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Education systems — the key to a skilled workforce and more ...

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Education systems — the key to a skilled workforce and more jobs

SUMMARY OF:

Communication (COM(2012) 669 final) — Rethinking Education: Investing in skills for better socio-economic outcomes

WHAT IS THE AIM OF THE COMMUNICATION?

This European Commission communication presents a strategy on how education systems can better deliver the skills and qualifications needed by European Union (EU) labour markets. This coincides with an EU youth unemployment rate of nearly 23% despite 2 million job vacancies remaining unfilled.
The current climate of austerity and high levels of unemployment, particularly among young people, mean that urgent action to improve and adapt EU education and training systems is required just at a time when financial resources are particularly tight or even dwindling.
This means that all investment in the area needs to be well-targeted. The Rethinking Education strategy seeks to help the EU achieve its growth and jobs targets, as outlined in the Europe 2020 strategy.

KEY POINTS

Challenges

By 2020, more than a third of EU jobs will require university-level qualifications, while only 18% will be low-skilled.
More than 73 million Europeans have low levels of education and nearly 20% of 15-year olds lack literacy skills.
The number of early school leavers remains high, and fewer than 9% of adults take part in lifelong learning, well short of the EU’s target of 15%.

Focus areas

More focus is needed for basic skills learning, as well as increasing more generalised or transversal abilities, such as IT and entrepreneurial skills.
Work-based learning, for example apprenticeships, should be promoted.
Language learning is a priority. There is a target of 50% of 15-year olds having knowledge of a foreign language by 2020.
The digital revolution has the potential to bring important new opportunities for learning. Technology must therefore be fully exploited and educational institutions must increase access to open educational resources (OER).

Funding and investment

Investment is needed to develop world-class vocational education and training systems with more discussion focused on funding.
The teaching profession has to be made more attractive so as to encourage new recruits to absorb increasing retirements and staff shortages.
The improved recognition of skills and qualifications is essential; this applies in particular to those gained outside formal education and training systems.
A public-private partnership approach is needed to boost innovation and foster relationships between academia, business and different levels of government.

Follow-up

In February 2013, EU countries' education ministers adopted conclusions in response to the Commission's 2012 communication and the 2013 annual growth survey.
In June 2016, the Commission adopted a communication in which addresses 3 priority areas:
- improving the quality and relevance of skills formation;
- making skills and qualifications more visible and comparable;
- improving skills intelligence and information for better career choices.
It proposes 10 actions to be taken over the 2016-2018 period. These are:
- a Skills Guarantee to help low-skilled adults acquire a minimum level of literacy, numeracy and digital skills and progress towards an upper secondary qualification;
- a review of the recommendation on key competences to help more people acquire this core set of skills as a basis for work and life in the 21st century;
- making vocational education and training (VET) a first choice, including by enhancing opportunities for VET learners to undertake work-based learning and promoting greater visibility of good labour market outcomes of VET;
- the Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition bringing together EU countries and education, employment and industry stakeholders to develop a large digital talent pool and ensure that individuals and the labour force in Europe are equipped with adequate digital skills;
- a review of the European Qualifications Framework to improve the transparency and comparability of skills and qualifications to facilitate work and study mobility;
- a tool to support early identification and profiling of skills and qualifications of asylum-seekers, refugees and other migrants;
- a revision of the Europass system, offering people better and easier-to-use tools to present their skills and get useful real-time information on skills needs and trends;
- a proposal to further analyse and exchange best practices on effective ways to address ‘brain drain’ (e.g. where a country loses highly-skilled or well-educated individualswho emigrate);
- the ‘Blueprint for Sectoral Cooperation on Skills’ to improve skills intelligence and address skills shortages in specific economic sectors;
- an initiative on graduate tracking to improve information on how graduates progress in the labour market.

BACKGROUND

For more information, see:

‘Rethinking Education’ on the European Commission's website
‘Ten actions to help equip people in Europe with better skills’ — European Commission press release.

MAIN DOCUMENT

Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions — Rethinking Education: Investing in skills for better socio-economic outcomes (COM(2012) 669 final, 20.11.2012)