At the Public Employment Services (PES) network conference (26-27 May in Brussels), Cedefop Director James Calleja addressed a workshop on PES work with private employment services and guidance, education and training providers to deliver the youth guarantee.
Mr Calleja focused on Cedefop’s role in bridging the gap between education and training and the labour market and on how the operational units concentrate on themes which bring together these two worlds.
He also referred to the labour market in relation to skills and jobs, quoting results of Cedefop’s European skills and jobs survey, and in particular over-qualification of adult workers, acquired qualifications that do not match labour market offers, the need for learning processes that take place while people work and the fact that most of education and training still takes place at formal educational institutions and not in work environments.
In the context of PES, Mr Calleja said that information from career guidance must be continuously updated and kept relevant to jobs available in the market, employers should redefine their stakeholders’ role into shareholders and have a bigger say in guidance practices.
He added that European Union funding allocated to the European Social Fund, the youth guarantee, the European investment plan and the youth employment initiative should be channelled in a more structured way to promote vocational training and work-based learning.