Europe agrees new vocational education and training priorities and strategies

Europe agrees new vocational education and training priorities and strategies

New EU priorities and strategies in vocational education and training have been agreed for the next two years Gathering in Maastricht, at a conference organized by the Dutch Presidency of the EU and the European Commission, ministers from 32 European countries, together with trade-union and employer representatives, agreed the Maastricht communiqué, which updates the Copenhagen declaration adopted two years ago. “We have a goal to make Europe the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010, and modernising vocational education and training is a major tool in our policy towards this objective”, said Ján Figel, Commissioner for Education and Training. “The signing of this communiqué is a clear sign that we need to offer all Europeans the skills they need for the knowledge-based society and remove all remaining barriers that prevent them from having their qualifications understood and recognized throughout Europe.”

Among the priorities agreed were: establishing equal esteem for academic and vocational qualifications; creating “bridges” between different levels of the education and training systems; continuing to set up common reference points to facilitate the introduction of the Europass vocational training “passport”; facilitating public and private investment in vocational education and training; increasing the flexibility of vocational education and training systems; and putting together reliable and harmonised statistics.

A spokesman for Unice, the European employers' organization, said he generally favoured any measure strengthening professional education and training at European level, but this co-operation had to become clearer and more effective. The 15 workshops set up as part of the Copenhagen process were far too many. European negotiations over professional education and training were disconnected from the reality of the labour market. A spokesman for UEAPME, representing small and medium-size companies, urged the need to encourage entrepreneurship at national level, and to ensure official recognition of training carried out informally at the workplace. Favouring the establishment of a European framework for professional education and training, an ETUC spokesman emphasised the key role of education and training in combating social exclusion, creating more and better jobs and developing human potential.