Advisory Committee on Vocational Training – what is going on with VET in Europe?
For the third time OBESSU took part in the meeting of the European Commission’s Advisory Committee on Vocational Training (ACVT) in Brussels on 2nd and 3rd June. Since last summer OBESSU has been an observer of the Committee meeting twice a year to offer input on various topics in Vocational Education and Training (VET) from the Member States, national employer representatives, national trade union representatives and European stakeholders. This meeting in June celebrated the 50th anniversary of the ACVT and covered a variety of topics from information and updates from the field of VET to implications for VET and Adult Learning policies and the on-going review of the Bruges communiqué.
On the first day the ACVT was presented the first findings of the public consultation on the European Area of Skills and Qualifications (EASQ), an initiative that is aiming to improve the European recognition of skills and qualifications of learners and workers. When implemented, the EASQ could gather in one place all or most of the European tools available for recognition, such as different credit transfer tools. The review of the consultation showed a public interest in simplifying the jungle of European tools and initiatives in the area, as well as the common wish for EASQ to be a simple, easy-to-use tool encouraging mobility in Europe. The European Commission is working on a concrete proposal to be presented this year on what the EASQ would look like in the end, which tools it will link to in the end and what does this new initiative mean for learners and workers in practise.
The second day of the ACVT meeting started with an overview of results of the CEDEFOP monitoring of the Bruges communiqué review, or VET review. These results showed the progress in VET policies since 2010, when the communiqué was adopted. The biggest developments were seen to be the increased role of social partners in VET policies and the increased importance of labour market relevance. This also shows in the national policy focuses during the same period; work-based learning, VET system reforms, apprenticeships and attractiveness of VET. The most concrete developments were also seen in the field of apprenticeships, which have been increasingly reformed across Europe.
The meeting continued to discuss recent developments for VET in-company trainers and results of Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) before getting to the discussion about including apprenticeships and traineeships in the European Job Mobility Portal EURES. Currently apprentices and trainees don’t have the possibility to find opportunities abroad on EURES, but EURES has been working since 2012 to figure out ways to include also these groups and encourage mobility in apprenticeships as well. They are starting a pilot project with a selected group of European countries to try out EURES for apprenticeships and traineeships this year.
There are plenty of developments and reforms going on at the European level, as well as nationally, and it will be interesting to see how these different processes will turn out.
