Brussels, 12/12/2014 (Agence Europe) - Education is key to achieving sustainable growth and improving employment levels in view of the targets set by the EUROPE 2020 strategy, education ministers stressed during the public debate at the Education Council on Friday 12 December.
In order to enhance synergies between employment and education policies, the employment ministers of the trio of Presidencies were invited to take part in the debate on the contribution of education and training to the EU 2020 strategy.
“We reaffirmed that, for there to be growth and economic development, we have to be more effective in the way we structure the EUROPE 2020 strategy and education must have its rightful place”, said Italian Education Minister Stefania Giannini. “Investment in high quality education is the guarantee of jobs, growth and quality”, added Education Commissioner Tibor Navracsics (our translations). The commissioner gave assurances that he would work closely with Employment Commissioner Marianne Thyssen to fully develop synergies between the two departments.
With the re-organisation of the portfolios of DGs Employment and Education, vocational training now falls within the area of responsibility of the employment commissioner. Ministers, however, argued strongly for vocational training issues to remain with the Education Council.
In terms of investment, and with many member states cutting their education budget, several ministers laid emphasis on the need to better target the areas for investment: the focus must be on quality and developing the skills that are of use in the jobs' market. Teacher training, lifelong training, developing links with companies are all key points flagged up by the ministers if we are to achieve high quality, sustainable education systems. Navracsics indicated that the Commission's investment plan could finance projects in the education sector and that he would discuss possibilities with Commission Vice-President Jyrki Katainen. In terms of the strategic goals set by the EU 2020 strategy for education (reducing the school drop-out rate and increasing the numbers of higher education graduates), the member states were of the view that no further priorities should be added but that it was better to stick with those already agreed. The goals are well on the way to being achieved. The average school drop-out rate in the EU was 12% and the graduate level was 36.9% in 2013, although there are wide differences between member states. The targets set are 10% and 40% respectively by 2020. (IL)