EMPL

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Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL):

Mitigating skills and qualification mismatch with Europe‘s labour market requirements: how can Europe best satisfy the demands of its employers and future employees in order to improve the employability and prospects of younger generations?

Committee Article

The labour market is begging for our attention, especially for youngsters like us that will indeed be confronted with its problems in a few years from now if we do not start thinking about solutions. Not only is Europe facing the challenges of an ageing generation, at the same time youth unemployment in the EU has hit a historic high and these demographic changes point us towards structural problems in the labour market. It is only right that we think about the future of the labour market in the light of developments herein. Thus, when looking at the demands of future employers and employees, our response should take into account future supply and demand for skills, as well as the developments on the labour market, such as new areas of interest; the ICT sector, health care and green economy, to name a few. Moreover, is the employability of youngsters a challenge we can and have to face with education, training or should we rather look into dual education? How can the labour market make space for its older workers as well as youngsters, once they have gained the skills needed? Lastly, we should ask ourselves what has already been done on both an EU level and national level and what we can do with the European Commission’s “Agenda for New Skills and Jobs” that is set to improve the EU’s employment’s target of 75% in 2020.

Links:

  • The homepage of the European Commissions’ “Agenda for New Skills and Jobs” lists what the problem and challenges are and allows you to continue to learn more about the topic: http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=en&catId=958
  • The “EU Skills Panorama” looks into tackling skills mismatches on the labour market and combines both European and national research findings on skills and jobs: http://euskillspanorama.ec.europa.eu/
  • Remarks by Mr. Rehn, vice-president of the European Commission on the “Annual Growth Survey” (please also refer to the Survey itself): http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_SPEECH-13-101_en.htm

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