Debate: Council Recommendation on vocational education and training  for sustainable competitiveness, social fairness and resilience
Date: TUESDAY, 15 DECEMBER 2020
Speaker: Nicolas Schmit
Language: EN

Let me also thank the German Presidency for their continued support during the negotiations on this recommendation, and particularly also for the adoption of the Osnabrück Declaration, which really identifies vocational education and training (VET) as an enabler, and I quote, ‘an enabler of recovery and just transitions to a digital and green economy’. Already before the pandemic our workers, young and older alike, needed massive up- and re-skilling opportunities to tackle skills mismatches. The pandemic and the accelerated shift towards a digital and green future demand this even more, because workers need to acquire digital skills and those skills needed for the green transition. We can only achieve this if education and training systems keep up the pace and meet the needs of our economy of the 21st century. The VET recommendation puts this vision into action, and the Commission provides concrete measures and instruments to support Member States in modernising their VET systems, which the 27 Member States wish to do. Enhancing the digital shift in VET is at the core of our policy, because most professions are directly affected by digital transformations. Digital has become the engine of modernisation, flexibility and the attractiveness of the VET systems, and it contributes to their inclusiveness by opening up new digital learning opportunities for all. The Commission has developed EU-level tools for schools to reflect their own progress and the pathway towards digitalisation. We have established quality standards. We are enhancing and promoting exchanges of good practices between Member States in all these areas. Vocational education and training also mean apprenticeships; they are a particularly appropriate answer to tackling the rising youth unemployment and they facilitate precisely the transition between education and the labour markets. The Commission will reinforce support to good quality, diversified and tailor-made apprenticeships thanks to the new initiatives such as the renewed European Alliance for Apprenticeships and the recently launched pact for skills, which precisely brings together companies, Member States, governments, regional authorities, providers of skills and social partners. I am particularly grateful for increased European funding for all these policies. The increase in the Erasmus+ budget will significantly increase the number of learners and teachers and trainers benefiting from VET mobility – and mobility was pointed out just now. What is the rule for university students should also become the norm for VET learners and this is also an aspect: how to restore the value of VET to the same level as other educational forms.  Moreover, Erasmus will also invest in VET excellence, because lifting quality and making education systems more inclusive are fundamental dimensions of the Erasmus+ programme, and the platforms of centres of vocational excellence financed through this programme. Modernising VET systems can in particular be financed through the European Social Fund Plus, and through REACT and the Recovery and Resilience Facility. The Commission’s strategic guidance for the Recovery and Resilience Facility laid out in the annual sustainable growth strategy proposes upskilling and re-skilling as one of the flagship initiatives of the Facility. Unprecedented funds are available thanks to the good outcome of the MFF negotiations, and I urge Member States now to use them to invest in people. It’s a matter of Europe’s competitiveness and social cohesion alike.  Vocational education and training is also based on the cooperation of schools, learners, parents, employers, social partners, government authorities, regional innovation agencies, researchers and many more players.  We all know that, in principle, education is a national competence, but we need this European cooperation, and by the way, professional education was already in the Treaty of Rome. It was also initially an objective of the European Community, because it was understood that we need a good professional education to have a well-functioning common market.