The new Skills Agenda for Europe launches a number of actions to ensure that the right training, the right skills and the right support is available to people in the European Union. It will aim at making better use of the skills that are available; equip people with the new skills that are needed – to help them find quality jobs and improve their life chances. The Commission invites Members States, social partners, the industry and other stakeholders to work together to:
- improve the quality and relevance of skills formation
- make skills more visible and comparable
- improve skills intelligence and information for better career choices
This is set out in the Communication: A New Skills Agenda for Europe – Working together to strengthen human capital, employability and competitiveness.
The Commission proposes 10 actions to be taken forward over the next two years many of which have been already identified in the commission’s report on Developing Scotland’s Young Workforce lead by Sir Ian Wood (Wood Report):
- A Skills Guarantee to help low-skilled adults acquire a minimum level of literacy, numeracy and digital skills and progress towards an upper secondary qualification.
- Making Vocational Education and Training (VET) a first choice by enhancing opportunities for VET learners to undertake a work based learning experience and promoting greater visibility of good labour market outcomes of VET.
- A review of the Recommendation on Key Competences to help more people acquire the core set of skills necessary to work and live in the 21st century with a special focus on promoting entrepreneurial and innovation-oriented mind-sets and skills.
Find out more about the report and related communications here.