The dramatic figures on youth unemployment in recent years have triggered off lively debates in many European countries on the importance of vocational training for young people joining the labour market.
It is becoming increasingly clear that effective vocational training systems can make an important contribution to a successful entry into the labour market.
Many factors are crucial in this: a good, balanced relationship between imparting theoretical and practical knowledge, as well as gearing to the requirements of the world of labour, and the possibility of adapting professional profiles promptly to new circumstances. Appropriate further training of teaching staff is also very important.
One thing is quite certain, though: creating a future-oriented vocational training system is not just a task for the governments, it can only succeed if the social partners are substantially involved. It is therefore only logical that eight projects of the European Centre for Workers’ Questions (EZA) in the 2015 education and training year address the issue of effective vocational training as a task for workers’ organisations. They are a mirror image of the debates currently going on about the issue of vocational training throughout Europe. The discussions are far from over because the changes required need time. It is not easy to incorporate new ideas in education systems that have often been in place for a very long time in such a way that sustainable positive effects are created.
The EZA’s idea with this publication is to present new ideas and empirical experience from a worker’s perspective for the further development of vocational training in Europe.
The brochure is published in German, English and Polish, author is Helmut F. Skala.
