I had the great pleasure of chairing a hearing run by the Socialist and Democrats group (S&D) on Vocational Training. Alongside me for the discussion was my fellow MEP Maria Badia, who is somewhat of an expert on this issue, and Maros Sefcovic, Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Youth. The S&D group had also invited four experts from outside the EU institutions to provide specific perspectives into the issues surrounding Vocational Qualifications. Geoff Fieldsend from the UK Commission for Employment and Skills gave a very interesting speech looking at Vocational Qualifications from the perspective of the employer, while Josep Franci spoke from the point of view of the employee. Luca Scarpiello from the European Youth Forum, spoke from the point of view of the student and Dr. Dagmara Budnik from Gdansk University provided the teacher’s perspective.
It was an enlightening discussion with one of the main talking points being that the status of Vocational Qualifications across Europe is no where near high enough. Mr. Fieldsend revealed some interesting statistics about the qualities employers were particularly looking for in potential employees, and overwhelmingly it was training and skills directly relevent to the job. This has led to people who have degrees from good universities having to get further vocational qualifications in order to be competitive in the job market.
Despite this, people do not take vocational qualifications seriously enough; they are viewed by many as the “soft option”. It is time that we in the Parliament worked to change this perception. In this economic downturn, in a world of intensified global competition, with a high number of low skilled workers, and an ageing population, Vocational Education and Training can play a key role in ensuring Europe’s future competitiveness and innovation.
I will be working with my S&D colleagues to push the next Commissioner to increase funding for projects like the Leonardo da Vinci programme and generally make sure that Vocational Education and Training gets the recognition it deserves. I would like to thank all the experts that gave up their time to come and talk to us here in the European Parliament and made this event so useful and informative.
