71.

Draws attention to the need for sufficient technical and skilled personnel; considers therefore that more investment is needed in the field of education and training; insists that every effort be made to redress skills shortages at all levels in order to promote the qualifications of the workforce and interest young graduates more in industry, by means inter alia of: — an institutionalised dialogue between the relevant authorities, representatives of businesses and the social partners with a view to reviewing syllabuses, so as to include the entrepreneurial spirit and increase awareness of business, and devising effective ways of completing the transition between education and profession, particularly encouraging the promotion of individual mobility programmes such as ‘Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs’ and ‘Erasmus for Apprentices’, — both strengthening work-based learning throughout Europe in order to link vocational training systems more closely to the labour market, and enhancing the appeal of vocational training throughout Europe with higher education permeability for vocational training graduates, — securing the right to lifelong learning for all citizens, who must be given the opportunity to retrain during their working life, which is crucial for equality and solidarity but also for competitiveness in times of economic difficulties, — innovative training of young students as future employees ready to confront the forecast technological movements and closer relations between universities, research institutes and industry, — improvement of and wider access at all levels to education and training, especially in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), by means of coordinated initiatives and the exchange of best practice in education, training, and innovative measures to reconcile work and family life and to promote gender and social justice, — coordinated activities to improve teaching and raise awareness of the economic role of European industrial sectors and the necessity of their innovative transformation within a low-carbon and resource efficient economy, — additional coordinated and targeted higher qualifications, which are of benefit to both employers and employees, with more extensive use of the European Social Fund in this connection, — setting up at European level benchmarking for jobs and skills to reflect the level of professional sectors, enterprises and the most developed industrial regions, — creating observatories of the industrial professions at regional, national and European level in order to identify the future professions and professional demand, — opening up, modernising and financially strengthening universities to allow them to offer lifelong higher vocational qualifications, re-qualification (for engineers, IT specialists, technicians, etc.) or increased cooperation between science universities and those universities of applied sciences and educational institutions which are more geared to vocational education, — establishing, in cooperation with training bodies and the social partners, work-based vocational and occupational (re)training and lifelong learning programmes, both for workers and for employers, — more mobility and flexibility in vocational and educational training both for employers and employees, taking into account the individual requirements especially of SMEs, — studying the new needs created in terms of employment and qualifications by the development of jobs in the green economy with a view to responding to them by means of appropriate training, — encouraging closer synergies between universities and business culture and businesses of a knowledge-oriented type, — incentives to encourage engineers and qualified researchers from third countries to come to the EU, — setting up incentives for higher education to adjust the curricula accordingly;