Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council. Evaluation of the Europass initiative. Second evaluation of the Decision of the European Parliament and the Council on a single Community framework for the transparency of qualifications and competences (Europass)

Today’s learning opportunities are limitless, borderless and immediate. Individuals can learn and acquire new skills and competences not only in the traditional setting of the classroom, but increasingly outside it and at their own speed. In the present climate of rapid economic and technological changes, individuals also go through several transitions in their professional and academic life, crossing borders, alternating or combining work, education, further training or volunteering.

As pressure for employability and better skills grows, more open and flexible education and training systems are needed, better tailored for the needs and circumstances of learners and workers. Their full qualifications, skills and competences should be easily and quickly recognised and understood by employers and education and training establishments anywhere in Europe.

In recent years, under several Europe 2020 initiatives and particularly in light of persistent high unemployment, the Commission has stressed the importance of enabling learners and workers to clearly present their skills and qualification profiles, acquired either in formal, non-formal or informal settings. This serves to facilitate mobility and improve job and lifelong learning prospects.

This objective is stressed in ‘Rethinking Education’, in which the Commission announces exploratory work on the European Area for Skills and Qualifications to ensure that skills and qualifications can be easily recognised across borders.

Established in 2005, Europass supports these goals by helping learners and workers make their competencies and knowledge better understood across Europe through tools to register and make their skills and qualifications transparent. While its founding goal is ever more relevant, some of its present tools need adapting to address the challenges posed by the expectations and needs of today’s learners and evolving labour markets.

EUR-Lex: COM(2013)899: Follow the progress of this report through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2013:899:FIN

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