Policy Report

Introduction

By 2010, Europeans will live in the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion.

This is the EU's strategic goal, agreed at Lisbon in March 2000. The European Council plan to achieve this strategic goal sets out targets and benchmarks with clear timetables.

Learning for employment argues that achieving the goal is a real possibility, but doing so requires giving greater urgency to the reforms of education and training under way in Member States. The need to raise skill levels by improving education and training systems and providing access to them throughout working life, was highlighted in the early 1990's. The pace of reform has not matched the pace of change.

Learning for employment:

• outlines, with extensive references to sources of EU legislation and policy statements, over 40 years of European vocational education and training policy development;

• brings together the targets and benchmarks agreed for improving vocational education and training and the issues and initiatives that form the policy to achieve them;

• charts the progress of dialogue between the social partners in vocational education and training in Europe and points to major developments since the Lisbon European Council;

• uses comparative statistical data to look at the progress being made in each of the Member States towards achieving the benchmarks and targets agreed at Lisbon. These include reducing the number of early school-leavers, raising overall levels of educational attainment, increasing participation in lifelong learning and increasing the number of graduates in maths, science and technology;

• projects current labour market trends up to 2010 to provide a rough forecast of how the labour market might look and the likelihood of the benchmarks and targets being reached;

• looks at reforms Member States are making to the quality of their education and training systems, in particular to address the challenges facing teachers and trainers with the development of ICT skills for the knowledge society and e-learning, and make access to vocational education and training easier;

Learning for employment is Cedefop's second report on vocational education and training policy in Europe and follows An age of learning, published in 2000.

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The executive summary

The executive summary of Learning for employment is available for downloading in the ETV bookshop in Danish, German, Greek, English, Spanish, Finnish, French, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese and Swedish.

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How to order these publications

You can order Learning for employment executive summaries free of charge from Cedefop, or a copy of the full report in the ETV bookshop.

To ask for more information or give comments, please contact us by e-mail.

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Presentations

These powerpoint presentations summarise the situation:
European Union
People disadvantaged in the labour market
Social Dialogue
Greece
Ireland
Italy
Spain

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