Page 18 - Learning-while-working-Success-stories-on-workplace-learning-in-Europe

Learning while working
12 Success stories on workplace learning in Europe

may well increase the receptiveness and responsiveness of governments,
companies and individuals to increase skill levels to remain competitive.
Skill development is playing a considerable role in strategies for the
European Union to emerge from the economic crisis; these inevitably follow
contrasting goals in the long and the short term that may sometimes be difficult
to balance. In the short term, countries need to mitigate the most immediate
effects of the crisis through active labour-market policies. Simultaneously,
adequate resources need to be allocated to the long-term strategies that will
lay the foundations of economic growth. The funding of lifelong learning is a
crucial issue in a context where both public and private budgets are being
radically reduced. Public policies need to balance between minimising the
impact of the crisis, protecting social cohesion and the social contract between
the State and the citizen, and avoiding that present budgetary constraints
that hamper the way to future economic growth and innovation. While the
crisis has hit European economies in different ways and requires different
national strategies, Member States have defined common employment
policy goals that cannot be achieved without strong input from education and
training. This is exemplified by strategies that aim to prevent unemployment
becoming structural, aid job transitions, better match skills and jobs, better link
skills upgrading to labour market requirements and increase labour market
participation among young people, women, older workers and immigrants
(Council of the European Union, 2010).
Active labour market policies and investment in lifelong learning seem
to have contributed positively to the stimulus effort to overcome the current
economic downturn. However, having low qualification levels, many citizens
and residents of the European Union are in danger of being left behind.
Consequently, as stressed in the progress report that reviewed European
economic recovery plans, cooperation between public employment services,
the social partners and training providers is needed to align training measures
better with the changing needs of the labour market, with a particular focus
on the labour market integration of recently laid-off workers and vulnerable
groups (European Commission, 2009a). In the face of accelerating structural
changes, adult learning, in its different forms, may contribute favourably to
the employability of those who entered the labour force after having achieved
low levels of formal education, but the effects of skill development actions
will not be seen immediately.
Before the full impact of the recession, the proportion of jobs requiring
higher levels of qualification had been rising, while the proportion requiring
low or no qualifications had been steadily declining (Cedefop, 2008b; 2010a;