Lisbon - Copenhagen - Maastricht Consortium December 2004 Tom Leney VET – Challenges and research agendas

Lisbon - Copenhagen - Maastricht Consortium December 2004 Competitiveness: who leads? Higher gross domestic product per capita than USA: Luxembourg More productive per hour: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway. Here, the challenge is to raise employment levels Different country profiles - Productivity; employment; skills; investment; innovation Successful models in Europe: the Nordic group? Ireland? Austria?

Lisbon - Copenhagen - Maastricht Consortium December 2004 Skills and competences to meet future needs? Anticipating future skills and labour market needs: new risks, new approaches (Finland futures) Which are the key competences? (Estonia reforms) –Entrepreneurship is one: active skills and/or skills for business start-up (Austria steps ahead) Developing broad occupational competencies through workplace learning is now the key factor for VET reform in Europe (the Netherlands define) Validation of informal and non-formal learning opens doors (France innovates, Noste in Finland)

Lisbon - Copenhagen - Maastricht Consortium December 2004 Lifelong learning: target low-skilled groups in the workplace The challenge for participation in lifelong learning. –Few EU member states reaching the EU target: UK, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands, Slovenia plus Norway and Iceland –Variations between sectors: Communications/textiles –Workers with lower education attainment six times lower chance to participate in training (Frico Cheese) –Older workers (Sparbanken 55+), workers in declining industries (Poland, re-skilling mining regions), migrant groups (Romania), workers in small companies (Japan, automotive)…… From initiatives to strategy? (Denmark)

Lisbon - Copenhagen - Maastricht Consortium December 2004 Economic and social priorities for lifelong learning All the European countries indicate that access to education and training is a policy priority (equity, targeting groups) However, few indicate that increasing participation in CVT is a funding priority Reference to some specific groups: but upskilling and opportunities for older workers does not receive much attention in most European countries

Lisbon - Copenhagen - Maastricht Consortium December 2004 Lowering barriers to mobility Migration after enlargement lower than expected VET can reduce barriers and ease frictions that currently inhibit the mobility of workers and learners VET has an important role to play – but is not the major driver behind migration Europass? Ireland; Austria

Lisbon - Copenhagen - Maastricht Consortium December 2004 VET: investing more and better Investing in VET brings rewards to companies and to individuals, though often seen as a cost or treated with reluctance. Implications for governments, employers and individuals Setting the standard for E&T spending in Europe? Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Cyprus, Finland: between 8.3% and 6.2% of GDP A lack of private funding – except for some aspects of HE, countries do not address this issue well

Lisbon - Copenhagen - Maastricht Consortium December 2004 Lisbon - Copenhagen - Maastricht Consortium Innovation strategies Ensuring highly skilled VET professionals. Emphasis on concrete action at decentralised level and by the social partners Establish synergy between VET policies and economic and employment policies. Innovation agreements and partnership commitment to foster investment in human capital Special attention to key competences, ICT literacy and learning partnerships Opportunities for peer learning (bench learning) at the EU level

Lisbon - Copenhagen - Maastricht Consortium December 2004 ? Four questions: 2010 and after What policies (lifelong learning, labour market, inclusion, innovation) can stakeholders develop to optimise the learning opportunities for all target groups in the workplace? Can we facilitate strong European networks to innovate in VET, and involve wider publics? How will we best progress the agreed objectives, since European countries are on different starting lines for VET and develop differing visions of lifelong learning? How to balance the economic and social aspects of the Lisbon goal?