Adopted by overwhelming majority, the opinion of the Member of Umeå Municipal Council (PES/Sweden), responds to the European Commission's comprehensive package of measures aimed at addressing three major challenges: the lack of relevant skills to match labour market needs, the insufficient transparency of skills and qualifications, and the difficulty to anticipate and forecast skills.
The Commission proposes 10 actions - to be taken forward over the next two years - to ensure that the right training, skills and support is available to people in the EU. The CoR opinion responds to the overall Communication and to 2 of the 4 actions launched so far, that is, the Recommendation on establishing a Skills Guarantee and the Recommendation on the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) for lifelong learning.
Marie-Louise Rönnmark fully supports the Commission's proposal for a Skills Guarantee, arguing that "investment in human capital should be seen as social investment, therefore, the possibility of EU co-financing – through existing or future funding programmes – will be very important". The rapporteur calls for a clear link between efforts to identify skills and subsequent educational measures in the form of personalized learning plans, arguing that such plans should be supported at local and regional level by a number of flanking measures. She argues for the full involvement of local and regional authorities, in their role as education providers, in the discussions about key competences and she supports the elaboration of comprehensive national strategies for digital skills. "Investment in digital skills is not just a matter of providing the right infrastructure; it can only be effective if there is strong pedagogical leadership from teachers at different educational levels", underscores Marie-Louise Rönnmark.
The rapporteur is in favour of reviewing the EQF and underlines the importance of skills identification, language introduction and upskilling efforts to promote integration at work and in society of recently arrived migrants, including refugees and asylum seekers. At the same time, she underlines the importance of maintaining quality assurance coordination between the Member States and a step-by-step approach for cooperation between the EU and third countries over the comparability of qualifications. The rapporteur goes a step further calling for "cooperation to be developed on the basis of partnerships between national, regional and local authorities, companies, employees and employee associations, as well as civil society players, with the aim of taking more account of skills and qualifications acquired through non-formal and informal learning".
Finally, the opinion insists that the delivery of the New Skills Agenda will depend on the upskilling of all teachers and it therefore urges Member States to properly consider support for teaching staff in their implementation plans. It also calls for investments in innovation in the sphere of education, since this is likely to facilitate the acquisition of key competences.
