21. 5. 90 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 124/31 
Opinion on the proposal for a Council Decision proposing the adoption of a Community 
action programme for the development of continuing vocational training (FORCE) (*) 
(90/C 124/11) 
On 8 January 1990, the Council decided to consult the Economic and Social Committee, 
under Article 128 of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, on the 
abovementioned proposal. 
The Section for Social, Family, Educational and Cultural Affairs, which was responsible for 
preparing the Committee's work on the subject, adopted its Opinion on 15 March 1990. 
(Rapporteur: Mr Nierhaus). 
At its 275th plenary session (meeting of 28 March 1990), the Economic and Social Committee 
adopted the following Opinion by 112 votes to 1, with 12 abstentions. 
1. General comments 
The ideas set out in this Commission communication 
and proposal for an action programme for the develop­
ment of continuing vocational training were essentially 
outlined in the related communication of 1986 ansd 
have been thoroughly discussed with the Member States 
and relevant Community bodies. The document was 
also the subject of a—for the most part favourable— 
ESC Opinion (2). At the same time, it is clear that some 
of the views expressed by the ESC and the European 
Parliament go far beyond the scope of the Commission's 
'Community framework'. 
Nevertheless, the Committee broadly welcomes the 
proposed programme and would single out the follow­
ing aspects. 
1.1. The crucial role of continuing vocational train­
ing as a response to rapid economic and social change 
is noted and stressed. The great importance of such 
training in the context of the strategy for completing 
the Internal Market and managing its economic and 
social consequences is also made clear. 
In this context, continuing vocational training fulfils 
two functions. On the one hand, it ensures the continu­
ing productivity of individual workers by enabling them 
to adapt to structural change. It can create new employ­
ment prospects and help workers to avoid or escape 
from unemployment. 
On the other hand, continuing vocational training rep­
resents an important business investment which is of 
fundamental economic importance for the achievement 
of medium- and long-term competitiveness. It contrib­
utes significantly to the maintenance of job skills and 
their adaptation to rapid economic, social and techno­
logical change. It is therefore crucial to the maintenance 
of overall Community competitiveness on the world 
market. 
(*) OJ No C 12, 18. 1. 1990, p. 16. 
(2) OJ No C 180, 8. 7. 1987. 1.2. Vocational training represents a challenge to the 
Community—involving different objectives and 
emphases—which calls, in particular, for extensive 
discussion between the social partners and others active 
in this field along the lines so successfully initiated by 
the joint declaration on education and training. The 
Commission's identification of continuing vocational 
training as an important topic within the framework 
of "dialogue, consultation and cooperation between the 
social partners is thus particularly welcome. The genu­
ine improvement and development of this form of train­
ing will necessitate dialogue at all levels: within busi­
nesses, at sectorial level, between national employers' 
associations and trade unions and in the corresponding 
Community advisory bodies (e.g. the Advisory Com­
mittee for vocational training). The Commission's 
identification of continuing vocational training as an 
important topic within the framework of dialogue, 
consultation and cooperation is welcomed but this 
framework must be widened to take account of chang­
ing economic, technological, employment and other 
circumstances; therefore a genuine improvement and 
development of this form of training will necessitate 
dialogue at all levels. 
1.3. The action programme fills a major gap in such 
existing Community programmes as COMETT, 
DELTA, ERASMUS, PETRA and LINGUA, which are 
only marginally concerned with continuing vocational 
training, if at all. In conjunction with the EUROTEC-
NET programme, the FORCE programme could pro­
vide the framework for existing and planned measures 
to develop continuing vocational training. 
1.4. Whilst stressing the extremely important role of 
businesses in the success of training policy, the 1987 
Committee Opinion expressed concern at the restriction 
of the definition of continuing vocational training to the 
business context. It is therefore particulary encouraging 
that the role of other vocational and continuing 
vocational training bodies is also clearly perceived. 
No C 124/32 Official Journal of the European Communities 21. 5. 90 
1.5. The vocational training sector is particularly 
noteworthy for the great variety of structures which 
have gradually been developed within and between 
the Member States. The Committee welcomes what it 
regards as a realistic decision not to use the action 
programme to achieve structural alignment in the short 
term, but to underline the Community aspect by pro­
moting trans-national projects, whilst preserving 
national legislation. 
1.6. The Committee hopes that the development of 
continuing vocational training will enable increasing 
numbers of workers, and in particular the highly quali-
fed, to take advantage of the right of free movement 
within the Community. In this connection, it welcomes 
the inclusion of the self-employed among the groups 
covered by the programme. 
2. Specific comments 
2.1. The definitions given in Article 4 are both valu­
able and an indispensable prerequirement for dis­
cussion. This is particularly true of the concept of 
continuing vocational training, which is defined more 
clearly than in the Commission communication of 1986. 
Unfortunately, however, this clarity is not maintained 
throughout the present text, the term 'training' some­
times being used when 'further training' is meant and 
vice versa. 
2.2. Article 1 states that every European Community 
worker must have access to vocational training and be 
able to benefit from it throughout his working life 
without discrimination on grounds of nationality. This 
specific objective is, however, contradicted by the 
exclusion from the programme of non-Community 
nationals who are employed in the Member States. 
Since the need for vocational training is often particu­
larly acute among these groups, any action which could 
give rise to new forms of discrimination must be avo­
ided. 
Independently of legal provisions concerning such train­
ing, however, the specific conditions for access (release, 
the individual's capacity for further training, motiv­
ation of problem groups, etc.) often still have to be 
created. Workers in remote and thinly-populated 
regions, for example, face a particular problem given 
the difficulty of establishing an efficient continuing 
training infrastructure in such areas. In this connection, 
consideration should be given to using concrete model 
schemes to try out the application of telecommuni­
cations in continuing training; such model schemes 
have already been proposed under other Community 
programmes. 
Access to vocational training constitutes an extremely 
complex problem and will need to be agreed in the 
context of the forthcoming Community instrument on 
access to vocational training foreshadowed in the action programme relating to the implementation of the char­
ter of basic social rights. The instrument will have to 
define the circumstances in which the right of access 
may be exercised. 
2.3. Legal or collective-agreement arrangements on 
leave of absence for training are a means of making time 
available for training, particularly where businesses fail 
to provide continuing vocational training opportunities 
during working hours. The Committee therefore calls 
for an examination of the extent to which the most 
uniform possible legal framework for such leave could 
be created by national or Community legislation in 
the event of failure to implement collective agreement 
arrangements. 
2.4. Nevertheless, the social and educational factors 
restricting access to training represent a far more serious 
problem. Studies have clearly shown that such access 
depends on educational attainments. Whilst it cannot 
be the task of continuing vocational training to make 
good the deficiencies of earlier stages of education, such 
as school and university, general-education remedial 
work is required to make access to further training 
possible. The knowledge imparted in the context of 
continuing vocational training must therefore be adapt­
ed to the requirements of the individual target groups 
and not necessarily exclusively geared to technical speci­
alization. Such education must also be provided if a 
lack of basic knowledge denies those concerned access 
to vocational training. This is particularly true with 
regard to the need for competence in the relevant Com­
munity languages, a problem mainly affecting migrant 
workers and, to a lesser extent, immigrants from non-
EEC countries. 
2.5. The action programme describes only the 'pre­
ventive' nature of continuing vocational training and 
ignores the 'remedial' fucntion of professional qualifi­
cations. Yet, continuing vocational training frequently 
represents the only means of enabling the unemployed 
to return to working life. The Committee does not 
share the Commission's view that the action pro­
gramme should be restricted to persons in 
employment—even though it acknowledges that meas­
ures on behalf of the unemployed can be part-financed 
by the European Social Fund. 
Precisely because the action programme does not limit 
responsibility for furhter training to businesses but also 
covers 'training bodies' specifically concerned with 
qualifications for the unemployed, it can easily accom­
modate measures on their behalf. Against this back­
ground, the main aim must be to develop furhter train­
ing strategies for the long-term unemployed, perhaps 
using, for example, the ideas of existing literacy pro-
21. 5. 90 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 124/33 
grammes. The results of such model experiments would 
also be suitable for in-house further training pro­
grammes on behalf of poorly qualified workers who, 
again, are generally the most threatened by unemploy­
ment. 
Irrespective of whether Community funds are provided 
for support programmes, the reintegration of the unem­
ployed is normally a responsibility devolving on society 
as a whole and should, therefore, be financed from 
taxation. The provision of continuing vocational train­
ing for workers, on the other hand, is essentiallly a task 
for businesses, since it is in their economic interest and 
should be part of an agreed plan within the firm. 
The resources proposed for such model projects are, 
however, far from adequate and should be substantially 
increased. 
2.6. The Committee regards the analysis of training 
needs and changes on the labour market proposed 
under action II (c) as particularly necessary. The corre­
sponding budgetary allocation should be entirely 
devoted to such analyses with a view to forecasting 
future qualification requirements more accurately and 
devising new training programmes accordingly. 
2.7. The action programme should pay particular 
attention to the development and testing of new, mod­
ern educational techniques in the context of continuing 
vocational training. Such modern, practice-orientated 
techniques as management games, the programmes 
offered by training firms and project-implementation 
methods should also be examined from the standpoint 
of their ability to impart all-round abilities, such as 
social skills, the ability to see all the implications of an 
issue, the organization of learning and work activities 
and adaptability. Modular training strategies leading 
gradually to the award of a recognized qualification 
should also be developed further as important incen­
tives. 
Appropriate projects—executed, as far as possible 
within a Community network of businesses and further 
training bodies—should receive priority support. In 
this connection, special attention should be paid to the 
application of new vocational training techniques based 
on the use of remote teaching systems (e.g. in conjunc­
tion with DELTA or EUROTECNET). 
2.8. Taking due account of the LINGUA pro­
gramme, the action programme should also cover the 
development and testing of strategies and measures 
for job-related foreign-language teaching. Increasing 
knowledge of Community languages—particularly 
their basic occupational terminology—is one of the 
essential preconditions for the cohesion of the Internal 
Market and, thus, represents both a challenge to and 
an opportunity for workers. 2.9. The action programme should also create 
'additional Community qualifications', for example by 
providing opportunities for the acquisition of language 
skills or environmental expertise. Given such specific 
objectives, additional incentives could be created. The 
development of appropriate models—as far as possible 
involving bodies from several Member States and the 
social partners should be encouraged. 
2.10. Frontier regions are peculiarly suited to the 
development of trans-national projects, since local wor­
kers are frequently already employed in a neighbouring 
country and are therefore particularly dependent on 
knowledge whcih can also be used abroad. This need 
could lead to the establishment of general models for 
trans-national further training. 
2.11. There is a particular need to improve or estab­
lish a further-training infrastructure in rural areas. 
Whilst Community projects can provide a powerful 
stimulus in these regions, decisive action must ultimate­
ly come from the Member States, and also from 
employers' organizations and trade unions. 
2.12. Business must treat continuing vocational 
training as a crucial manpower-planning instrument of 
their long- and medium-term strategies. Employers and 
unions should cooperate closely in developing and 
extending corresponding opportunities with a view to 
the definition and implementation of a vocational train­
ing programme which is optimal for both parties. 
2.13. This still leaves the problem of firms, particu­
larly of smaller size, where there is no formal worker 
representation. Generally speaking, it is in the smaller 
firm where the provision of training is poorest and 
where management are least able to decide on the most 
appropriate form of training for their workforce. This 
is a problem that needs addressing at a Community, 
national and regional level. 
2.14. Aviability of finance is a crucial precondition 
for the development of furhter training in the Com­
munity. In this connection, Community projects, for 
example supported by the Social Fund, can make only 
a small overall contribution, especially as co-financing 
by national bodies is usually necessary. Thus, the Mem­
ber States and businesses must be the principal financi­
ers of activities in their respective areas of responsibility. 
State funding is particularly necessary for groups of 
workers lacking adequate own resources (the unem­
ployed, migrant workers and socially disadvantaged 
groups). 
2.15. Special models should be developed within the 
framework of the action programme to take account 
No C 124/34 Official Journal of the European Communities 21. 5. 90 
of the position of such special groups of workers as the 
long-term unemployed, migrant workers, illiterates and 
the handicapped. 
There is also a need for model furhter training pro­
grammes which reflect the special family situation of 
women. 
2.16. The Commission plans to manage the 
implementation of the programme with the assistance 
of a liaison group; this is supported but its composition 
needs to be widened to take into account all groups and 
levels of employers, workers and other socio-economic 
interests. This would be an easy process since relevant 
European organizations other than those mentioned in 
the Council Decision can be clearly identified. 
2.17. Continuing vocational training is only one 
stage in an overall educational process. Its success thus 
Done at Brussels, 28 March 1990. 
Opinion on: 
1. Introduction 
1.1. 'The removal of internal boundaries and the 
establishement of free movement of goods and capital 
and the freedom to provide services are clearly funda­
mental to the creation of the internal market. Neverthe-
(!) OJ No C 23, 30. 1. 1989. depends on a certain minimum level of educational 
attainment and the acquisition of basic occupational 
skills during initial training. It then becomes an import­
ant means of improving employment prospects, 
although it cannot in itself solve all the problems of the 
labour market. Labour-market policy must therefore 
be designed to create the conditions which will allow 
continuing vocational training to provide genuine 
opportunities rather than resulting in demotivation. 
The Committee has been able to make only a few, 
essentially basic, observations on the complex and 
important question of the function and future organiza­
tion of continuing vocational training within the Com­
munity in this Opinion. In view of the importance of 
this question, however, it strongly urges the Com­
mission to incorporate these recommendations in its 
future plans. 
The Chairman 
of the Economic and Social Committee 
Alberto MASPRONE 
less, Community action must go further and create an 
environment or conditions likely to favour the develop­
ment of cooperation between undertakings.' Such were 
the Commission's words in its White Paper of June 
1985 on complementing the Internal Market. 
1.1.1. The Community has made considerable pro­
gress to date towards a 'real' Internal Market. But a 
whole host of further measures still need to be taken — the proposal for a Council Regulation (EEC) on the statute for a European company, 
and on 
— the proposal for a Council Directive complementing the statute for a European company 
with regard to the involvement of employees in the European company (*) 
(90/C 124/12) 
On 21 September 1989 the Council decided to ask the Economic and Social Committee for 
an Opinion under Articles 100A and 54 of the EEC Treaty on the abovementioned proposals. 
The Section for Industry, Commerce, Crafts and Services, which was responsible for the 
preparatory work, adopted its Opinion on 7 March 1990. Mr Petersen was Rapporteur. 
At its 275th plenary session (meeting of 28 March 1990), the Economic and Social Committee 
adopted the following Opinion by 105 votes to 25, with 24 abstentions.