Siegfried's article public service review eu issue 17

1. public service review:
EUROPEAN UNION
issue 17
An Independent Review
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2. EU17PROFILE
172
Building the European dream…
Connecting policies
and actors
I
n 2008, new policy initiatives hit
Europe to answer the economic,
social and individual challenges.
International mobility, anticipation of
skill needs, lifelong career guidance
and learning outcomes for trans-
parency in education and training in
Europe. How are they connected?
December 2008 ECVET
adopted in European
Parliament
A series of European initiatives aim
at learning outcomes to recognise
learning experiences across different
countries and different types of insti-
tutions, including the European
Credit Transfer and Accumulation
System (ECTS) in higher education,
the European Credit system for
Vocational Education and Training
(ECVET), Europass, the European
Quality Charter for Mobility (EQCM),
the European principles for the iden-
tification and validation of
non-formal and informal learning,
and the European Qualification
Framework for lifelong learning
(EQF). The focus of this exercise is
the easier transition from VET to
higher education, valuing what one
acquires during work and outside
school, and most of all international
mobility. But international mobility is
behind schedule. And focusing on
learning outcomes is one thing, but
are these outcomes really what
companies are waiting for? Does it
meet the future needs? And does a
transparent system meet new ways of
learning? Is the established system
too limited, focused on initial learning
when discussing transparency?
July 2008 Report of the High
Level Expert Forum on
Mobility
In the years up to 2020, the
European youth generation – 16-29
years of age – decreases from 90 to
81 million, a reduction of 9 million or
10%. This will have a profound
impact on education, the economy
and society – now and in the future.
In the same period, technological
changes will be even more pervasive
and global competition will increase,
not least the competition for talented
people. Thus, Europe needs to be
ready for this competition and to give
young Europeans opportunities to
learn and to develop their capacities.
The new European generation should
be fully equipped to cope with the
new global challenges, with a deep-
ened sense of European identity,
openness and co-operation. That is
why learning mobility should become
a natural feature of being European
and an opportunity provided to all
young people in Europe.
Two vital policy goals:
■ Strengthen Europe’s competitiveness,
building its knowledge-intensive
society;
■ Deepen the sense of European
identity and citizenship within its
youth generation.
Make cross-border mobility for
learning the rule, rather than an
exception that it is today. For all
young Europeans, in all forms of
education and non-formal activities
such as voluntary and community
work as well. It allows people to pick
up new knowledge, learn from
different educators and test them-
selves, their assumptions and
competences in new situations.
Mobility has often formed part of the
education of great innovators and of
those with the highest skills.
Mobility also breaks down barriers
between people and groups, building
a sense of EU citizenship. Successive
surveys show that those who have
undertaken mobility are more enthu-
siastic about European integration.
There should be opportunities for
cross-border mobility in 2020 for at
least 50% of the youth generation.
This will mean an expansion of the
existing mobility programmes by 10
times to offer mobility opportunities
to about 2,900,000 people a year in
2020. Virtual forms of mobility –
networking and twinning between
schools, institutions, groups – should
reinforce and complement cross-
border physical mobility in all areas.
December 2008
Communication from the
Commission on New Skills for
New Jobs: anticipating and
matching labour market and
skills needs
New Skills for New Jobs proposes a
series of actions to match skills with
vacancies, to organise skills assess-
ments on a permanent basis, to pool
the efforts of member states and
other international organisations, and
to develop better information on
future needs.
Assessing labour markets up to 2020 –
Europe will see the creation of new
jobs in the service sector; by the year
2020, almost three-quarters of jobs in
the EU-25 will be in services. Further,
there will be many jobs created in high
skilled occupations, but also some job
creation in ‘elementary jobs’. More and
more jobs will require high and
medium education levels from the
working population.Across sectors,
transversal and generic skills will be
increasingly valued on the labour
market: problem-solving and analytical
skills, self-management and communi-
cation skills, the ability to work in a
team, linguistic skills and digital
competences.
There is a tendency that the estab-
lished system may not respond quickly
enough to become transparent and
act responsive to future skills needs.
The area of private training providers

3. 173
EU17PROFILE
and educational colleges are starting
to grow fast where the traditional
system is not open to change. During
Euroskills, Toyota Europe proposed a
co-makership between businesses
and education in the automotive
sector. ‘Why? This already exists in
certain country,’ one asks. The co-
makership yes, but not the training.
Individuals graduating from school
simply lack the skills that these busi-
nesses need. Is this the future: that
staff need to be trained by private
training providers and educational
colleges because the public system is
still focusing on how things were done
in the past and try to keep up with
the rapid changes of modern society
today, too busy with transparency?
The call for more higher educated
staff may suppress the need for life-
long learning for everyone. Some say:
not everyone can become a Master,
so please focus on those who can.
Look at the potential of everyone not
higher educated and see what
happens if they all reach one level
up in their own pace and their own
way. It would be disappointing for the
vast majority if new investments only
go to higher education.
November 2008 Council
Resolution on Lifelong
Guidance
Points made in the 2004 Resolution
are affirmed and four key priority
areas for all member states are iden-
tified in this resolution:
■ Encourage the lifelong acquisition
of career management skills;
■ Facilitate access by all citizens to
guidance services;
■ Develop the quality assurance of
guidance provision;
■ Encourage co-ordination and
co-operation among the various
national, regional and local
stakeholders.
The first key issue, lifelong acquisition
of career management skills is the
most important to be connected to
anticipation of skills needs, interna-
tional learning mobility and transparency
by learning outcomes.
Career management skills play a deci-
sive role in empowering people to
become involved in shaping their
learning, training and integration
pathways and their careers. Career
management skills include the
following, particularly during periods
of transition:
■ Learning about the economic
environment, businesses and
occupations;
■ Being able to evaluate oneself,
knowing oneself and being able to
describe the competences one has
acquired in formal, informal and
non-formal education settings;
■ Understanding education, training
and qualifications systems.
■ To make progress in this priority
area, member states should,
depending on their specific situa-
tions, consider:
■ Including teaching and learning
activities that foster the develop-
ment of career management skills
in general, vocational and higher
education programmes;
■ Preparing teachers and trainers to
conduct such activities and
support them in this task;
■ Encouraging parents to become
involved in guidance issues;
■ Involving civil society organisations
and the social partners more
closely in this area;
■ Facilitating access to information
about training opportunities and
their links to the professions, and
about the skills needs anticipated
in a given locality;
■ Developing career management
skills in adult training programmes;
■ Making guidance one of the objec-
tives of schools, VET providers and
higher education establishments.
Integration into working life and
the operation of the local, national
and European labour markets are
aspects, in particular, that should
be taken into account.
Many teachers are not aware that they
prepare pupils and students for jobs
that may not exist yet but will be
created in the future! Jobs in another
country. And students from other
countries will come in. Are we ready
for this? If one can learn with career
management skills to identify the
missing parts of the way schools
teach and the courses they offer, one
can choose to do something else.
Think outside the box. Go to a private
company that provides better training
with quality assured. Go abroad. Get
your competences validated by
working and learning at the same time
in a company. Invest in your own
future. To survive, all successful busi-
nesses invest in staff by offering
lifelong learning. In the fast changing
world with financial crises, scarce
natural resources, food safety, security,
it all comes down to empowering the
staff for tomorrow, connecting profit,
people and planet. Where money is
just as important as using talents in a
broad range of professional, commu-
nicative, teamwork, caring and creative
areas, businesses already know that
workers go shopping for training and
jobs that they want throughout
Europe. If Europe cannot offer suitable
study and work, the best places in the
world are to be discovered.
The European lifelong learning
programme offers possibilities for
international mobility, partnerships
and innovation projects to help to
build the European dream. Bridging
policy to practice.
Dr Siegfried Willems
NA LLP National Agency Lifelong
Learning Programme, Head-Leonardo
da Vinci programme, Head of
Euroguidance, The Netherlands
CINOP
PO Box 1585
5200 BPs-Hertogenbosch
The Netherlands
Tel: +31 736 800 762
Fax: +31 736 123 425
willems@leonardodavinci.nl
www.leonardodavinci.nl