Brussels, 19/01/2016 (Agence Europe) - Vocational and flexible education, informal and innovative learning, training in the workplace, placements and mobility are all instruments that member states should try and strengthen in an effort to improve the development of young Europeans' individual skills.
This approach is being advocated by the European Parliament and during a plenary session in Strasbourg on Tuesday 19 January, a resolution by Marek Plura MEP (EPP, Poland) was adopted “on policies for developing skills and tackling youth employment”. The text received very broad support: 604 MEPs voted in favour, 64 against, with 44 abstentions.
The main EP message is that today they need to build more bridges between the world of education, which requires modernisation (new teaching methods) and enterprise, which should be given support from the public authorities (regional, national and European). The goal is to facilitate insertion onto the labour market of millions of young people aged between 15 and 24 who are unemployed in the EU and the 7 million young Europeans who do not work or who are not in education or training.
The EP is not so much proposing legislative solutions as, rather, introducing a new approach. This consists of skills development as a multidimensional process for young people and requires a holistic approach and “a move beyond the 'silos' of sectorial policies”. The EP therefore believes that it is necessary to link (also financially) institutions providing higher education with the economy sector (industry, services), to develop essential skills among young people (adaptation abilities, learning to learn, sense of initiative, spirit of enterprise and communication skills) in a new and innovative way that is necessary for certain posts and jobs.
The European Commission is expected to present its “Towards a new Skills agenda for Europe” in view of the forthcoming Employment Ministers Meeting on 7 March. (Original version in French by Jan Kordys)