For youth employment and a better prevention of radicalisation: Commission proposes to adjust ET2020 priorities
2015-09-07 12:00
Last week, the European Commission issued its draft 2015 joint Commission-Council report on the implementation of the Strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training (ET2020). The document, which still needs approval by the Council, includes readjustment proposals for ET2020 to two of the EU’s major challenges: the need to further bring down youth unemployment and the necessity to better prevent radicalisation. The CESI Youth and CESI’s Trade Council ‘Education, Training and Research’ attach great importance to the report.
The fight against youth unemployment and radicalisation of youngsters is embedded in six proposed adjusted future priorities for ET2020:
1. Relevant and high-quality skills and competences for employability, innovation, active citizenship;
2. Inclusive education, equality, non-discrimination, civic competences;
3. Open and innovative education and training, including by fully embracing the digital era;
4. Strong support for educators;
5. Transparency and recognition of skills and qualifications; and
6. Sustainable investment, performance and efficiency of education and training systems.
For the CESI Youth, the Commission’s continued commitment to combat youth unemployment with all possible means is highly encouraging. However, in the end, for the CESI Youth the preparedness of the Member States to really deepen cooperation under a re-tailored ET2020 will be decisive – this is especially true for one of the CESI Youth’s key fields of work: the proposed priority on the development of competences for active citizenship and employability. A successful adoption of the report by the Council by the end of this year would be a step forward in the successful fight against youth unemployment.
The priorities ‘Support for educators’ and ‘Inclusive education, equality and non-discrimination’ are of great importance also for CESI’s Trade Council ‘Education, Training and Research’*. This is, most notably, because both priorities can lead to positive measures in the fight against radicalisation and serve as a ‘preventive’ contribution from the education sector to this fight: As the European Commissioner for education and culture Tibor Navracsics said on the occasion of the publication of the (draft) report, the threat of radicalisation shows how urgently education prospects need to be improved across all European communities. Having recently held an event on the role of public sector workers in helping prevent and tackle radicalisation, a debate on how the education sector can contribute to preventing radicalisation and how teachers can be further trained to give their contribution in the fight against this ‘new threat’ will rank high on the agenda of the trade council’s next meeting on November 10.
To read the Commission report, follow this link. An accompanying Commission staff working document can be accessed here. For more information on ET 2020, click here.
* CESI’s Trade Council ‘Education, Training and Research’ gathers CESI’s member organisations from the education sector to deliberate and act on the improvement of working conditions of educators and trainers.
