Recent European Union policies affecting teaching in VET and VET teachers’ trainings Agnes Roman, ETUCE 17 May, 2016 Helsinki

Objectives The presentation will try to answer the following questions: - What are the latest targets of the European Union on education and training? - What does this mean to teachers unions on the EU and non-EU countries? - What are the latest objectives and policies on vocational education and training and apprenticeship? - How can these policies affect national VET reforms? - What should the teachers’ unions pay special attention to?

Main themes 1. ET2020 and European Semester recommendations 2. Riga Conclusions and European Alliance for Apprenticeship 3. Future: New Skills Agenda for Europe

1. General policy: ET2020 and European Semester recommendations

Education and Training 2020 (ET2020) targets Adopted in 2009 as targets to achieve by 2020 in the whole EU following 4 common objectives: - Making lifelong learning and mobility a reality; - Improving the quality and efficiency of education and training; - Promoting equity, social cohesion, and active citizenship; - Enhancing creativity and innovation, including entrepreneurship, at all levels of education and training. ET2020 also set up several benchmarks for education. Please check further details at: framework/index_en.htmhttp://ec.europa.eu/education/policy/strategic- framework/index_en.htm

New ET2020 targets for “Joint ET2020 Report” was adopted in November 2015 to define new goals for Why? - to fine-tune these goals in the light of the economic crisis, - terrorist attacks and increasing radicalism in Europe, - high unemployment rate in Europe, - high rate of low-skilled people, etc. Please check targets: content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.C_ ENG&toc=OJ:C:20 15:417:TOC content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.C_ ENG&toc=OJ:C:20 15:417:TOC

New ET2020 targets for The new priority areas are: 1. Relevant and high-quality knowledge, skills and competences developed throughout lifelong learning, focusing on learning outcomes for employability, innovation, active citizenship and well-being; 2. Inclusive education, equality, equity, non-discrimination and the promotion of civic competences; 3. Open and innovative education and training, including by fully embracing the digital era; 4. Strong support for teachers, trainers, school leaders and other educational staff; 5. Transparency and recognition of skills and qualifications to facilitate learning and labour mobility; 6. Sustainable investment, quality and efficiency of education and training systems.

Implementation of the ET2020 targets The implementation of these objectives and benchmarks have been going on in different ways: - Based on these objectives the EU member states define their national reform programmes; - Since 2011 the European Semester process’ Country Specific Recommendations suggest how national budgets (!) should be spent to achieve the EU2020 goals, among them, the education objectives (!).

Examples: European Semester’s Country Specific Recommendations : France, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Malta, Spain, Sweden: Improve Vocational Education and link education to labour market Croatia: mobilise the private sector to offer more apprenticeships Denmark: wider use of work-based training and apprenticeships Estonia: increase participation in vocational education and training, including in apprenticeships !!! Recommendations for will be launched: end of May, 2016 !!! ETUCE actions: - European Semester Online Platform: raising awareness to improve impact of unions - Investment in Education project: training to teachers’ unions ( ) Further information about European Semester:

2. VET policy: Riga Conclusions and European Alliance for Apprenticeship

Impact on EU and non-EU countries Copenhagen Process (2002) is an agreement of ministers aiming to improve the performance, quality and attractiveness of vocational education and training (VET) through enhanced cooperation at European level. The process is based on mutually agreed priorities that are reviewed periodically. More information: content/en/TXT/?uri=URISERV%3Aef0018http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal- content/en/TXT/?uri=URISERV%3Aef0018 Since 2002 the ministers and the EU institutions redefined the goals to achieve in VET in the frame of “communiques” every 2 years. The last one is the Bruges Communique (2010) which defined 22 short-term objectives of EU countries to be achieved by 2020: policy/doc/brugescom_en.pdf policy/doc/brugescom_en.pdf In June 2015, the EU countries and cross-sectoral social partners agreed on new goals for , called Riga Conclusions: conclusions_en.pdf conclusions_en.pdf

Goals for Europe ( Riga Conclusions) 1. Promote work-based learning in all its forms, with special attention to apprenticeships, by involving social partners, companies, chambers and VET providers, as well as by stimulating innovation and entrepreneurship. 2. Further develop quality assurance mechanisms in VET in line with the EQAVET recommendation and, as part of quality assurance systems, establish continuous information and feedback loops in I-VET and C-VET systems based on learning outcomes. 3. Enhance access to VET and qualifications for all through more flexible and permeable systems, notably by offering efficient and integrated guidance services and making available validation of non-formal and informal learning. 4. Further strengthen key competences in VET curricula and provide more effective opportunities to acquire or develop those skills through I-VET and C-VET. 5. Introduce systematic approaches to, and opportunities for, initial and continuous professional development of VET teachers, trainers and mentors in both school and work based settings.

More focus on apprenticeship since 2013 The European Alliance for Apprenticeship (EAfA) was initiated by cross-sectoral social partners and signed in 2013 aiming to bring together public authorities, businesses, social partners, VET providers, youth representatives to promote apprenticeship schemes and initiatives across Europe. The common goal is: to strengthen the quality, supply and image of apprenticeships in Europe. ETUCE and several national teachers’ trade unions are committed to the implementation: - ETUCE-EFEE pledge: the topic is in European Sectoral Social Dialogue for Education - National pledgers: MUT, Malta ; NASUWT, UK; AoB, NL; FNE, PT; SINDEP, PT; CMKOS, CZ; FLESTU, LT; OAJ, FI; UNSA-Education, FR Check their commitments:

Impact on non-EU countries (1) National policies of EU candidate, potentially candidate counties, Eastern Partnership countries and Neighborhood Countries are greatly affected by the EU2020 and ET2020 process. 1. European Training Foundation, the agency of the European Commission. It works on improving the VET systems of non-EU countries. The ETF currently works with 29 partner countries (governments and cross- sectoral social partners) From European countries they work with: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belorussia, Bosnia-Hercegovina, FYROM, Georgia, Israel, Kazahstan, Kosovo, Kyrgystan, Moldova, Montenegro, Russia, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine. More information: ETF defined specific goals on VET to achieve with these countries, which is called the Torino Process (2010): Important: they have numerous projects on VET teachers – please get in touch with them and with your general workers’ union!

Impact on non-EU countries (2) 2. Western-Balkan Platform of ministers are developing their own priorities on education and training and on VET. Western-Balkan Platform is an EU initiative for cooperation in education with Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia set up in They focus on common goals in education with special attention to teachers’ training: cooperation/western-balkans_en.htmhttp://ec.europa.eu/education/international- cooperation/western-balkans_en.htm European Semester in the Balkans (!!): In 2015 the EU, the Western Balkans and Turkey adopted joint economic policy recommendations for Enlargement countries to push competitiveness, long-term growth and structural reforms:

3. Future: New Skills Agenda for Europe

New Skills Agenda for Europe – May, 2016 A new initiative of the European Commission focusing on skills development for better employability. 3 priority areas: 1.Improving the quality and relevance of skills formation 2.Making skills and qualifications more visible and comparable 3.Improving skills intelligence and information for better career choices !!! The text has not been consulted with the governments and social partners while it will impact the education systems in Europe.

ETUCE Position: New Skills Agenda for Europe Adopted on 17 Febr. by ETUCE Bureau and consulted with ETUCE Advisory Panel Skills development means quality teaching - > how to support the status, working conditions, training of teachers? Impact of crisis on teachers matters. YES: sustainable investment to education – NO: privatization Sustainable support for NEETs, refugees, migrants, etc. Education ≠ Vocational education and training NO: Education and business partnership (see CSR Europe: European Pact for Youth) NO: employers/businesses’ role on curricula design NO: performance-based funding in VET YES: social dialogue with teacher unions

ETUCE Position: New Skills Agenda for Europe Please lobby with your government! Check: ETUCE: Teachers’ views on the New Skills Agenda for EuropeTeachers’ views on the New Skills Agenda for Europe Please also check: ETUC (General workers’ union) Position New Skills Agenda: Improving training opportunities for workers in Europe

Thank you for your attention