# EUR-Lex - 52012DC0669 - EN

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# 52012DC0669

**COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS Rethinking Education:Investing in skills for better socio-economic outcomes /* COM/2012/0669 final */**

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1.           Education and skills – a core strategic
asset for growth

Investment in
education and training for skills development is essential to boost growth and
competitiveness: skills determine Europe's capacity to increase productivity. In
the long-term, skills can trigger innovation and growth, move production up the
value chain, stimulate the concentration of higher level skills in the EU and
shape the future labour market. The massive increase in the global supply of
highly skilled people over the last decade puts Europe to the test. The time
when competition came mainly from countries that could offer only low-skilled
work has come to an end. The quality of education and supply of skills has
increased worldwide and Europe must respond.

European
education and training systems continue to fall short in providing the right
skills for employability, and are not working adequately with business or
employers to bring the learning experience closer to the reality of the working
environment. These skills mismatches are a growing concern for European
industry's competitiveness[1].

Despite
progress over the last five years in the percentages of those qualifying from
higher education, sustained efforts will be needed to reach the headline target
of 40% of young people completing higher education.

Though significant
improvement has been made over the last five years, early school leaving
remains at unacceptable levels in too many Member States, such as Spain with 26.5% and Portugal with 23.2%. Targeted action remains necessary to reduce early school
leaving through comprehensive, targeted evidence-based strategies, as called
for in the recently adopted Council Recommendation.

There remains
significant evidence of underperformance in other areas: 73 million adults have
only a low level of education; nearly 20% of 15 year olds lack sufficient skills
in reading; and participation in lifelong learning is only 8.9%.

By 2020, 20%
more jobs will require higher level skills. Education needs to drive up both
standards and levels of achievement to match this demand, as well as encourage
the transversal skills needed to ensure young people are able to be
entrepreneurial and adapt to the increasingly inevitable changes in the labour
market during their career.

The broad mission
of education and training encompasses objectives such as active citizenship,
personal development and well-being. While these go hand-in-hand with the need
to upgrade skills for employability, against
the backdrop of sluggish economic growth and a shrinking workforce due to demographic
ageing, the most pressing challenges for Member States are to address the needs
of the economy and focus on solutions to tackle fast-rising youth unemployment. In
this communication, emphasis is being placed on delivering the right skills for
employment, increasing the efficiency and inclusiveness of our education and
training institutions and on working collaboratively with all relevant
stakeholders.

The
scope and pace of reforms needs to be scaled up so high quality
skills can support both growth and jobs. The Commission identifies here a limited number of strategic
priorities to be addressed by Member States, alongside new EU actions to
leverage national efforts. The priorities reflect the Country Specific
Recommendations[2]
which the Commission made to a number of Member States and support the Annual
Growth Survey 2012[3].

Among these,
particular attention is given to combatting youth unemployment. This
Communication covers four areas which are essential to addressing this issue and
where Member States should step up efforts.

•
Developing world-class vocational education and
training to raise the quality of vocational skills

•
Promoting work based learning including quality
traineeships, apprenticeships and dual learning models to help the transition
from learning to work

•
Promoting partnerships between public and
private institutions (to ensure appropriate curricula and skills provision)

•
Promoting mobility through the proposed Erasmus
for All programme[4]

These issues are of direct relevance to the
package on Youth Employment to be put forward by the Commission before the end
of 2012. The Youth Package will propose new tools to address youth unemployment
and facilitate school-work transitions.

To underpin the guidance provided here, this
Communication is accompanied by: country fiches summarising the performance
and policy reforms of the Member States in the key areas covered by the
Communication; the first edition of the Education and Training Monitor,
which gives a picture of current skills supply and progress towards the Europe
2020 headline targets; and five other Staff Working Documents, showcasing
policy evidence and good practice.

2.           challenges in member states to be
addressed in the European semester

2.1.        Building skills for the
21st century

Transversal and basic skills

Efforts
need to be concentrated on developing transversal skills...

Modern,
knowledge-based economies require people with higher and more relevant skills.
CEDEFOP forecasts predict that the proportion of jobs in the EU requiring
tertiary level qualifications will increase from 29% in 2010 to 34% in 2020,
while the proportion of low-skilled jobs will fall in the same period from 23%
to 18%. Transversal skills such as the ability to think critically, take
initiative, problem solve and work collaboratively will prepare individuals for
today's varied and unpredictable career paths.

...particularly
entrepreneurial skills...

Attention
should be particularly focused on the development of entrepreneurial skills[5], because they not only
contribute to new business creation but also to the employability of young
people. However, at the national level only six Member States have a specific
strategy for entrepreneurship education[6].
To address this, in 2013 the Commission will publish policy guidance to support
improvements in the quality and prevalence of entrepreneurship education across
the EU. Member States should foster entrepreneurial skills
through new and creative ways of teaching and learning from primary school
onwards, alongside a focus from secondary to higher education on the
opportunity of business creation as a career destination. Real world
experience, through problem-based learning and enterprise links, should be
embedded across all disciplines and tailored to all levels of
education. All young people should benefit from at least one practical
entrepreneurial experience before leaving compulsory education. Measuring the
impact of this work is important, and to support Member States the Commission
will identify tools to assess progress and demonstrate the acquisition of entrepreneurial
skills. At the level of individual institutions progress will be boosted by a
self-assessment framework, carried out jointly with the OECD, to guide and advance
the development of entrepreneurial education institutions at all levels
including schools and vocational education and training (VET).

...while
the demand for STEM related skills is still high

Scientific
subjects are also important. The demand for a qualified workforce in technology
and research intensive sectors is and will remain at a high level, with an
impact on the demand for science, technology, engineering and mathematics
(STEM) related skills. Greater efforts must now be made to highlight STEM as a
priority area of education, and increase engagement at all levels. Although
broad challenges are well known, such as the need to make it more attractive to
females, it is also now important to increase understanding of the career
pathways followed by STEM graduates.

...but the
first step must be that foundation or basic skills are achieved by all...

Literacy,
numeracy and basic maths and science are key foundations for further learning
as illustrated in the accompanying Education and Training Monitor 2012, and are
a gateway to employment and social inclusion. These skills are nonetheless
being redefined by the on-going digital revolution, as new forms of reading and
writing and the diversity of information sources are changing their very
nature.

Across the EU,
reforms have streamlined curricula. They have introduced national standardised
tests; established an infrastructure of literacy, maths and science centres;
created teacher networks and continuing professional development; and stepped
up action to improve digital and media literacy. Nevertheless, underperformance
remains and addressing low achievement is now urgent. The share of 15 year olds
in Europe that have not acquired basic skills is around 20%, while five
countries have over 25% low achievers in reading. Member States need to
introduce new systemic reforms to strengthen early screening and intervention
for learning difficulties and to replace repetition or ability grouping with
increased learning support.

These efforts
within compulsory schooling need to be preceded by high-quality, accessible and
affordable early childhood education and care. They should be complemented with
family literacy and numeracy programmes as well as high quality adult basic
skills programmes, particularly through workplace learning. Efforts are
necessary to increase the current alarmingly low participation levels in adult
learning in most Member States[7],
and new evidence-based policies are needed drawing on the results of the PIAAC
survey[8].
The average adult participation in lifelong learning in the EU is 8.9%. In
seven Member States the adult participation is as low as 5% or less.

...while language
learning is important for jobs and needs particular attention

In a world of
international exchanges, the ability to speak foreign languages is a factor for
competitiveness. Languages are more and more important to increase levels of employability[9] and mobility of young people,
and poor language skills are a major obstacle to free movement of workers. Businesses
also require the language skills needed to function in
the global marketplace.

As detailed in
the accompanying Staff Working Document on Languages, the first European Survey
on Language Competences[10]
shows that, despite investment in many countries, education systems in a number
of Member States are still not efficient enough[11] to cope with these
challenges.  In France only 14% of all pupils reach the level of an independent
user of one foreign language at the end of lower secondary education, and in
the UK this is only 9%. Faster reform is needed by Member States, based on new
methodologies and technologies for teaching both the first and second foreign
languages, with a view to reaching the target defined by Heads of State of
'mother tongue plus two'[12].

Vocational
skills

Increasing
the quality of vocational skills requires the development of world-class VET
systems...

Increasing transversal
and basic skills alone will not be sufficient to generate growth and
competitiveness, and there is still too much distance between the educational
environment and the workplace. Targeted investment in VET, namely initial and
continuous training, is vital for innovation, growth and competitiveness. The
value of VET, and notably dual training systems, in facilitating youth
employment is now strongly acknowledged.

Some European
countries already have world-class VET systems (Germany, Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands), with built-in mechanisms to adapt to current and future skills
needs so training is more demand-driven. They report fewer problems with skills
mismatches and show better employment rates for young people, and in these
countries VET education is characterised by dual systems which have a high
proportion of work-based learning. Many others, typically in Southern Europe,
lag behind in terms of participation, quality, outcomes and attractiveness. Figure
1 illustrates the disparity between countries of the percentages involved in
VET and general education at upper secondary level. These differences are due
to socio-cultural traditions and perceptions, diverse structures of education
and training systems and of the economy and labour market, reforms undertaken,
the extent of involvement of social partners as well as the employment
prospects of VET graduates, and the preferences of individuals.

Figure 1 - Distribution of upper secondary (ISCED 3) students by programme
orientation (general or vocational). %. (2010)

Source: Eurostat Database[13], UOE data
collection

Work based
learning and notably apprenticeships and other dual models help facilitate
transition from learning to work. These require a clear regulatory framework,
defined roles for the different players and must be an integral part of the
entire education system. The approach which underpins the dual system –
classroom-based education side by side with hands on experience in the
workplace - has an important potential role to play at tertiary level.

In order to achieve
excellence in VET, curricula must be systematically renewed, delivery must be
constantly modernised and businesses, especially SMEs, must be actively involved;
as outlined in the attached Staff Working Document. VET must be able to react
to the demand for advanced vocational skills, tailored to the regional economic
context. It also needs to be an open door for those who want to access higher
education, as well as individuals who need to re-enter learning to upgrade or
update skills.

... which
can greatly contribute to the reduction of skills shortages...

VET systems can
and must play a key role in addressing skills shortages, especially for sectors
with growth potential such as ICT, health and care, low carbon technologies,
personalised services, business services, the maritime economy[14] and green sectors, or those undergoing
major transformation requiring a better skilled workforce. Targeted investment
in VET to address skills shortages can support growth in these sectors. These sectors
should also be encouraged to make use of existing European tools for
qualifications (EQF), credits (ECVET) and quality assurance (EQAVET) to
facilitate mobility of a skilled labour force.

...through
a higher level of cooperation at European level

Work-based learning,
such as dual approaches, should be a central pillar of vocational education and
training systems across Europe, with the aim of reducing youth unemployment,
facilitating the transition from learning to employment and responding to the
skill needs of the labour market. To achieve this, the Berlin meeting of EU Ministers
of Education in December 2012 will be the first step towards new levels of cooperation
in the field of vocational education and training. Ministers will sign a
memorandum outlining their  ambitions for VET across Europe: attractiveness and
quality of vocational education and training should be enhanced; learning
pathways must reach into higher education levels; social partners and other
relevant stakeholders need to be actively involved in development and
implementation; and increased mobility measures must be introduced. To support
this cooperation, the Commission will establish a new EU-level Alliance for
Apprenticeships to drive the vision forward, bringing together Member States and a wider range of stakeholders to learn from each other and take action at
national level.

2.2.        Stimulating open and
flexible learning

Improving learning outcomes, assessment
and recognition

Achievement
should be driven by learning outcomes...

Education and
training can only contribute to growth and job-creation if learning is focused
on the knowledge, skills and competences to be acquired by students (learning
outcomes) through the learning process, rather than on completing a specific
stage or on time spent in school.

While the
learning outcomes approach is already the basis of the European Qualifications
Framework and national qualification frameworks, this fundamental shift has not
yet fully percolated through to teaching and assessment. Institutions at all
levels of education and training still need to adapt in order to increase the
relevance and quality of their educational input to students and the labour
market, to widen access and to facilitate transitions between different
education and training pathways.

...and the
power of assessment needs to be better harnessed

What is
assessed can often determine what is valued and what is taught. While many
Member States have reformed curricula, it remains a challenge to modernise
assessment to support learning. As outlined in the annexed Staff Working
Document on the assessment of key competences, the power of assessment has to
be harnessed by defining competences in terms of learning outcomes and
broadening the scope of tests and exams to cover these. Assessment for
formative purposes to support the day-to-day skills learning of pupils also
needs to be more widely used. In this context, the potential of new
technologies to help find ways of assessing key competences needs to be fully
explored.

Outside school,
individuals should also be able to have their skills assessed, validated and
recognised, providing a skills profile for potential employers. Information on
the quality and quantity of skills across the population will allow authorities
to better map potential shortages and focus on areas with the best returns on
investment. Efforts should continue to develop tools for individual assessment
of skills, particularly in the areas of problem solving, critical thinking,
collaboration and entrepreneurial initiative.

Qualifications
should open as many doors as possible...

A number of
European instruments such as the European Qualifications Framework (EQF),
Europass, European credit transfer systems (ECTS and ECVET), the multilingual
classification of European Skills/Competences,
Qualifications and Occupations (ESCO) and quality
assurance frameworks have been implemented in the last decade to support the
mobility of learners and workers. These tools are improving transparency, for
instance making qualifications comparable across countries (EQF) and credit
points transferable (ECTS).

These
instruments were not developed in isolation from each other; however, there is
room for much closer coherence where the different tools and services -
including transparency and recognition of qualifications, validation of
non-formal and informal learning and lifelong guidance - are offered in a
coordinated way. This will contribute to real European mobility where a
person's knowledge, skills and competences can be clearly understood and
quickly recognised. The creation of a European Area of Skills and
Qualifications will support this drive to achieve transparency and  recognition
of academic qualifications across borders, acquired in vocational and higher
education.

... and
academic recognition can lead the way

The recognition
of both higher education qualifications and those enabling access to higher
education has been on the European policy agenda for some time. Academic
mobility is steadily increasing as a result of the changing structures of
higher education systems, and this internationalisation is complemented by the
drive to promote the EU as a destination for study and research[15]. Nevertheless, to make the EU
more attractive to students and researchers better approaches to recognition
are needed, as well as a more systematic and coordinated application of the
European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) and improvements in the
application and assessment of learning outcomes. In addition, this will
contribute to the European Area of Skills and Qualifications.

The ongoing
development of the Bologna Process provides an important contribution to the
promotion of transparent and fair recognition of higher education
qualifications in Europe and beyond. As part of this and the recent Bucharest Communiqué,
countries committed to improving academic recognition of diplomas. This
includes screening national legislation against the Lisbon Recognition Convention
and encouraging assessment of institution recognition procedures for quality
assurance. A Pathfinder Group of countries is testing ways of achieving the
automatic recognition of comparable academic degrees. Its objective is to place
students on an equal footing, irrespective of the origin of their academic
degree, by shifting the focus away from the academic recognition of individual
diplomas to an approach based on trust in the system under which the diploma
was awarded.

Tap into the potential of ICT and Open
Educational Resources for learning

The
digital revolution brings important opportunities for education...

Technology
offers unprecedented opportunities to improve quality, access and equity in
education and training. It is a key lever for more effective learning and to
reducing barriers to education, in particular social barriers. Individuals can
learn anywhere, at any time, following flexible and individualised pathways.

Digital
learning and recent trends in Open Educational Resources[16] (OER) are enabling fundamental
changes in the education world, expanding the educational offer beyond its
traditional formats and borders. New ways of learning, characterised by
personalisation, engagement, use of digital media, collaboration, bottom-up
practices and where the learner or teacher is a creator of learning content are
emerging, facilitated by the exponential growth in OER available via the
internet. Europe should exploit the potential of OER much more than is
currently the case. This requires good computer skills, but some Member States
are still lagging behind as seen in the Education and Training Monitor 2012,
with 9 Member States with over 50% of 16-74 year olds with no or low computer
skills. While the use of ICT in education and training has been high on the
policy agenda, critical elements are not in place to enable digital learning
and OER to be mainstreamed across all education and training sectors. A
coherent strategy at EU level could address the scope, size and complexity of
the challenges in support of actions of the Member States and the entire chain
of stakeholders.

...and it
is time to scale-up use of ICT in learning and teaching...

Recent research[17] shows that disparities persist
in the availability of ICT-based educational tools and content. ICT-based
assessment is often recommended but it is rarely indicated how it should be
applied. For personalised and flexible learning, the use of technologies should
be embedded in educational practice. Large-scale pilots in real-life environments
should define how, when and where ICT can be used effectively in pedagogical
and assessment approaches. Turning research into educational practice is even
more necessary in a fast changing environment. Communities of practices (e.g.
eTwinning; European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) Knowledge and Innovation
Communities) and hubs of ICT-based excellence should be further developed, as
should faster transfer of innovation research into educational practice. In all
of this, stakeholder engagement and collaboration is a condition for success.

...to exploit
freely available knowledge.

The quality of
education relies on a mix of different educational materials. To achieve this, wider
access and use of OER needs to be accompanied by clear quality standards and mechanisms
to assess and validate skills and competences acquired through it. Education
and training institutions which have not yet integrated OER should also seek
cooperation with technologically more advanced educational providers in order
to meet the expectations of digital-born learners. Teachers tend to acquire ICT
teaching skills through initial education rather than through professional
development; it is essential that they are well equipped to embrace the
potential of the new technologies in the way they teach, in order to stimulate
and engage learners.

The educational
marketplace is being transformed. There are growing numbers of non-commercial
OER providers alongside technological advances such as open access, internet
file-sharing and open source, and educational publishers and the wider industry
continue to adapt to these changes. They are already revising their business
models in order to profit from new commercial opportunities.

Supporting Europe's teachers[18]

Teachers
face rapidly changing demands...

High quality
and well trained teachers can help learners develop the competences they need
in a global labour market based on ever higher skill levels, and evidence[19] shows that a primary influence
on learners’ performance is the quality of teaching and learning. However
teachers now face unprecedented challenges. As elaborated on in the
accompanying staff working document, the increasing requirements of education,
the massive retirement of teachers from the baby-boom generation (see figure 2)
and severe staff shortages in some subject areas will result in an increased
demand for qualified educators at all levels and call for comprehensive actions
to boost the attractiveness of the profession. These should include both
financial and non-financial incentives.  The crisis and the workforce currently
available, also offer an opportunity to undertake skills renewal across the
profession and attract new qualified staff.

Figure 2 - Age distribution of teachers in lower and upper
secondary school % (2010)

Source: Eurostat
Database[20],
UOE data collection

....which require a new set
of competences for teachers, teacher educators and education leaders ...

However, well-resourced
strategies are necessary to recruit, retain and develop high-quality teachers,
spanning both initial teacher education and career-long professional
development. Member States need to establish a competence framework or
professional profile for teachers, including trainers in initial and continuing
VET. To support this, the role of the teacher educator should be clearly
defined through competence-based criteria. Along with quality assurance
measures, this should be the basis for re-engineering recruitment systems to
attract and retain high quality candidates into teaching.

The
recruitment, preparation and retention of the right staff for leadership
positions at all levels of education is equally important and requires further
investment. These roles need to focus on improving teaching and learning, which
remains a problem in many Member States due to growing administrative workloads.
Leadership academies or professional development programmes offer models of
good practice.

...and
calls for strong action to support new approaches to teaching and learning...

Curricula,
especially in VET, should be made more relevant to the workplace through
ongoing collaboration with business and employers, for example entrepreneurs brought
into the classroom to enhance learning. Reforms of teaching and learning approaches
are required at all levels, as well as well-resourced continuing professional
development which should include provision of regular feedback and support from
teacher educators. Teachers need a strong commitment to training: in the use of
new technologies; to improve learning to learn competencies; how to cater for
diversity and inclusion; and to meet the needs of disadvantaged learners, such
as Roma, children with disabilities or those from a migrant background. The
ultimate focus of all these activities should be to improve learning outcomes.

...and the
quality of teaching is a critical issue in higher education as well

If efforts are
maintained, then the European Union is likely to achieve the headline target of
40% completion of tertiary level education. Both research[21] and teaching should be
supported by sound professional development provision. Yet it is teaching that
primarily influences student outcomes, enhances graduate employability and raises
the profile of European higher education institutions worldwide. Currently,
only a few countries have strategies to promote quality in higher education
teaching, including the training of teaching staff in pedagogical skills. The
Commission has set up a High Level Group on Modernisation of Higher Education, and
in 2013 this group will make recommendations to policy makers and  higher
education institutions on how to promote quality in teaching and learning.

2.3.        Promoting a collaborative
effort

Funding education

Investment
in education and training is key to increasing productivity and economic growth
and is a concern for all...

Despite the
clear medium and long-term positive returns for education, the economic
downturn and the associated need for fiscal consolidation has led many Member
States to reduce investment in education and training. Starting from the
2009/10 school year and especially after mid-2010, quite a few countries were
obliged to apply salary cuts for teachers and other public employees.  In 2012,
the majority of countries maintained their arrangements regarding the funding
of support mechanisms for pupils and students and/or their families. From the
countries with available data only Spain (central budget), Cyprus and Portugal reported a decrease in the funding of available schemes for support of people in
education. Any under-spending today will inevitably have serious consequences
in the medium to long-term for Europe's skills base.

While the room
for manoeuvre may be greater for some Member States than others, all share the
same double challenge: to prioritise public investment in the education and
training sector, and to find more efficient ways of deploying available
financial resources which might call for structural reform in particular
education systems. The main lever for increasing the efficiency of investment
in education and training is to enhance the quality of provision and to focus
on prevention of educational failure. Increasingly, Member States are
developing models of cost-sharing between different partners in the educational
process – the state, businesses and individuals, foundations and alumni – with
public investment helping to leverage private sector match-funding.

...and the focus
should be to maximise efficient investment at all levels of education...

One priority
for more efficient use of funds should be the earlier stages of education, to
prevent early educational failure and its consequences in adulthood (school
achievement, employment rates, earnings, crime prevention, health etc)[22]. Providing high quality and
affordable early childhood education pays off, in particular for socially
disadvantaged groups. Although countries have invested more since 2000 in the
field of pre-school and school education, public investment per capita in the
early childhood phase is still lower than at any other stage.

Public investment should also be maintained
in school education, but governments must seek ways to achieve more with these
resources. Important returns of investment can be gained through more effective
teacher recruitment, retention and professional support (outlined in section
2.2).

...with
cost-sharing in VET and higher education an option to help meet that goal

Public and
private returns on VET, higher education and adult learning are considerable[23]. In well-established dual VET
systems companies achieve long-term returns even when the costs for
apprenticeships may first exceed the company's direct revenues from an
apprentice's work. In order to stimulate the provision of apprenticeships,
public funds should be targeted especially at sectors with growing labour force
needs. Companies, on the other hand, should increase investment in initial VET
notably through their involvement in alternate training models, but also by
supporting schools with adequate equipment.

Continuous VET
can be associated with substantial private returns and productivity gains for
employers. Research suggests, however, that current public funding instruments
(individual learning accounts, subsidies for training etc.) may not be
efficiently targeted, given that provisions tend to favour the participation of
high skilled workers and their high private returns. Public funding in this
area needs to be thoroughly evaluated and focused on raising new training
participation, notably of disadvantaged groups. Public responsibility also
increases in periods of economic re-structuring. Mechanisms to share the
financial burden of training between employers, such as sectoral training
funds, need to be applied more widely.

In higher
education, it is well established that investment can generate substantial
returns for individuals as well as for society at large[24]. Different models of funding
are found across Member States, with a growing number of countries introducing
greater cost-sharing into their higher education systems, in the face of
growing student numbers and pressure for fiscal constraint. While choosing the
most appropriate funding mechanism is a Member State’s prerogative,
considerations of efficiency should go hand-in-hand with concerns on equity and
access. The degree to which students or others contribute directly to the cost
of their studies[25]
and more generally the effects of cost-sharing, are a matter of debate and
deserve to be supported with further research and analysis.

Finally, in a
context of fewer resources, governments also need to make effective use of
available Structural Funds, in particular the European Social Fund. Several
countries have recently reallocated significant funding in the 2007-13
programming period towards key education and training priorities. For the
period 2014-2020, further concentration and prioritisation is necessary to
sustain investment in education and respective infrastructure. The proposed
Erasmus for All 2014-2020, through mobility, cooperation and policy support
actions, will also support transnational initiatives in these fields.

Partnerships

Partnerships
can provide a platform for targeting the 'right' skills- if they are actively
supported

Partnerships of
public and private institutions are not only a source of education funding but
also of mutual learning, joint policy development and implementation.
Partnerships present an opportunity to develop skills agendas in a targeted,
innovative and sustainable way and to include those directly involved in the
provision, application and updating of specific skills. They can link various
policy areas, education and training sub-sectors, public and private actors,
and different levels of governance[26].

For education
and training, a reinforced partnership approach means becoming more active in
the development of skills strategies, rather than being just a 'supplier'. To
be sustainable, partnerships need to be built on clear objectives and should be
a systematic part of the policy approach. They must involve all stakeholders,
including representatives from teachers' organisations, social partners and
student bodies.

The partnership
approach is a key factor for the success of Youth Guarantee schemes (see
forthcoming Youth Employment Package). Education and training institutions need
to be part of a concerted effort with other stakeholders to put in place such
comprehensive schemes.

Different forms
of partnerships are being promoted at EU level. The Knowledge and Innovation
Communities (KICs), supported by the European Institute of Innovation and
Technology (EIT), pool together education, research and business to address the
development of skills in a highly integrated manner consistent with the needs
and challenges of the relevant economic actors. Another example,
this time sector specific, is the Grand Coalition for ICT Jobs. The Coalition
will bring together industry, employers, education and governments to
address skills shortages in the ICT sector.

The proposed
Erasmus for All funding programme will also provide incentives for
partnerships. Support will be given to Knowledge Alliances to implement a
comprehensive set of activities that stimulate the sharing, exchange and flow
of knowledge between higher education institutions and enterprises. They aim to
foster excellence and innovation and create new multidisciplinary curricula to
promote skills such as entrepreneurship, real-time problem solving and creative
thinking. In the VET arena, funding will be provided to Sector Skills
Alliances, uniting training institutions, enterprises and professional
organisations, to design curricula and training programmes. Both the Knowledge
and Sector Skills Alliances will benefit from the on-going work of social
partners in identifying sector-specific skills needs, including at EU level
through the European Sector Skills Councils.

3          PRIORITIES
FOR MEMBER STATES

The varying nature and urgency of the
challenges facing Member States requires the use of different instruments
implemented over different time scales, and joint action is needed from the
worlds of both education and employment. Efforts to boost the supply of
relevant and high quality skills must go hand-in-hand with targeted actions to
smooth the transition from schools to work, reduce obstacles to mobility and
improve the functioning of the labour market so young people have wider access
to job opportunities.

The forthcoming Youth Employment
Package will call on Member States to step up efforts in the area of
work-based learning, mobilities and traineeships, and to promote partnerships (including
education) supporting the implementation of Youth Guarantees as an immediate
response to the youth unemployment crisis.

In line with the actions put forward
in the 2012 Country Specific Recommendations, the European Commission invites Member
States to push forward educational reforms to combat youth unemployment and
boost skills supply through the following actions:

1.
Promote excellence in vocational education
and training (VET). Key actions are developing,
according to national circumstances, high-quality dual VET systems, aligning
VET policies with regional/local economic development strategies namely for
smart specialisation, enabling permeability with other educational offers,
developing short cycle tertiary qualifications (2 years) focused on identified
areas of skills shortage especially where there is growth potential such as
ICT, healthcare and green skills, and strengthening local, national and
international partnerships and networks between companies, especially SMEs, and
VET providers.

2.
Improve the performance of student groups
with high risk of early school leaving and low basic skills. Key actions are putting in place high quality and accessible early
childhood education and care, reinforcing the learning of basic skills such as
literacy, numeracy and basic maths and science, early detection of low
achievers in basic skills across all phases of schooling, and providing
individualised support as well as implementing evidence-based strategies to
reduce early school leaving.

3.
Strengthen the provision of
transversal skills that increase employability such as entrepreneurial
initiative, digital skills and foreign languages.
Key actions are to ensure that measures are taken to introduce transversal
skills across all curricula from early stages of education up to higher
education, using innovative and student-centred pedagogical approaches, and to
design assessment tools through which levels of competence can be effectively
assessed and evaluated. All young people should benefit from at
least one practical entrepreneurial experience before leaving compulsory
education.

4.
Reduce the number of low-skilled adults. Key actions are setting national targets and strategies, increasing
incentives for adult training by companies, validating skills and competences
acquired outside formal education, and setting up access points (one-stop
shops) that integrate different lifelong learning services such as validation
and career guidance offering tailored learning to individual learners.

5.
Scale up the use of ICT-supported learning
and access to high quality OER. Key actions are
modernising the ICT infrastructure of schools, supporting ICT-based teaching
and assessment practices, promoting the transparency of rights and obligations
of users of digitalised content, establishing mechanisms to validate and
recognise skills and competences acquired through OER and supporting education
and training institutions to adapt their business models to the emergence of
OER.

6.
Revise and strengthen the professional
profile of all teaching professions (teachers at
all levels, school leaders, teacher educators). Key actions are reviewing the
effectiveness as well as the academic and pedagogical quality of Initial
Teacher Education, introducing coherent and adequately resourced systems for
recruitment, selection, induction and professional development of teaching
staff based on clearly defined competences needed at each stage of a teaching
career, and increasing teacher digital competence.

Implementation of these reforms will not be successful without increasing
the efficiency of funding in education. In order to address this complex
challenge, the Commission calls on Member States to stimulate
national debates on ways to provide sustainable funding mechanisms to enhance
stability and efficiency, while channelling support towards those who tend
to participate less. Among these, particular attention should be devoted to
developing funding schemes for VET and adult learning financed via shared
responsibility between public authorities, enterprises and appropriate
individual contributions (e.g. sectoral training funds, training levies, etc)
and aimed at attracting large companies and SMEs to provide work-based VET
training.

4.      EUROPEAN LEVEL COORDINATION AND
CONTRIBUTIONS

While the
responsibility and the instruments to address the issues identified in this
communication lie with the Member States, the ambitious reforms needed call for
a strong joint effort from both the EU and Member States. At EU level,
immediate focus will also be given to the following key actions:

1. Enhanced country-specific focus and support to Member States in their efforts to implement the identified priorities by:

-
monitoring progress in each Member State in the context of the next European Semester and feeding the results of this
country examination into the preparations of the 2013 draft country-specific
recommendations;

-
strengthening the analytical base of
country-monitoring through i) regular peer reviews in the framework of
the Open Method of Coordination for Education and Training, ii) a framework for
cooperation between the European Commission and OECD in the area of skills
policies. Within the context of this framework, the public portal
"Education and Skills Online Assessment" will be launched in
autumn 2013, allowing individuals and enterprises, through the PIAAC methodology,
to benchmark skills against other survey users; iii) enhanced monitoring of the
education and training benchmarks, including a new benchmark on language
teaching as elaborated in the Staff Working Document on Languages.

2.
Accelerate improvements in work-based
learning, in particular by establishing an
EU-level Alliance for Apprenticeships (see also forthcoming Youth Employment
Package).  As the first step, the Commission will support a Memorandum
on European cooperation in vocational education and training, bringing together
a number of Member States to learn from successful approaches and schemes.

3.
Create a European
Area for Skills and Qualifications to promote a stronger convergence
between the EU transparency and recognition tools to ensure that skills and
qualifications can be easily recognised across borders, based on on-going
evaluations and pursuing the learning-outcomes approach.

4.
Funding Education for Growth to strengthen commitment to a skilled and continuously trained and
re-trained workforce by:

-
monitoring actions taken by Member States to
prioritise growth-enhancing expenditure and developing an evidence-based
framework to analyse the efficiency of public spending for quality education
and training;

-
initiating for the first time a debate at EU
level with relevant stakeholders on the benefits of investment in different
education and training sectors (vocational training, adult learning, higher
education) and ways to increase the efficiency of spending;

-
exploring with Social Partners at EU level the
options for increasing significantly the level of training provision for adults
working  in companies, with a view to re-skilling and up-skilling the
workforce. This consultation will take place after the ongoing consultations on
the Quality Framework of Traineeships to fully take into account its results.

5.
Analyse the impact of providing EU support
to upscaling access and use of OER and ICT, establishing quality parameters and
certification processes for OER, developing ICT-enabled teaching practices and
creating a EU dimension for online education. The results of this preparatory
work will pave the way towards a new European initiative on “Opening up
education”.

6.  Entrepreneurship
education actions to include: publishing policy guidance
on entrepreneurship education in 2013; establishing, jointly with the OECD, a
guidance framework for entrepreneurial education institutions; and the
development of tools to monitor  progress and the
acquisition of entrepreneurial competences.

7.  Partnerships between education, business and research such as the Knowledge Alliances, the Sector Skills Alliances and the
partnership actions within the Marie Skłodowska-Curie programme will be
promoted through the proposed Erasmus for All programme 2014-2020 and Horizon
2020 in order to adapt education and training systems closer to the needs of
companies, especially SMEs.

5.      CONCLUSIONS

Europe will only resume growth through higher productivity and the supply
of highly skilled workers, and it is the reform of education and training
systems which is essential to achieving this. This Communication and the
country analysis provided in the accompanying Staff Working Documents are
intended to give the impetus to governments, education and training
institutions, teachers, businesses and other partners alike to pull together,
in accordance with national circumstances, in a concerted push for reform. At national
level, Member States are now invited to pursue their reflections on this
document through debates with their Parliaments and relevant stakeholders in
order to press ahead with reforms.

The Commission
will ensure that the contribution of education and investment in skills to growth
and jobs is fully reflected in the European Semester. It will use European platforms
of dialogue such as the Open Method of Coordination in the field of Education
and Training, the Bologna process for Higher Education and the Copenhagen process for VET as well as the funding instruments to stress the sense of
urgency on the priorities identified here.

[1]               Industrial Policy Communication Update COM (2012) 582

[2]               http://ec.europa.eu/europe2020/index_en.htm

[3]               Annual Growth Survey COM (2011) 815

[4]               Erasmus for All is the proposed  EU
programme for education, training, youth and sport put forward by the European
Commission on 23 November 2011

[5]               For an overview of entrepreneurial skills, cf Staff
Working Document on the Assessment of Key Competences

[6]               Entrepreneurship Education at School in Europe – National Strategies, Curricula and Learning Outcomes  (Eurydice 2012)

[7]               Cf. Education & Training Monitor 2012

[8]               PIAAC - Programme for the
International Assessment of Adult Competencies: for more information see http://ec.europa.eu/education/literacy/resources/statistics/more-info/index_en.htm

[9]               http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2011:372:0027:01:EN:HTML

[10]             http://ec.europa.eu/languages/eslc/index.html

[11]             Cf. Education and Training Monitor 2012

[12]             Barcelona European Council, March 2002

[13]             For country specific data notes refer to Eurostat
website

[14]             Blue Growth opportunities for marine and maritime sustainable
growth COM(2012) 494

[15]             Forthcoming Commission proposal to recast Directives
2004/114/EC and 2005/71/EC

[16]             Open Education Resources (OER), as defined by UNESCO in
2002, are "teaching, learning or research materials that are in the public
domain or released with an intellectual property license that allows for free
use, adaptation, and distribution". Open Education (OE) is a wider concept
that refers to practices and organisations aiming at removing barriers to entry
to education. OER are a part of OE, which has received a strong push through
the use of ICT. For further information please consult the UNESCO website on
OER: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/access-to-knowledge/open-educational-resources

[17]             http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/education/eurydice/documents/key_data_series/129EN.pdf

[18]             Cf. definition in Staff Working Document on Supporting
the Teaching Professions for Better Learning Outcomes

[19]             Cf.. OECD Education at a Glance 2012

[20]             For country specific data notes refer to Eurostat
website

[21]http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/pdf/research_policies/Towards_a_European_Framework_for_Research_Careers_final.pdf

[22]             Cf. EURYDICE (forthcoming), Recent Trends in the Public
Funding of Education in Europe

[23]             Cf. OECD Education at a Glance 2012

[24]             Cf. OECD Education Today, 29 June 2012

[25]             Cf. EURYDICE (2012), National student fee and support
systems 2011/2012

[26]             For Member States practices cf. Staff Working Document
on Partnerships and flexible pathways for lifelong skills development