Bid to tailor education to jobs market

Date: 08/02/1996

EUROPE'S citizens must be better trained to face the challenges of the labour market of the 1990s.

That was the clear message from the European Commission, member states and the social partners at a conference to launch the “European Year for Lifelong Learning”.

But even as work began on a range of projects designed to achieve this goal, the Commission admitted that its budget of just 8 million ecu will leave funding severely limited.

The initiative, formally unveiled in Venice last weekend by Education Commissioner Edith Cresson, is an attempt to bring training - for children and adults alike - up to the standards required in today's technological society.

Organisers of up to 600 projects in the EU member states and the three EEA countries, coordinated through committees set up by the relevant domestic ministries, will be asked to go out and look for sponsors in the business community.

The Commission will only be able to offer co-financing for certain well-deserving projects.

The decision to make lifelong education the theme for the latest European Year was part of the follow-up to the Commission's much-discussed 1993 White Paper on growth, competitiveness and employment.

It also comes in the wake of last November's paper on Learning and Training: Towards the Cognitive Society, which received its first thorough airing at last week's informal meeting of EU social affairs ministers.

Launching the initiative, Cresson stressed that it was a chance to turn thoughts into actions. “An opinion poll carried out all over Europe shows that more than two-thirds of Europeans believe in the idea of lifelong education. But the same proportion admits not to have participated in an educational scheme in the past year.”

The first 'European Year' to put the emphasis on all members of society is undoubtedly partly intended as a public relations exercise. Among its goals, it aims to raise the profile of the Commission's three new education and training programmes - “Leonardo da Vinci” (vocational training), “Socrates” (education) and “Youth for Europe III”.

In an area of policy where the lion's share of the competence remains with member states, the scheme aims to assist in the “development of the European dimension” and raise “awareness among European citizens of the activities of the European Union”.

Beyond that, there is a recognition within the Union that there is a shortfall of skills in the new business climate dominated by the information society, the internationalisation of the economy and the “relentless pace of scientific and technical progress”.

Workers must be able to continue acquiring new skills beyond the “paper qualifications” they gain at traditional schools if they are to fill the vacancies the Commission insists are available for suitably-qualified people.

More specifically, the European Year aims to encourage a high-quality general education and the promotion of vocational training, particularly for those previously excluded from the market. It will seek to encourage closer ties between educational establishments and the economic and business world, with particular emphasis on small and medium-sized enterprises, and draw the social partners and parents into the debate on training.

The Commission wants to place the emphasis on decentralised, hands-on projects, including conferences, seminars, fairs, the development of multimedia, software and competitions. It also hopes the establishment of an Internet site will help stimulate an exchange of good practice.

The type of projects the organisers would like to encourage include the so-called 'learning boutiques' in medium-sized towns in Denmark, and experiments in the Perama region of Greece, where local authorities have set up a 'job club' for the young and a 'citizens' club' offering crucial facilities for the homeless looking for work.

DGXII, responsible for education and training, has already pledged to prepare any concrete proposals that might be necessary in the light of experience gained during the year and discussion of the recent education White Paper.

EU education ministers have generally welcomed the paper and have agreed to organise five special thematic conferences by the end of this year.