James Calleja, the new head of the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop), demands a departure from the fixation on a university course as an ideal of education and professional training: "Statistics reveal that for 40 per cent of a cohort, learning by doing usually is the best way", he says. The dual system of vocational education and training following the German model offers great opportunities for the employment markets and thus also for the unemployed in Southern Europe.
With advice and expertise, his agency wants to counsel the European Union (EU) countries in their implementation of EU strategies against youth unemployment and corresponding efforts of getting people into employment. "Not all Member States fly at the same altitude in their implementation", he says. "Also, some seem to be still stuck on the runway."
Even though the economy in Southern Europe begins to recover, the youth unemployment rate remains high; in Greece it is at about 60 per cent. Since last year (2013), the EU therefore provides all school graduates with a "youth guarantee": the guarantee that they will be placed in an apprenticeship or continuing education programme or will find employment within months.
2014 will be the year in which it will be proven whether this guarantee holds: by end of December, those EU countries where the youth unemployment rate is above 25 per cent had to submit an action plan. Calleja demands to follow up the words with action: "The EU funds constitute a considerable contribution and will accelerate the vocational education and training provision for young people", he says.
Training system in Germany is not a blueprint but an inspiration
Can one simply promise jobs? What is missing in order to transform this guarantee into a helpful instrument? "Vocational education and apprenticeship training reform is an important step", says Calleja. If this takes place, then Calleja has hope: "I am sure that by 2016 youth unemployment in particular will decrease and that the current reforms will have a sustainably positive effect."
"The dual vocational education and training system in Germany is not a blueprint for every country, but it certainly is an inspiration", says Calleja. In Greece, for instance, a dual vocational education and training course in the field of gastronomy was launched in December. A year ago, Spain, Portugal and Latvia have likewise entered into the obligation of introducing in their countries an in-company vocational training provision. "This was important", says Calleja, an education expert from Malta, who was called to preside over the Cedefop last autumn.
Indeed, the situation in all those countries as well as worldwide, "for example in South Korea", reveals that a large number of university graduates alone does not constitute a recipe against youth unemployment, says Calleja. Even though the demand for employees with higher educational attainments quickly increased in Europe, the following applies: "Statistics reveal that the highest degree of demand is for employees with middle qualification levels", he says. "So today we have to direct the people to where this demand exists", he says.
Calleja views the lack of reputation of occupations requiring vocational education and training as one obstacle for those countries in Southern Europe that are most affected by youth unemployment. "In some countries, an apprenticeship has a bad image both with young people and their families. In some countries this is the challenge that must be mastered."
Most definitely, this applies to Greece, where Calleja's agency is headquartered. Trade union official Christos Goulas confirms: "Somebody embarking on an apprenticeship is seen as a loser, as somebody who did not make it to university."
Yet not only does a university degree fail to guarantee a job, but it also does not constitute a proof of actual education. The education study Piaac - apostrophised as Pisa for adults - from last October shows that skills and competences do not always correlate with a formal path of education.
The study measured the knowledge of adults worldwide regarding basic educational categories. In some EU countries, the reading, writing and arithmetic skills of university graduates were below those of graduates of a vocational education and training programme.
In 2025, only ten per cent of jobs will not require any qualification
Calleja draws two conclusions from this study. To begin with: Europe has to place more value on educational content than on form and institution. "In the European Qualifications Framework, the German master craftsman degree has been classified on par with a Bachelor degree", that is on level 6 of the eight-level EU Qualifications Framework. "This is an example, which others should follow."
The gratifying situation on the German employment market does not causally depend alone on the dual system of vocational education and training. "The low rate of unemployment in Germany is due to the better economic performance, yet this is in turn supported by the availability of a well-trained workforce. And this is in turn a consequence of the good vocational education and training system."
The second conclusion from the Piaac study targets an even earlier phase: Those who have not learned the basic skills and competences at school, will find it very difficult to learn them later on. "It must be avoided that people in Europe complete their compulsory schooling without knowing how to read and write and how to use a computer", says Calleja. "We cannot afford this."
Cedefop figures prove that young people with a vocational education and training degree in Spain, Portugal and Ireland remain below the OECD country average regarding their reading and writing skills. Yet also in Germany there are adults who remain illiterate in spite of an apprenticeship. For which jobs can these people be considered?
"In 2025, only ten per cent of jobs will not require any qualification. And those will be jobs that nobody likes doing", says Calleja. "The problem with this is: even today, we do not have sufficient numbers of people with sufficient qualifications for jobs requiring a medium qualification level."