Priority Area 9 “To Invest in People and Skills”

Roland Hanak, PAC 9,

At The SEEMIG Inter-Project Event

Vienna, 12 February 2013

Participating States & Regions

PA 9: „To Invest in People and Skills“

Overview 1

• A population of 110 million live in the Danube Region

• 80% of the European Roma population live in the area

• Every citizen should benefit from economic and technological developments

• Education and employment guarantee participation in both prosperity and social development, which is key for prosperity, wealth and operational markets

• More inclusive educational systems and employment participation are both crucial factors for successful career prospects, which is especially important for Non EU-Member-States in the Danube Region

• In the European context, States of the region with an improved educational and qualificational system are better partners and better markets

• A bottom-up approach has been started regarding the identification of ongoing and future projects. Criteria are being set, and targets comply with the targets of the Action Plan

• Three meetings of the Steering Group of Priority Area 9 have already taken place with 8 participants from EU Member States and 6 Non-EU-Member-States, DG Regio, DG Empl DG EAC and the European Training Foundation

• A Stakeholder Confernce has been taken place in Vienna with 160 people participating; 8 Working Groups have been founded

• Working Groups are continuing their agenda this fall

• Annual Conference of DRS and Forth Steering Group Meeting in 11/2012

PA 9: „To Invest in People and Skills“

Overview 2

The strategy addresses these various topics through

4 pillars

11 priority areas,

and of course actions and projects

EU STRATEGY FOR THE DANUBE REGION (EUSDR) | www.danube-region.eu

EU STRATEGY FOR THE DANUBE REGION (EUSDR) | www.danube-region.eu

Priority Area Countries in charge of coordination

P1 | Mobility and intermodality Inland waterways: Austria, RomaniaRail, road and air: Slovenia, Serbia

P2 | More sustainable energy Hungary, Czech Republic

P3 | Culture and tourism, people to people Bulgaria, Romania

P4 | Water Quality Hungary, Slovakia

P5 | Environmental risks Hungary, Romania

P6 | Biodiversity, landscapes, quality of air and soils

Germany (Bavaria), Croatia

P7 | Knowledge society (research, education and ICT)

Slovakia, Serbia

P8 | Competitiveness of enterprises Germany (Baden-Württemberg), Croatia

P9 | People and skills Austria, Moldova

P10 | Institutional capacity and cooperation Austria (Vienna), Slovenia

P11 | Security and organised crime Germany, Bulgaria

PA 9 Network

Stakeholder Participation

PA 9 Steering Group

PAC + EC + DRC Representatives

PAC 9

AT+MD

EC

DG RegioEU 27 HLG

EUSDR PACs + NCPs

Horizontal coordination

Coordination

Strategic guidance

Coordination

Coordination Reporting

What: Coordination

Who: AT BMASK Hanak, AT BMUKK Schick, MD

Punga

What: Inform and involve, Feedback and

guidance, Strategic development; Identification

of projects

How: 2 regular meetings per year + electronic

consultation

Regional

networks,

International

organisations,

expertsWho: all relevant stakeholders

What: Information, Feedback, Generation of

projects, Networking, Partner search

How: Via annual „People and Skills Forum“

and web-based interaction

Exchange and

coordination

Ad hoc and Permanent Thematic

Working Groups (installed by PAC

upon recommendation/decision by

SG)

Implementation of the Action Plan

(Identification and coordination of projects)

Action 1

Action 2

Action 3

Action 6

Action 4

Action 7

Action 5

Interact

LabGroup

@ Web-based platform

Action 8

Funding possibilities

(e.g. EFRE, IPA, ENPI, PROGRESS,

LLP, EIB, Foundations, national

funding etc.)

Danube Region Strategy

Priority Area 9

„To Invest in People and Skills“

- Action Plan -

Actions 2, 6, 7, 8

Coordinated by the Federal Minsitry of Labour, Social Affairs Consumer

Protection, Austria

Action 2: To foster cooperation between key stakeholders of

labour market, education and research policies in order to

develop learning regions and environments

• new forms of partnerships between key stakeholders

are needed

• employers have to identify knowledge, skills and

competences needed in working life

• Project: Reinforce the Danube Region labour market

in context of EU-Labour - aims to build on existing

bilateral cooperation projects

• Project: To develop joint Danube labour market

statistics - inclusion of Non-EU Member States

Action 6: To improve cross-sector policy coordination to adress

demographic and migration challenges

• Develop knowledge on migration flows and demographic

change

• Develop cooperation of different policies at all levels of

governance

• Cross-sector policy coordination between government

departments, education authorities, social and healthcare

services, cultural policy, housing and spatial planing, asylum

and immigration services

• Dialogue with civil society

• Cooperation with existing organisations

• Project: Central Europe Ageing Platform

Action 7: To fight poverty and social exclusion of marginalised

communities in the Danube Region, especially the Roma communities

• Specific focus on empowering particular groups on risk of poverty

• Ensuring access and opportunities for all

• Most vulnurable groups: Children, old people, mentally and physically disabled, immigrants, homeless, marginalised

ethnic groups

• Roma communities need special attention

• Integrated approach of complementing measures

• Project: To improve the living conditions of Roma

communities

• Project: To implement the Roma dialog with Non-Roma

Action 8: To promote gender equality on the

labour market, especially in payment

• Equality between women and men is one of the European

Union´s founding principles

• Principle of equal pax for equal work dates back to 1957, part

of the Treaty of Rome

• To create equal opportunities: Overcome Discrimination,

educational stereotypes, labour market segregation,

precarious employment conditions, involuntary part-time

work, unbalances sharing of care responsibilities with men

• Discrimination against female employees with regard to wage

level is imminent

• Gender Pay Gap in EU 17,8% average, some around 30%

Danube Region Strategy

Priority Area 9

„To Invest in People and Skills“

- Action Plan -

Actions 1, 3, 4, 5

Coordinated by the Federal Minsitry of Education, Arts and Culture,

Austria

Action 1: To enhance performance of education systems

through closer cooperation of education institutions,

systems and policies

� Fostering efficency, innovation and good governance in education and training to tackle challenges posed by globalisation, demographic changes, technological developments, pressure on budgets

� Evidence-based policy making, strategy formation, policy action, researchon economics of education

� Exchange of best practices of different education systems, transnational cooperation, joint development of programmes and materials, promotion of research on the economics of education, peer learning, capacity building etc.

� Added value lies in the inclusion of third countries and best use should be made of already existing programmes and cooperation structures

� Examples of projects: � To support sustainable education reforms: CECE, ERI SEE

� To strengthen school networks: ACES

� Task Force BHC Cluster on Evidence Based Policy Making in Education (Lead: Serbia)

Action 3: To support creativity and entrepreneurship

� Fostering entrepreneurship and creativity as a prerequisite for

Europe‘s competitiveness

� Innovative teaching methods to support creativity and

entrepreneurship on all different levels of education

� Promotion of intercultural dialogue

� Language training

� Making use of linguistic and cultural diversity in the Danube Region

� Examples of projects:

� Activities could build upon ECO NET – South East European Network of Training

Firms for the promotion of Entrepreneurship Education in SEE (implementing

organisation: KulturKontakt Austria, funding: ADA, BMUKK)

� Use synergies between education and culture

� Address issues of building capacities for innovation

� Development and implementation of comprehensive LLL-strategies as a priority for the development of knowledge societies

� Making LLL strategies effective

� Increasing the impact of LLL-strategies on individual learners

� Institutional capacity building of LLL-bodies for implementing the policies

� Better co-operation and co-ordination on the development of National Qualification Frameworks

� Support of Non-EU MS for the development of National Qualification Frameworks (in coordination with ETF)

� Example of project: � To enhance capacities of key stakeholders in education, science and research (Mobility Programme for Capacity-Building

of the Task Force for Fostering and Building Human Capital)

� ERI SEE and TF contribute to mutual policy learning through NQF Cluster (Lead: Croatia)

• ERI SEE through VET development, through enhanced institutional cooperation in VET – network of VET centers SEEVET-Net

• ERI SEE / TF Cluster on VET (Lead: Romania)

• CECE LLP Project on School leadership to improve the development and implementation of LLL

Action 4: To support Life Long Learning (LLL) and expand

learning mobility

• Education and training systems should enable individuals

to aquire and develope skills and competences required

for their employability and to foster tolerance,

intercultural dialoge and non-discrimination

• Equal opportunities in learning con contribute to social

inclusion of individuals from minorities and vulnerable

groups and active citizenship

• Barriers for drop-outs to return to education and training

need to be

• Mutual learning on best practices should be deveoped

Action 5: To promote equity, social cohesion and active

citizenship through education and training

Targets and Challenges

• Policies in the fields of education, labour market, research and innovation should be mutually reinforcing.

• Prominence should be given to the empowerment of people and capacity building on all levels, whether individual, organisational, regional, national or macro-regional.

• It should include developing key competencies and organisational skills, promotion of innovative partnerships, and governance in the regional/ national context.

• Integration and further development of existing regional co-operations, networks and initiatives

• Further development of the actions for common catalogues of measures of the participating countries („ownership“)

• Use of synergies at the interfaces of education and culture („creative partnerships“)

• Provision of ressources – complexity of programmes (small project fund?)

THANK YOU FOR YOUR

ATTENTION!