Comparing Vocational Training and Qualifications: A Major Priority for Greater European Union (1994)

THE MAASTRICHT Treaty on European Union, ratified on 1 November 1993, contains guidelines on a number of issues of considerable importance: to vocational The broad recommendations have already been set forth (see In Europe, January 1994), and policies are now being considered that will further enhance the position of language teaching, the mobility of students and teachers, the recognition of diplomas, the exchange of information, institutional cooperation, and transnational projects in general. In order to facilitate labor mobility there are two separate but interrelated European Community (EC) initiatives. One of these has to do with the comparability of vocational qualifications, the other concerns matters of mutual recognition. The specific aims of a policy of comparability are 1) to help employers make informed comparisons about the different qualifications obtained within the EC member states and 2) to encourage and enable employees to make use of their qualifications in order to find work or further training outside of their home states. Related to this concept are a series of rules or directives, whereby every citizen of the European Community will have certain rights pertaining to employment. One directive requires that all member states recognize the experience and qualifications that workers have gained within the Community. In order to make this possible, a member state must issue a Certificate of Experience to a worker, which serves as evidence of that worker's experience and qualifications. The directives also cover a wide range of specific jobs, and citizens of one member state can apply for work in another if their experience and qualifications meet the requirements of the directive that covers their job. If the worker meets the requirements, there will be no need to obtain any national qualifications for that job in the host country. Some important steps along the road toward the comparability of vocational qualifications within the EC may now be noted. The first of these steps was the establishment of the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Centre European pour le Developpement de la Formation Professionnelle -- CEDEFOP). Based in Berlin, CEDEFOP was set up in 1975, with a management board consisting of representatives of workers' organizations, employers' organizations, the European Commission, and governments. Its task is to promote the development of vocational training within the Community, and its legal basis lies in the Treaty of Rome itself. Article 118 of that treaty charges the European Commission with promoting close cooperation between member states in the social field, particularly in matters relating to . . . vocational training. CEDEFOP disseminates information on vocational training, research reports, and documents intended to promote a concerted approach to solving problems related to vocational Over the period 1989-92 CEDEFOP published a series of action guidelines stressing the very important role that initial and continuing vocational training would play within the process of forming a closer European union. A second step toward making vocational studies comparable from state to state is publication of comparability studies. Resulting from a decision made by the Council of Ministers of the European Community in 1985, these studies were designed to further one of the basic aims of the Community -- to enable workers to make better use of their qualifications and, in particular, to obtain suitable employment outside of their home states. …