In 1996, Europe had 4.7 scientists and engineers for every thousand inhabitants, compared with 7.4 in the United States and 8 in Japan. Also, the combined total of scientists and engineers in China, India and Indonesia is now the same as the figure for the European Union. Education and training Initial education needs to concentrate on imparting the skills that are needed to produce and implement innovation. Technical education and vocational training must not be neglected. But the acquisition of a basic educational grounding is essential to facilitate ongoing adaptation to the new skills that innovation requires.
Training is a necessity throughout life.
There is also a need to bring education and business closer together, especially by means of sandwich courses, so that apart from helping young people enter the job market it is possible to prepare for the new skills or qualifications that are needed and to adapt training to these needs. In spite of efforts to promote it, such as the programme for the training and mobility of researchers, mobility between research centres, universities and industry is all too often hampered by practical or cultural barriers. At Community level, the Commission will introduce the priority measures to encourage the mobility of students, teachers, engineers and researchers. In setting priorities for the Fifth Framework Programme for Research, the Commission is proposing a wide programme with the main objective of enhancing human potential. It should in particular boost the efforts to arrange for transnational secondments of young researchers and engineers to businesses, in particular SMEs, to help with their innovation or technology transfer projects.