High-level skills and mobility task force makes recommendations

A report issued in December 2001 by a European Commission-convened high-level task force on skills and mobility recommends far-reaching improvements to a range of skills and competences, in addition to the removal of a number of obstacles to labour mobility within the EU.

A high-level task force on skills and mobility was set up by the European Commission in June 2001 (EU0107225N) with the remit of looking into ways in which to increase labour market mobility within the European Union and examining how to increase the skills levels of Europe's workforce. The task force's report was published on 20 December 2001, containing a total of nine recommendations as follows:

1. all schoolchildren should learn at least two EU languages in addition to their own. The report states that it would be advantageous if one of these were English. Language acquisition should begin in primary schools, from the age of eight at the latest;

2. there should be guarantees that all EU citizens can acquire the basic skills of literacy and numeracy, in addition to information and communications technology (ICT) skills, in order to enhance their employability;

3. one-third of tertiary education should be spent in another EU Member State, and international and EU exchange programmes should be boosted in order to allow this to take place. Further, the percentage of the population with 'post-secondary levels of educational attainment' should be increased to the levels of the three best-performing EU Member States;

4. participation in lifelong learning and training programmes run by companies should be greatly increased, with an exchange of best practice at European level. Awards should be made available to companies which introduce competence development strategies;

5. the definition and development of ICT skills needs to be improved. These skills should be made more transparent and available and be backed by EU standards. Demand for these types of skills should be matched to industry requirements and the access of women to these skills and to careers in information technology should be strengthened;

6. the regulation of freedom of movement and the transferability of pensions and social security rights should be modernised by 2004. In particular, an EU social security card should be considered as this would improve access to benefits across the EU;

7. the regime for recognising regulated professions should be modernised by 2005;

8. the recognition and validation of skills, competence and experience needs to be improved by, for example, the development of European standards for valuing non-formal learning; and

9. a 'one-stop' European mobility information site should be set up by 2002 in order to provide information to EU citizens on key aspects of jobs, mobility, learning opportunities and rights for mobile citizens.

The employment and social policy Commissioner, Anna Diamantopoulou, has welcomed this report: 'At present, EU citizens find it too hard, too often when they try to move between jobs and between countries. The skills gap is a major culprit in this, but there is a potent cocktail of factors at play. No wonder some people think the EU is just a figment of someone's imagination and little use to them when it matters for their job. The Commission's aim is to push for open and accessible EU-wide labour markets by 2005.' The Commission will, on the basis of this report, present an action plan to the spring European Council meeting to be held in Barcelona in March 2002.