EU Commission launches initiative to facilitate skills recognition across borders
The European Commission plans to launch a ‘skills portability initiative’ to make it easier to recognise competences and qualifications across the EU.
The proposal, part of a new package of measures to create a ‘Union of skills’ and improve competitiveness, was presented last week and will be discussed at the European Parliament on Wednesday.
A legislative initiative may follow “to address barriers to the mobility of workers, including in unregulated professions,” the Commission said.
The EU executive will also consider improvements to the recognition procedure for regulated professions, such as nurses, teachers, carpenters, architects, civil engineers, accountants and lawyers.
EU citizens can move freely to other EU member states, but many still struggle to have their qualifications recognised, especially in regulated professions, the European Court of Auditors warned in an assessment last year.
Regulated professions
When a country regulates a profession, citizens from other EU member states have to undergo a procedure for the recognition of their qualification according to national law. Although there is an EU directive that should facilitate the process, requirements and fees are different in each country.
According to the latest report on the functioning of the single market, EU countries regulate over 5,700 professions, representing about 22% of the labour force – a proportion that ranges from 14% in Denmark to 33% in Germany.
The number of regulated professions varies from 88 in Lithuania to 187 in the Netherlands and 415 in Hungary.
A group of European countries, including Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden has asked to remove “unjustified barriers to professional mobility” and put forward proposals to “reboot the free movement of services and professionals”. These will be discussed by ministers at the EU Competitiveness Council meeting of 12 March.
Digital credentials
The ‘skills portability initiative’ will involve the development of digital credentials that will facilitate the understanding and acceptance of qualifications across the EU.
Presenting the proposal, Roxana Mînzatu, Commission Executive Vice-President responsible for social rights said: “Here we have certain tools in place but they work with difficulty. The recognition of diplomas is always a topic, we have barriers, it takes a lot of time to have your diploma recognised. But what we propose is inspired by our dialogue with the companies, the skills-first approach.”
The ‘skills portability’ initiative “will allow an automatic recognition of the skills of workers and professionals, so it is not only about diplomas and qualifications, we are going to the level of skills,” she said.
The Commission will also explore how this could apply to citizens from outside the EU, as “the slow and inefficient recognition of qualifications of third country nationals… blocks mobility, contributes to overqualification and limits integration in the EU labour market,” the single market report noted.
“Addressing the skills and labour shortages that are holding companies back is central to a successful industrial strategy and creating quality jobs,” commented Markus J. Beyrer, director general of the industry confereration BusinessEurope.
The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), however, argued that instead of prioritising competitiveness, “the initiative should focus on securing quality jobs with fair wages and decent working conditions.”
Vocational training
Another element of the plan will the automatic recognition of study and learning periods abroad in school, vocational education and training (VET) and higher education.
“We have started the work on the higher education European degree, but we want the European VET degree, vocational and educational training, to receive special treatment. We… want to increase the attractiveness and the number of people that enter this type of education and a European VET degree is one such tool. We also will work on a European degree for engineers,” the Commissioner said.
Attracting workers
To overcome the widespread problem of labour shortages, the Commission also intends to present later this year a visa strategy “to further support the arrival of top students, trained workers, and researchers.”
“I have been talking to healthcare sector, they are telling us they need 2 million workers by 2030, the construction sector, many more millions. There is a demographic reality that tells us that we are losing active labour force due to aging, and industries need much more capacity,” Commissioner Mînzatu continued.
In addition, the Commission plans a support scheme for children and young people that struggle to acquire basic competences, focusing not only on literacy, maths and science, but also on digital and citizenship skills.
According to the Commission, 30% of 15-year-olds in the EU lack minimum proficiency in maths and 25% struggle with reading and science. The goal is to cut underachievement to less than 15% by 2030.
The Commission also wants to put in place a system for lifelong opportunities for adults, especially those affected by restructuring processes or at risk of unemployment, and to improve skills in science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM), attracting more girls and women.
Claudia Delpero, Europe Street News © all rights reserved
Image from Pixabay
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