Employability is the first pillar. It contains a new active and preventive labour market policy to prevent the drift into unemployment and long term unemployment, the main weakness of the labour market policies of the past. Life long learning, based on individual needs, is basic to employability, for finding new jobs for the unemployed, and for avoiding unemployment among people at work. Entrepreneurship is the second pillar. It contains a new enterprise policy to make it easier to start and run job-creating businesses, particularly in the services sector, where Europe is lagging behind the US, and to tap the potential of the information society.
Adaptability is the third pillar.
It is about a new working life policy. It is about changes in technology, work organisation, knowledge and skills. It is mainly directed at the social partners, seeking a new partnership to modernise the organisation of work and to invest in human resources. Thus, life long learning is the link between the double objective of adaptability, that is flexibility for enterprises and security for workers. Equal opportunities is the fourth pillar.