Brussels, 29/10/2003 (Agence Europe) - A few days off its international conference in Turin from 5 to 7 November on "Learning Matters", the European Training Foundation (EFT) has just published data showing the gaps between the job-market situations in several neighbour countries of the EU (central and eastern European and Mediterranean countries), and the EU.
In these countries in particular, unemployment among young people has reached critical levels. Vocational education and training scarcely get a look in, said Peter de Rooij, Director of the ETF. To change this, he feels politicians and citizens alike must be persuaded of the advantages of vocational training programmes, and reform the labour markets.
At the beginning of November, the ETF is to publish a report explaining the implications of demographic change on the labour force, particularly in the Mediterranean countries, where the population of active young persons is in net growth. Since 1990, says an ETF press release, the population in the region has risen by 24% to reach 167.2 million people, and one of every three young people is unemployed.
It is worth noting that the European Training Foundation is a decentralised agency of the EU, which was established in 1995 in Turin. It is the EU's centre of expertise which supports reform in vocational education and training in third countries, as part of the EU's external relations programmes (Info: http://www.etf.eu.int ).