Conference on "Skills and mobility for competitiveness" Brief summary

Transcription

1 Conference on "Skills and mobility for competitiveness" 3 December 2013, CEDEFOP, Greece Brief summary The held its conference on Skills and mobility for competitiveness at the CEDEFOP, the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training, which cooperated on the event s programme and offered logistical support. The first session was dedicated to a good understanding of skill needs and to the presentation of recent initiatives in skill forecasting. Pascaline DESCY, Head of the area Research and policy analyses at CEDEFOP gave an overview over the recent CEDEFOP findings on skills forecasts and skills mismatch in the EU. She analysed the paradox of the coexistence of skills shortages in some Member States and high unemployment rate - some of them highly skilled people - in other Member 1

2 States. She spoke about the Top sectors and jobs demand in the EU and about the right mix of skills to get a job. Ms. Descy pointed out to the fact that about 20% of the European labour force is currently unemployed or underemployed, that about 25% are overqualified for the job they are doing and that in some Member States the job complexity fell in the past decade which resulted in skill underutilization. About 74 millions workers with medium qualifications are needed, but only about 61 million workers have medium qualifications. There are major skills shortages in the EU: significant deficits of basic skills, bottlenecks in specific sectors or occupations (e.g. health, ICT, finance, engineering) and the EU firms report difficulties in finding staff with required skills. The Europe 2020 goal of 40 % higher education is therefore to be questioned. In order to have a more skill intensive and competitive labour market, more needs to be done: a reform of the education and training systems, project-based and work-based learning to add to basic, technical and generic skills and an increased job readiness, enhanced guidance and counseling in education and during careers, as well as better mobility between occupations, sectors and countries. Finally, Ms. Descy explained some recent EU level initiatives, such as the EU Skills Panorama, that should act as a central access point providing data, information and intelligence on skills trends in occupations and sectors at the national and EU level. Sigrid Rand, Manager of the European Network on Regional Labour Market Monitoring, gave an insight on how labour market observatories can take the role of moderators and facilitate policy making by providing data which allow for informed decision-taking. She gave the example of labour market monitoring systems (health and elderly care sector) in Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate (Germany). In these regions, skills monitoring is combining qualitative and quantitative approaches in order to improve data quality and satisfy user needs. Focus groups (trade unions, employers) are interviewed on their needs which helps to a better anticipation of qualification and skills needs. Sari Gustafsson, Principal of the Point College the best VET school in Finland - presented how metacompetences and VET-competences are combined. In order to satisfy the needs of the students as well as of the labour market the VET curricula need to be constantly updated. The dialogue between the macro level which delivers the roadmap to future skills and professions and the micro level which designs new professions, new skills and innovative tools is vital in order to establish a cooperative anticipation model. The second session dealt with matching people s skills and job opportunities equipping people with the skills that are relevant to the labour market. 2

3 Spyros Nakos, member of Team Europe, European Commission, defined employability as a combination of employment and education policies and analysed the lack of connection between employability and employment. Mobility supporting programmes like ERASMUS + can help to gain additional experiences in order to facilitate transition from school to work. The European Employment strategy improved VET and active labour market policies but a certain distance between the educational environment and the workplace still exists. Alexander Riedl, Deputy Head of unit in DG Communications network, content and technology, European Commission, presented the recent developments - challenges and solutions - regarding digital skills. As digital skills demands are rising worldwide, the war for talents has begun. Europe risks having up to jobs in the ICT sector unfilled within the next years. The Grand Coalition was officially launched in March 2013 by President Barroso in order to tackle the digital skills gap and to create awareness and political momentum. One important part of the Grand Coalition is the training and matching for digital jobs which should ensure that the skills people are getting are the skills business needs. Pledges by individuals, organisations and institutions are welcome. Dimitris Raftopoulos, Chair of the finance and EU projects working group of the European Centre for Women and Technology gave a practical example on the Grand Coalition with the 1 st Pan-European Digital Woman of the Year Award. This should raise the awareness about the importance of women in ICT, which would bring 9 billion annual GDP boost. The third session of the conference was dedicated to vocational qualifications, apprenticeship and training. Mélanie Tocqueville, Chief scientific officer of the Iperia Institute gave an overview on enhancing the skills of workers in the field of personal and household services. Working closely with the European Federation for Family Employment, Iperia has created one year courses for child care at home, for workers assisting elder people and for domestic servants. These training courses end with a certificate recognised by the state. It helps to raise the profile of these professions and to attract more people. Lifelong learning is also provided as 81 modules offer additional training opportunities, free of charge. Thomas Mayr, Director of the IBW Austria - Research & Development in VET (Institut für Bildungsforschung der Wirtschaft) provided information about the functioning of the successful Austrian apprenticeship system: about 40% of 16+ young people in Austria choose to undergo dual vocational training, where about 80% of the working time is spent in an enterprise, and about 20% is spent at school. As training takes place within the enterprise practical experience is gained which facilitates 3

4 transitions on the labour market. The profiles of the different apprenticeship trades (about 200) are negotiated between the social partners in the Federal advisory board and formally adopted by the Ministry of Economics. Apprenticeship contracts are concluded between the enterprise and the apprentice, and are registered within the Regional economic chambers. Social partners have an important role to play in the governance of apprenticeship training which creates a strong sense of co-ownership by companies and Social partners and helps to keep the youth unemployment rate in Austria rather low. Athanasia Theodoridou, General Director of Vocational Education and Training in the Greek Public Employment Service (PES) presented the work of the Greek PES (Manpower Employment Organization/OAED), which develops and implements various active labor market policies. Ms. Theodoridou spoke about the apprenticeship system in her country. In Greece, only 10 per cent of young people have access to apprenticeships. However, a recent reform is aiming to reach a much higher number and to help apprentices obtain both specialized knowledge and work experience, in order to facilitate their transition to the labor market. Good practices from countries with successful apprenticeship systems can be very valuable for Greece. In the past few years there has been a change in vocational education and training (VET) in Greece: new institutions have been set up, innovative programmes have been implemented, the social partners have taken on a more active role, certification processes have been changed to conform more closely to European standards and curricula have been modernized. Marianna Georgallis, Policy officer for traineeships at the European Youth forum explained the reasons behind the European Quality Charter on internships and apprenticeships: whereas the OECD estimates that job experience increases a graduates likelihood of finding a job immediately upon graduation by 44%, the European Youth forum is concerned about the lack of training purposes and quality in some countries. The Charter provides for a contract specifying the supervisor acting as contact person for the trainee, a mid-term evaluation and a final evaluation, as well as the access to social security systems and the right to information. The reimbursement for costs of internships within education should be foreseen, as well as remuneration for internships outside education, which could ensure that internships are accessible to all young people regardless of their socio-economic background. The fourth session of the event dealt with the recognition of qualifications and enhanced mobility. Mara Brugia, Head of area Enhanced cooperation in VET and LLL at Cedefop explained the European qualification framework (EQF) as a bridge between qualifications systems which helps to translate and compare qualifications across 4

5 Europe. National qualification frameworks are currently developed in 26 countries, 24 countries have already formally adopted NQFs and 21 countries linked their qualifications to the EQF. The European Qualitiy framework supports recognition but is not a legal tool. Finally, Ricardo Nobre, Founder and Managing Director of Cross Border Talents (CBT), gave an insight in his daily work of recruiting talents in other countries and regions of the world as the firm is established. CBT offers e-learning trainings in order to overcome language barriers, soft skills workshops in order to overcome intercultural barriers and toolkits for overcoming relocation barriers. He regrets the non-existing cooperation with public employment services in some countries. The 3% Mobility league which was founded by CBT focuses on creating momentum behind the recruitment of unemployed mobile talents into the workforce. Members are asked to commit themselves to a 3% goal of a company s mobile headcount being on a formalised apprentice, sponsored student and/or graduate programme within three years. For more information on the conference and for the PowerPoint presentations, please see the event s web page. 5