Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the Proposal for a Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council on key competences for lifelong learning (COM(2005) 548 final — 2005/0221 (COD))
Date: 2006-05-18
Institutions: European Economic and Social Committee
Subjects: EU programme, continuing vocational training, economic development, education, globalisation, social policy

18.8.2006

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Official Journal of the European Union

C 195/109

Equipped with the necessary financial and human resources,
these organisations should be encouraged to establish alli-
ances and partnerships with all stakeholders involved in
fighting pandemics.

Committee would like to act as a custodian of this struggle
since it is an essential priority for all affected countries. For let
us not deceive ourselves — lack of stakeholder involvement has
already given rise to famine.

The European Economic and Social Committee requests
that preventive action — in particular access to family plan-
ning for women — and aid for the sick and their families
be effectively supported by European funding.

The European Economic

3.2.5
and Social Committee
believes that all stakeholders — NGOs, social partners, political
leaders — should intensify their efforts to this end. It considers
that it has a vital coordination role to play between all parties
engaged in this struggle. The European Economic and Social

3.2.6
The European Union should focus on reducing the
costs of pharmaceuticals by forming a special partnership with
the WTO. The EESC calls on the EU Member States to
subscribe to the initiative to provide large-scale and long-term
pharmaceutical financing (Paris Conference, February 2006). It
acknowledges that the initiative should enable closer involve-
ment of the national ESCs by associating them with its imple-
mentation, evaluation and also monitoring, thus helping to
ensure that this new measure is genuinely traceable.

Brussels, 18 May 2006.

The President

of the European Economic and Social Committee

Anne-Marie SIGMUND

Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the Proposal for a Recommendation
of the European Parliament and of the Council on key competences for lifelong learning

(COM(2005) 548 final — 2005/0221 (COD))

(2006/C 195/26)

On 28 November 2005 the Council decided to consult the European Economic and Social Committee,
under Article 262 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, on the

The Section for Employment, Social Affairs and Citizenship, which was responsible for preparing the
Committee's work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 3 May 2006. The rapporteur was Mária Herczog.

At its 427th plenary session, held on 17-18 May 2006 (meeting of 18 May), the European Economic and
Social Committee adopted the following opinion by 124 votes to two, with three abstentions.

1. Executive summary

1.1
The EESC strongly supports the Commission's recom-
mendations concerning key competences for lifelong learning,
which are fully consistent with the Lisbon strategy for a knowl-
edge society and with the Employment Guidelines 2005-2008.

1.2
The EESC feels that the proposal, if implemented, could
help to overcome current problems on the labour market,
particularly in terms of narrowing the gap between economic
needs and preparation of the available workforce.

The focus in training on developing key competences
1.3
could also help to achieve the important common objective of
ensuring that by the end of
initial education and training
young people have developed the key competences to a level

that equips them for adult life and successful participation in
the labour market either as employees or entrepreneurs, and
that adults are able to develop and update these competences
throughout their lives, based on a solid foundation of general
knowledge which is one of
the keys to the capacity for
ongoing adaptation.

1.4
Among the instruments for achieving this objective, the
EESC feels that it is particularly important to prepare teachers
to provide effective support for students in secondary educa-
tion, vocational education and adult education in acquiring key
competences, with teachers themselves acquiring or continu-
ously developing the key competences which they need for
their work.

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1.5
Besides supporting the general objectives, the EESC feels
that it is especially important to ensure that young people
dropping out of school should have the opportunity through
training programmes of receiving assistance in
non-formal
acquiring the key competences outlined in the proposal.

1.6
Given the ageing population, older workers must be
kept on the labour market longer, so the EESC also feels that it
is particularly important
for older workers in the Member
States to have the opportunity to acquire competences which
they lack, and for Member States to set up learning infrastruc-
tures to enable competences which have already been acquired
to be maintained and developed.

The EESC acknowledges the cardinal role of the social
1.7
partners, as the main players in the labour market,
in the
process of implementing and monitoring the goals set. Joint
action by Europe's social partners in lifelong learning during
their first multiannual work programme (2003-2005) resulted
in the Framework of Actions for Lifelong Development of
Competences and Qualifications, and further activities are envi-
saged for the 2006-2008 programme, in which Europe's social
partners will negotiate on a possible voluntary agreement in
this area.

The EESC also calls for a more active participation of
1.8
NGOs in the whole process and recommends strengthening
dialogue with civil society.

the Commission's proposal

1.9
It is extremely important for reliable statistics to be
available in order to monitor and evaluate progress towards
achieving lifelong learning objectives. The EESC therefore
regulation
supports
concerning the compilation of lifelong learning statistics. The
in place frameworks capable of ensuring
regulation puts
harmonisation or standardisation of
the methods used by
Member States to compile statistics, thus enhancing the relia-
bility and comparability of data. An effort must be made to
ensure that surveys provide reliable and constantly updated
statistics enabling analysis of the main aspects of EU policy
objectives.

for

a

2. Introduction (1)

After a lengthy process of research, preparation and
2.1
consultation, the Commission has presented its proposal estab-
lishing an integrated action programme in the field of lifelong
learning. The European Economic and Social Committee
welcomes this development and points out that the purpose of

(1) EESC opinion on the ‘Integrated action programme in lifelong
rapporteur Mr Koryfidis – OJ C 221,

learning’ – SOC/176 -
8.9.2005.

the ideas set out in the present opinion is to make the Commis-
sion's proposal more effective and practical.

2.2
The EESC's view of the Commission's proposal is there-
fore based mainly on its knowledge and experience in connec-
tion with:

2.3

the delay in achieving the Lisbon objectives;

the delay in matching education and training with

2.4
productivity (2);

2.5

the demographic situation in Europe; and

the concerns which have recently arisen at European

2.6
and international level to find solutions to these problems (3).

3. Outline of the Commission's proposal

3.1
A Working Group on basic skills, established in 2001 in
the context of Education and Training 2010 work programme,
has developed a framework of key competences (4) needed in a
knowledge society and prepared a number of recommendations
on ensuring that everyone can acquire them (5).

3.2
The main common objective is to ensure that by the
end of initial education and training young people have devel-
oped the key competences to a level that equips them for adult
life, and that adults are able to develop and update them
throughout their lives.

The proposal identifies the following key competences:
3.3
1) communication in the mother tongue; 2) communication in
foreign languages; 3) mathematical competence and basic
competences in science and technology; 4) digital competence;
5) learning to learn; 6) interpersonal, intercultural and social
competences and civic competence; 7) entrepreneurship, and 8)
cultural expression. The proposal defines competences as a
combination of knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to
the context.

3.4 Work in the area of key competences ties in closely
with many other initiatives or other ongoing activity, such as
the current work on developing a European Qualifications
Framework (EQF), or the endeavours to make qualifications
systems more transparent (for example by recognising knowl-
edge acquired through informal learning).

(2) EESC opinion

on

‘Training

and

productivity’

(SOC/183),

28.10.2004 – rapporteur: Mr Koryfidis - OJ C 120, 20.05.2005.
(3) See March 2005 Kok Report ( http://europa.eu.int/comm/lisbon_-

strategy/pdf/2004-1866-EN-complet.pdf).

(4) The Working Group preferred the term ‘competence’ that refers to a
combination of knowledge, skills and attitudes and ‘key competence’
to define competences necessary for all. It thus includes basic skills,
but goes beyond them.

(5) Working group on Basic skills, progress reports 2003, 2004: http://
europa.eu.int/comm/education/policies/2010/objectives_en.html#-
basic.

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3.5
The proposal provides a reference tool identifying those
key competences necessary for all, and thus supports Member
States in their endeavours to ensure that key competences are
integrated into their lifelong learning strategies.

3.6
The aim of this reference tool is to assist political deci-
sion-makers, providers of training services, employers, and lear-
ners themselves in achieving common objectives at national
and European level.

The recommendation defines

3.7
the key competences
needed by all citizens in the knowledge-based economy and
society. It acknowledges that implementation decisions must be
taken at national, regional and/or local level. The recommenda-
tion calls for Member States to ensure the acquisition of key
competences by all by the end of initial education and training
and, in the light of the European reference criteria, encourages
them to tackle educational inequalities.

3.8 With regard to adult learners, the recommendation calls
on Member States, with the involvement of the social partners,
to put in place a comprehensive infrastructure ensuring that
the elderly also have access to tools for developing compe-
tences.

Finally, the proposal urges the Commission to support
3.9
reforms at national level through peer learning, exchange of
best practice, and regular evaluation of progress towards imple-
mentation of objectives.

3.10
budget.

The proposal has no implication for the Community

4. The EESC's general comments

to support

The Recommendation aims

4.1
efforts by
Member States to develop their basic education and training
systems as well as their adult education and training provision,
and the entire lifelong learning system, by providing a reference
tool on key competences. Although there is still
legitimate
scope — and a need for — specialist discussions on the precise
notion of competences, taken as a whole the Recommendation
clearly identifies the course which should be set for the devel-
opment of basic schooling and adult education.

sector, and the link to their social and economic environment
was also weak. The content of
training was generally too
strongly geared to short-term needs, which in the longer term
could take things in the wrong direction. With this in mind,
the Committee feels that the proposals for key competences
could provide general points of reference common to the
various training programmes, and they could also represent
one of the options for organising closer coordination between
the activities of the various training sub-systems.

4.3
The variety of interpretations of key competences and
the divergent nature of practical programmes based on those
concepts is closely reflected in the evaluation of how the EU
strategy is implemented. There is a long-standing debate both
within and outside the EU on scientific and practical definitions
of competence. For example, in a separate project (Definition
and Selection of Competencies — DeSeCo) the OECD defined
the competences which were seen as the most important (and
which only partially overlap with the key competences set out
in the proposal for a Recommendation).

4.4
The acquisition of skills which are marketable and
necessary for social success takes place in a context of competi-
tion between social groups and individuals, in keeping with the
logic of the ‘knowledge-based society’. One of the objectives of
government measures
training programmes
and strategic
should be to provide equal access and opportunities for all.

4.5
In line with the text of the Recommendation, it should
be pointed out in connection with lifelong learning and compe-
tences that there must be a focus not only on acquiring various
skills but also on maintaining skills which have already been
acquired through special programmes.

4.6
Implementing the recommendations on key compe-
tences is a major challenge for the education and training
systems of the Member States. Integrating them — especially in
basic training, and particularly in educational systems which
have not moved on from a rigid subject-based approach —
calls for a fundamentally new approach.

In its earlier opinion on training and efficiency (6), the
4.2
EESC criticised all of the Member States for the lack of consis-
tency and inadequate coordination between training systems.
According to the EESC, continuing vocational education
systems operated in isolation from the rest of the educational

(6) EESC opinion

on

‘Training

and

productivity’

(SOC/183),

28.10.2004 – rapporteur: Mr Koryfidis - OJ C 120, 20.5.2005.

4.7
The Recommendation presents at least as much of a
challenge in terms of preparing teachers and changing their
attitudes. The EESC therefore feels that it is particularly impor-
tant
for
to prepare teachers to provide effective support
students in secondary education, vocational education and
adult education in acquiring key competences, with teachers
themselves acquiring or continuously developing the key
competences which they need for their work.

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implications for social cohesion.

4.8
The proposal sees support for the acquisition of compe-
tences needed by older age groups (7) as an issue with impor-
tant
In working towards
higher employment as a priority EU objective, the individual
Member States are concentrating their attention and training
resources — including special programmes to develop compe-
tences — on people in initial training and the working-age
population; however, many questions about the lack of compe-
tences among older age groups are rightly being asked. A
marked generation gap already exists in certain fields, such as
digital literacy. In many Member States, the strategic objectives
which are defined at national level — such as e-government, or
ensuring online accessibility of information and services which
are important for citizens — make exercising the right to infor-
mation or social participation dependent on basic competences
(e.g. basic IT skills). As a result, if the elderly and other disad-
vantaged groups are not included in programmes to support
acquisition of the most important competences, there may be
negative repercussions for social cohesion.

The aim is to put in place a framework encompassing
5.2.2
all current and planned measures in the field of
lifelong
learning statistics (with the exception of corporate training
measured by the Continuing Vocational Training Survey, which
was recently the subject of separate legislation).

5.2.3
The proposal only applies to educational, training and
lifelong learning statistics submitted to the European Commis-
sion for the purposes of producing Community statistics.

5.2.4
The main objective of the regulation is to develop
common statistical standards enabling harmonised production
of statistics, and thus to establish a common framework for the
systematic production of Community statistics on education
and lifelong learning.

it

Given the complexity of the education policy issues
4.9
involved in implementing competence-based training,
is
extremely important to have an ongoing exchange of views
among those working in the field throughout the EU;
the
results of this should be widely available. Due to the complexity
in
of the subject,
compliance with the tasks entrusted to it by the TEC and the
principle of subsidiarity,
to educational
policy specialists in the Member States, not only in formulating
objectives but also in identifying possible ways, means and
(As well as focusing on examples of best
stumbling-blocks.
practice, the exchange of experiences should also provide for
opportunities to learn through the analysis of failures).

it would be helpful for the Commission,

to provide support

the processes concerned.

5.3
It is extremely important for the objectives of the EU
strategy to be defined in such a way as to reflect a realistic
overview of
least equally
important for evaluations which are seen to be appropriate
during the implementation of strategies to be able to draw on
the methodologically reliable, regularly conducted compilation
of data and data sets, and on the conclusions which can be
deduced from them. Data and indicators suitable for drawing
international comparisons must be available.

is at

It

5. Compilation of statistics on lifelong learning

In this respect, the subject of lifelong learning is closely
for a regulation on statistics

5.1
connected with the proposal
concerning lifelong learning (8).

5.2
The proposal for a regulation arose from the EU's ever-
growing need for comparable statistics and indicators relating
to education, training and lifelong learning, as these facilitate
use of the open method of coordination in the fields of educa-
tion and training policy.

To date,

cooperation and exchange of

5.2.1
statistics
between Member States has been based on verbal agreements.
The aim of the proposal
is to establish a legal basis for a
sustainable system for producing educational statistics, which
could represent a starting point for dialogue on European-level
policies in various areas.

(7) ‘Older age groups’ are defined as people who are not in employ-
ment, and/or who have definitively ceased any kind of employment.
(8) Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the
Council concerning the production and development of statistics on
education and lifelong learning. COM(2005) 625 final – 2005/0248
(COD).

In practice,

5.3.1
there is extremely unequal access to
training; furthermore, rather than compensating for existing
differences, post-school, adult education further accentuates
them (according to existing surveys on this issue). Regular
provision of data based on standard principles and methods
can support monitoring and evaluation of this issue.

At present, various educational,

5.4
training and adult
learning fields are covered by a series of international statistical
surveys which are organised in parallel or largely independently
of one another. EU statistical systems are insufficient to cover
the area as a whole on their own, even using the new statistical
surveys which are currently beginning. There are certain differ-
ences between Eurostat and other statistical organisations in
terms of surveys, their content and purpose.

5.5
In the interests of making rational use of resources,
overlaps between regular surveys should be avoided unless
technically warranted; at
there should be
systematic efforts to ensure that the results of various surveys
can be inter-related. This can be achieved only if there is close
cooperation with specialist bodies outside the EU (the OECD's
International Association for the Evaluation of Educational
Achievement (IEA)) and use of their surveys.

the same time,

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5.6
In the current situation, close technical cooperation with
organisations outside the EU is extremely important, given that
measurement of key competences is not one of the tasks falling
within the remit of Eurostat. (The surveys conducted by the
OECD, especially the PISA study and the Programme for Inter-
national Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), which is
currently being developed, could play a leading role in the
assessment of competences.)

5.7
There is a very strong need for statistics which contri-
bute to the development of policies and for data which support
the evaluation of outcomes; indeed, the demand for up-to-date
statistics is growing significantly. It is extremely important for
Member States to use identical methods for the compilation of
statistics, and the reliability and comparability of such statistics
must be a primary consideration.

6. Specific observations

6.1
It is very expensive to operate statistical systems. With
this in mind, the EESC feels that, depending on Member States'

capacities, it would be worth considering the long-term feasi-
bility of shortening the five-year cycle for compiling statistics
on lifelong learning, i.e. of conducting more frequent surveys.
In terms of collecting data on subjects of particular relevance
from a political perspective, supplementing broad statistical
surveys with targeted studies at intervals of as little as one year
and smaller-scale surveys could represent a short-term solution.
These targeted surveys and analyses based on them would
enable the monitoring of processes of particular political rele-
vance, and evaluation of progress towards achieving EU lifelong
learning objectives.

Given that company training courses

represent an
6.2
important sector of lifelong learning activity, it would be worth
including statistics on such courses in the scope of
the
proposed regulation. Some company training courses (training
in companies with ten or more employees) are already covered
by the five-yearly Eurostat Continuing Vocational Training
Survey (CVTS); however, this does not include data on training
provided by companies with fewer than ten employees.

Brussels, 18 May 2006.

The President

of the European Economic and Social Committee

Anne-Marie SIGMUND