The EAN has already met once on April 27-28 2017 in Brussels to exchange experiences between members and to get to know the challenges and success stories of the various national apprenticeship systems in Europe. In Malta it was time to get started with setting the agenda for the rest of the mandate and the future meetings.

The EAN is all made up nine members of different profiles who all have one thing in common – they have all been apprentices or are mandated to represent apprentices. The genesis of the EAN lies originally with the European Youth Forum (EYF) and the Organising Bureau of European School Student Unions (OBESSU). It is supported by the European Commission, following several months of discussions regarding the concept and the mandate of such a network. The idea was to provide a European overreaching platform to discuss all matters concerning apprenticeships and represent them in the absence of any other representation at EU level.

In Malta, alongside the EAfA conference, the members of the EAN were able to put their heads together and discuss future priorities for the network, coming up with the following priorities: quality education and quality assurance; rights and protection; legally binding agreements; representation; promotion of apprenticeships; anti-discrimination; and accessible information.

The goal is eventually to assist in developing structures of representation on the national, regional and local level.