systems are becoming more flexible and VET is increasingly available at post-secondary and tertiary levels. European cooperation has had a strong and positive impact on these developments.

Cooperation with Canada

On the occasion of the conference, the Cedefop representatives met with Vice-President of International Partnerships at CICAN Paul Brennan and Alex Stephens, specialist in evaluation and learning.

The discussion focused on the cooperation between Canada and the European Union on education and training and the willingness of the Canadian government to further strengthen it, as well as Cedefop's work on policy monitoring and green skills. The Canadian system, in which provinces and territories have full autonomy in implementing education and training policies, and the lack of a Ministry of Education at federal level, were also discussed. It was agreed to continue exchanging information on areas of mutual interest.

A model for Africa

The Cedefop officials also met with an African delegation consisting of West African Economic and Monetary Union’s (UEMOA’s) Augustin Niango (Director of Commissioner’s cabinet, Burkina Faso) and Efia Assignon (counsellor on international development).

The African delegation requested the meeting to discuss Cedefop's experiences and work on European cooperation in education and training, the open method of coordination and the policy monitoring mechanisms in place. UEMOA is trying to follow the EU model of VET cooperation and Cedefop's insights were considered valuable for their future planning.

Mr Zahilas also spoke at a pre-conference panel discussion about VET and climate change which is at the forefront of the global agenda. He referred to Cedefop’s work on green skills and the expected impact of environmental and climate change policies on future skills demand within and across sectors.