Training set to boost employment in the Mediterranean

Citation

(2005), "Training set to boost employment in the Mediterranean", Education + Training, Vol. 47 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/et.2005.00447cab.013

Training set to boost employment in the Mediterranean

A 5 million EU education and training initiative aimed at boosting employment in the southern and eastern Mediterranean countries has been launched. Over the next three years, the Turin-based European Training Foundation (ETF) will manage the programme, Education and Training for Employment, to help countries in north Africa and the Middle East to develop education and training policies that respond to the needs of their labour markets.

The project results from increased co-operation between the EU and its southern neighbours, which is scheduled to culminate in the inclusion of the countries concerned in the European free trade zone in 2010. “The prospect of managing this programme is particularly exciting because it calls on the whole range of expertise we have built up”, said Dr Muriel Dunbar, ETF Director. In most of the countries included in the project, the vocational education and training systems and the labour market are rather out of sync. The idea is that tuning vocational education and training to the actual skill needs of key economic sectors and the economy as a whole could dramatically improve the employability of the active population and young people in particular. This would ultimately create better living conditions in the countries concerned, improve Euro-Mediterranean co-operation and relieve migration pressure on the EU”.