New Rethinking Education strategy from the Commission
Last week, on 20th November, the European Commission launched a new strategy called Rethinking Education to encourage Member States to take immediate action to ensure that young people develop the skills and competences needed by the labour market. This strategy is aimed to tackle the on-going problem of skills mismatching in Europe, where the youth unemployment figures keep rising, but at the same time over 2 million vacancies remain unfilled.
The new strategy calls for stronger focus on developing transversal skills and basic skills at all educational levels. The Commission states that to ensure that education is more relevant to the needs of students and the labour market
- assessment methods need to be adapted and modernised,
- the use of ICT and open educational resources (OER) should be scaled-up in all learning contexts,
- investment is needed to improve vocational education and training systems,
- Member States need to improve the recognition of qualifications and skills, including those gained outside of the formal education and training system,
- and teachers need to update their own skills through regular training.
The strategy also calls on Member States to strengthen links between education and employers, to bring enterprise into the classroom and to give young people a taste of employment through increased work-based learning.
