Meeting of the ETS Working Group Luxembourg 19-20 June 2013 Recent developments on education and training policies in the European Union Kjartan Steffensen European Commission, DG Education and Culture

Outline Priority areas Recent Council Conclusions European Semester 2014 and CSRs ET2020 mid-term stocktaking and review of our framework of indicators and benchmarks State-of-play EQF implementation

Priority areas Education investment, Economic case for education Vocational education and training Entrepreneurship in education Opening up Education through new technology Teachers European Area of Skills and Qualifications New Commission, ET2020 and Europe 2020 review => priorities may change in the coming year

Recent Council Conclusions 24 Feb: Efficient and innovative education and training to invest in skills – supporting the 2014 European semester 20 May: Promoting youth entrepreneurship to foster social inclusion of young people Effective teacher education Multilingualism and the development of language competences

Multilingualism conclusions… INVITES THE COMMISSION TO   1.Explore the feasibility of assessing language competences in the Member States, including by using national data where available, with the support of a group composed of experts from the Member States and in cooperation with the Standing Group on Indicators and Benchmarks. 2.Explore with the Member States and Eurostat, within the framework of the European Statistical System and with a view to improving comparability, ways of complementing existing EU data on the number of pupils in secondary education who are studying a third language in line with the ambitions of the Barcelona objective and the ET 2020 framework.

European Semester 2014 and CSRs

Schools ESL Teachers ECEC Disadvantaged HE VET/ Apprenticeships   ESL Teachers ECEC Disadvantaged HE VET/ Apprenticeships Youth Guarantee LLL/ Adult Skills Funding AT X BE BG CY CZ DE DK EE EL ES FI FR HR HU IE IT LT LU LV MT NL PL PT RO SE SI SK UK TOTAL 15 8 3 11 10 22 17

ET 2020 mid-term stocktaking

ET 2020 BASICS May 2009: Council Conclusions Four Strategic Objectives Priority Areas for each 3-year work cycle European benchmarks Open Method of Coordination (OMC)

ET 2020 JOINT REPORT At end each 3-year ET 2020 work-cycle: Joint Report Council-Commission Evaluating progress Forward-looking: identifying Priority Areas for next work-cycle

ROLE of STOCKTAKING Education Council Conclusions (24/02/2014): "the mid-term stocktaking exercise [is] to help prepare the next draft Joint Report, with a more forward-looking focus which identifies key priority areas and concrete issues for future work"

GOALS of STOCKTAKING Optimise added value & effectiveness of ET 2020 and its underlying governance and working arrangements Optimise ET 2020 contribution to EU's Growth & Jobs Strategy Help identify new Priority Areas

CONTRIBUTIONS to STOCKTAKING ET 2020 National Reports Input ET 2020 actors (DG meetings, HLG, SGIB etc. ) Input stakeholders (ETY Forum) Input European social partners Independent evaluation ET 2020 Study good OMC pratices Commission's own critical reflection

THREE GUIDING QUESTIONS ET 2020 strategic objectives & priority areas: Updating objectives? Enhancing their operational nature? ET 2020 contribution to Europe 2020: How to enhance the link? ET 2020 governance & tools (incl. reporting): What simplifications, innovations, alternatives?

After Summer 2014: integration of other contributing elements FOLLOW-UP Synthesis of HLG/DG input will set main orientation for the Joint Report After Summer 2014: integration of other contributing elements Mar. 2015: new COM adopts draft JR May/Jun 2015: Council adopts JR

Reflection on the future work on indicators and benchmarks

In 2007, the Council adopted a framework of 16 core indicators Participation in pre-school education Special needs education Early school leavers Literacy in reading, maths and science Language skills ICT skills Civic skills Learning to learn Upper secondary attainment of young people Professional development of teachers and trainers Higher education graduates Cross-national mobility of students Participation of adults in lifelong learning Adults’ skills Educational attainment of the population Investment in education and training OECD strengths – recognised methodological and analytical expertise EU strengths – policy dialogue and monitoring processes involving MS and other stakeholders, budget

The Council conclusions of 12 May 2009 (ET2020) invited the Commission to: “...work with the Member States to examine how to improve existing indicators (…) and report back to the Council (…) on the extent to which the coherent framework of indicators and benchmarks adopted by the Council in May 2007 might be adjusted, so as to ensure its coherence with the strategic objectives under this framework.” OECD strengths – recognised methodological and analytical expertise EU strengths – policy dialogue and monitoring processes involving MS and other stakeholders, budget

Need for further reflection A proposal for revisions to the framework was put forward in 2011, but not discussed further at Council level at the time of the 2012 Joint Report New policy developments: Country Specific Recommendations in the framework of Europe 2020/European Semester Communication on Rethinking Education Better Knowledge of Education and Training Systems: DG EAC analysis of information needs and existing gaps Incorporating the approach of the Joint Assessment Framework as the methodology for monitoring indicators and benchmarks OECD strengths – recognised methodological and analytical expertise EU strengths – policy dialogue and monitoring processes involving MS and other stakeholders, budget

… as part of the Stocktaking of ET2020 Define future priorities and propose a revised framework of indicators and benchmarks Propose a rationalisation of existing indicator expert groups Part of overall effort to optimise work under the Open Method of Coordination => feeds into Stocktaking of ET 2020 OECD strengths – recognised methodological and analytical expertise EU strengths – policy dialogue and monitoring processes involving MS and other stakeholders, budget

Proposed priority indicator areas The Europe 2020 targets/ ET 2020 benchmarks - Improvements to the Adult LLL benchmark? Additional indicator areas: Language skills Adult skills Educational attainment of the population Teachers and trainers Investment in education and training ICT in education Entrepreneurship education and competence VET OECD strengths – recognised methodological and analytical expertise EU strengths – policy dialogue and monitoring processes involving MS and other stakeholders, budget

Proposed areas to be given less priority in the work on indicators Special needs education Proposal to leave further indicator development to the initiative of Eurostat and EADSNE Civic skills Conclude the work of the existing expert group, and prepare the ground for ICCS 2016 Thematically, the area will still be followed by DG EAC, including cooperation with the Council of Europe Learning to learn and creativity Balance with the priority given to work on indicators on entrepreneurship education and competences OECD strengths – recognised methodological and analytical expertise EU strengths – policy dialogue and monitoring processes involving MS and other stakeholders, budget

Reducing the no. of expert groups OECD strengths – recognised methodological and analytical expertise EU strengths – policy dialogue and monitoring processes involving MS and other stakeholders, budget

State-of-play of EQF implementation National Qualification Frameworks referenced to the EQF? Countries Completed 22 countries: AT, BE-fl, BE-fr, BG, CZ, DE, DK, EE, FR, HR, IE, IT, LT, LU, LV, MT, NL, PL, PT, SI, UK; + IS, NO To be completed by end 2014 7 countries: CY, EL, ES, HU, RO, SE,+ ME To be completed in 2015 4 countries: FI, SK + MK, TR Implementation of EQF in documents and national qualifications databases EQF level in new certificates, diplomas 6 countries: CZ, DE, DK, LT, MT, PT EQF level in Europass supplements (Certificate Supplements and Diploma Supplements) 8 countries: CZ (cs), DE (ds), DK (cs, ds), EE (ds), FR (cs), IE (ds, cs), LT (ds), MT (ds) EQF level in national qualifications databases 5 countries: CZ, DK, FR, LT, UK

For more information http://ec.europa.eu/education/index_en.htm