1. Overview of the New Skills Agenda for Europe
Key elements and actions

2. Main drivers
Digital transformation
Skills mismatches (affect productivity and growth)
EU workforce ageing and shrinking
Quality of education and training varies in EU
Perceptions not rooted in reality (e.g. VET)
Importance of learning outside the formal system

3. What's new
Strong (but not exclusive) focus on low-skilled
Impact of digitisation mainstreamed across all actions
Involvement of business and trade unions key, alongside traditional education stakeholders
Relevance of sectoral dimension

4. 3 Priority Areas 10 Key Actions
I. IMPROVING THE QUALITY AND RELEVANCE OF SKILLS FORMATION
Proposal for a Skills Guarantee
Proposal for the review of the Key Competences
Proposals on making VET a first choice (e.g. revision of EQAVET and ECVET)
Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition
II. MAKING SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS MORE VISIBLE AND COMPARABLE
Proposal for the revision of the EQF
Skills Profile Tool for Third Country Nationals
III. IMPROVING SKILLS INTELLIGENCE AND INFORMATION FOR BETTER CAREER CHOICES
Proposal for the revision of the Europass Framework
Blueprint for Sectorial Cooperation on Skills
Analysis and sharing of best practice on brain drain
Proposal on Graduate Tracking
Actions in bold presented in more detail

5. DELIVERING THE AGENDA
Joint agenda for the EU, the Member States and stakeholders. Social partners: central role to play
European Semester
OECD-EU support for national skills strategies
EU funding

6. A Skills Guarantee Cooperation and Partnership
Skills assessment
Tailored E&T offer
Validation and recognition
Outreach, Guidance and Support Measures
To help low-qualified people acquire a minimum level of literacy, numeracy and digital skills and - when possible - an upper secondary education qualification (EQF 4).
Monitoring and Evaluation

7. EQF Revision Encourage use of EQF
Commitment to regular update of referencing of NQFs
Common principles for quality assurance and credit systems
Coordination with Third Countries
When applying for a job or going into education and training, people usually need to present their qualifications.
If these have been acquired in another EU Member State, differences between national systems mean that people often find it difficult to have their qualifications understood and valued by their prospective employer or education institution.
The European Qualifications Framework for lifelong learning (EQF) was created in 2008 to make it easier to understand and compare what people have actually learned ("learning outcomes") while gaining their qualification.
However, in its current setting, the benefits of EQF have not yet reached individuals and it cannot yet meaningfully support daily decisions on recruitments or access to learning.
A revised EQF would help better understanding of qualifications acquired abroad, and facilitate labour market integration of migrants, both new arrivals and those already residing in the EU.
The revision will:
seek commitment to a regular update of the comparison of national qualifications systems;
2. ensure that qualifications with an EQF level are underpinned by common principles for quality assurance, and that common principles for credit systems are used when qualifications with an EQF level are built on credits;
3. encourage the use of EQF by social partners, public employment services, education providers and public authorities to support transparency and comparison of qualifications;
4. over time and in accordance with EU international agreements, foster comparability of qualifications between the EU and Neighbourhood Countries and countries with mature qualifications frameworks.

8. Skills Tool for Third Country Nationals
Many migrants already residing in the EU, as well as a certain proportion of those recently arrived as asylum seekers, lack basic skills and have only poor knowledge of the host country language.
Among those with high skills, around two-thirds are inactive, unemployed or over-qualified for their jobs.
An early identification of migrants' skills can help determine the first steps needed for their integration into host societies and labour markets, whether by making a referral to the right training opportunity or to employment services.
To accelerate the integration of asylum seekers, refugees and other migrants, the Commission is proposing a "Skills Tool for Third Country Nationals". The kit will support early profiling of their skills and qualifications.

9. Revision of Europass
Information on skills and qualifications, including skills trends, guidance, recognition practices and information on career opportunities
Tools for documenting personal information in a variety of formats + self-assessment
The challenge for individuals is how to access and make sense of available skills intelligence in order to make more informed career choices. Equally, employers and other organisations would benefit from more efficient and effective ways of identifying and recruiting people with the right skills.
Existing EU tools for skills documentation (e.g. Europass) will be improved by being connected with available information on cross-border recognition practices, linkages of national qualifications with the European Qualifications Framework (EQF), learning and career opportunities at home and abroad and on current job vacancies (EURES).
To help people make informed career and learning choices, the Commission is proposing a revision of the Europass Framework, setting up an intuitive and seamless online service platform. It will provide web-based tools for documenting and sharing information on skills and qualifications, as well as free self-assessment tools.
3 main elements:
- Web tools
- Information
- Open standards
Open standards

10. Making VET a first choice
Revision of ECVET and EQAVET
Higher level
VET Skills
Increase work-based learning opportunities
Streamlining governance for cooperation
on VET
VET is valued for fostering job-specific and transversal skills, facilitating the transition into employment and maintaining and updating the skills of the workforce.
For too many young people and their parents, VET remains a second choice and co-ordination between labour market actors and education and training providers is too often a challenge.
VET needs to increase its attractiveness through quality provision, flexible organisation, and closer connections with business, higher education and research.
Actions:
1. Making data available on labour market outcomes of VET and increasing flexibility for VET learners will be pursued through proposed revision of the existing instruments for quality assurance and credit, in line with the revised EQF Recommendation.
2. Streamlined governance for European cooperation on VET will be pursued, with a more explicit coordination role for the Advisory Committee on Vocational Training.
3. The Commission will work together with Member States and stakeholders to define a target to ensure that a higher number of learners have the opportunity to undertake a work-based learning experience as part of their studies.
4. To showcase vocational studies as a first class option, the Commission will organise a first VET Skills Week in 2016 in co-operation with Member States, social partners and education and training providers.
VET Skills
Week
…and boost
VET mobility

11. Recent developments on Apprenticeships / EAfA
National level
3 countries with CSR 2016 on apprenticeships: FR, LV and UK
CEDEFOP thematic country reviews (done: LT, MT; on-going: EL, IT, SI)
Preparation of the Slovak DGVT/Conference with a focus on national EAfA commitments
ETF new country fiches from candidate countries - the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia will join the EAfA
Social partners
EU Social Partners (Cross-industry) adopted a Joint Statement for quality and effective apprenticeships and expressed their willingness to take further initiatives on apprenticeships
No new joint pledges from EU Social partners at sectoral level
Small increase of pledges from national social partners (currently 20)
This morning: DG MOVE Information Session with social partners/other stakeholders

12. EAfA pledges: 121 (June 2016)
Here is an overview of what he have achieved with the Alliance so far with stakeholders.
We started at the launch of the Alliance in Leipzig in 2013 with 18 pledges and we now have over 120.
In particular businesses, but also social partners are the largest supporters.
We will continue our endeavours working together with Member States and stakeholders to boost apprenticeships.
The next big EAfA event after Riga in 2015 will be under the Maltese Presidency in March 2016.
And apprenticeships and VET are continuing to feature strongly in the New European Skills Agenda, which brings me to my next point.

13. On-going/upcoming Erasmus+ funding
Overview – Call for Proposals under Key Action 3 (Support for Policy Reform):
2014: National Authorities for Apprenticeships (€ 2.3m). 10 projects selected and implementation by November 2016
2015: Support for SMEs engaging in apprenticeships (€ 8.3m). 16 projects were selected to start in September.
2016: VET-Business partnerships on WBL/Apprenticeships (€ 6m). Launch in October 2016 with a deadline of 15/01/2017 (tbc)

14. Ongoing work / upcoming events
Studies: Commission (EAfA) and Cedefop (cross-national overview)
Support of the OECD project on the costs and benefits of apprenticeships and ILO country reviews in ES, LV and PT and apprenticeship toolbox.
New concept for a set of support services
Upcoming events
14/15 September: European VET policy sharing seminar (Danish led project on a digital toolbox) followed by the 6th EAfA stakeholder meeting
29/30 September: ETF/EAfA Regional seminar for candidate countries (Kayseri, Turkey)
19/20 October: Slovak conference on EAfA commitments
21-23 November: "Policy Learning Forum" on Teachers & Trainers in the area of WBL/Apprenticeships (Cedefop, Thessaloniki) followed by a ET2020 WG meeting
8 December: 7th EAfA stakeholder meeting during the European Vocational Skills Week
…24 March 2017: Maltese Presidency event "4 years EAfA"
NEW: All meetings will allow for the reimbursements of travel costs for a limited number of participants!

15. European Alliance for Apprenticeships http://ec. europa
European Alliance for Apprenticeships EAfA newsletter: Please send an to our functional mailbox: LinkedIn  / #ApprenEU

16. Blueprint for Sectoral Cooperation on Skills
New Skills Agenda for Europe (10 June 2016)
Sectoral skills partnerships, in industry and services, will be set up at EU level and then rolled out at national (or, when relevant, regional) level to:
Improve skills intelligence and tackle skills shortages in economic sectors
Mobilise and coordinate key players

17. Objectives
Translate sectoral strategies for the next 5-10 years into identification of skills needs and development of concrete solutions, such as joint development of higher VET opportunities and business-education- research partnerships;
Support, where relevant, agreements on the recognition of sectoral qualifications and certifications;
Encourage private investment and promote more strategic use of relevant EU and national funding programmes.

18. Set-up national partnerships
Selection of sector
Set-up EU partnership
Set-up national partnerships
Objective: develop European skills strategies in key economic sectors, in a consistent and systemic way. First pilots in automotive, defence, maritime technology, space, textile and tourism
Selection of sector:
Political priority
Clear sectoral strategy
Stakeholder commitment
Set-up platforms:
Translate sectoral strategy into forecasts actions for skills and jobs
Promote relevant sectoral qualifications and certifications and their recognition
Set-up national platforms:
Fine-tune results at national/regional level
Promote business-education-research partnerships on the ground
Scale up successful practices, including use of EU funding
EU funding
(E+ Sector Skills Alliances and sectoral programmes) to support EU platforms for the first 2-3 years. After, they should become self-sustainable.

19. Implementation
Initially piloted in a demand driven process in six sectors, with preparatory work starting in 2016: automotive, maritime technology, space, defence, textile and tourism.
Additional areas (construction, steel, health, green technologies and renewable energies) will be assessed in a second wave of implementation starting as of 2017.

20. Thank you