Conference onA Europe of talents:

giving new impetus to skills acquisition through mobility for apprentices

2 June 2015, 10.00 a.m. – 5 p.m.

EVENT REPORT

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OPENING

Henri Malosse, President of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) opened the event, pointing out that this conference has a potential to turn into concrete improvements of mobility schemes for apprentices, which can give to citizens optimism and hope. He proposed that the EESC supports Mr Arthuis’ project on mobility for apprentices.

Jean Arthuis, Chair of the Committee on Budgets of the European Parliament addressed the public on behalf of a group of MEPs representing most of Europe's regions and belonging to the Parliament's various political groups. He announced that the MEPs intend to table a pilot project to promote apprenticeships and mobility of apprentices, on the model of the mobility of Erasmus university students. It is true that apprentices can already benefit from work experience outside their home countries thanks to the Erasmus+ programme. But these are brief periods and without long-term immersion the benefits, both professional and linguistic, are too slight. Moreover, employers and placement or apprenticeship supervisors are reluctant to allow young people to leave their company when they still have to pay them during their absence. There are also questions of accident insurance, social security, recognition of diplomas, and rules relating to working time and the degree of danger of the machinery used. All these hurdles and impediments must be identified and studied.

Therefore, the pilot project’s idea is to map out the situation as it stands and identify current practices, especially in border areas (between Saarland and Lorraine, Alsace and Baden-Württemberg), so that experiments can first be carried out and then assessed after the first year. At the same time, there will be a legal scrutiny of national laws with a view to bringing them into line with one another. This examination will cover skills recognition, validation and equivalence of qualifications, insurance schemes, conditions in the training institutions and contractual relations between young people and businesses.

The pilot project would use two delivery systems: mobility and a single regulatory framework covering all the EU's twenty-eight Member States.

Christa Schweng, President of the Labour Market Observatory of the European Economic and Social Committee agreed that dual education systems could usefully be complemented by mobility both to make apprenticeships generally more attractive and to increase the likelihood of young people finding a job. A period spent abroad gives apprentices fresh work experience, teaches them new techniques and improves their language skills. However, there are many challenges: dual education means different things in different countries; there are huge differences among Member States as regards the time spent by youngsters at workplace and in the classroom; the apprenticeship contract is concluded between the apprentice and the employer in some countries and between the apprentice and the educational establishment in others; the role of chambers of commerce is different under each national system: in some countries they share responsibility for the whole vocational training system, in others they manage the matching of young people with employers, and in a few countries they are in charge of examinations and organising apprenticeship contracts. The mobility of apprentices is usually limited to a short period, chiefly due to their age – many are still minors – and lack of language skills, but also to persisting problems with recognition of qualifications (credit points under the ECVET – European Credit System for Vocational Education and Training).

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PANEL 1 – APPRENTICESHIPS AND MOBILITYWHAT DIFFERENT APPRENTICESHIP-TYPE SCHEMES ARE CURRENTLY AVAILABLE?WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF APPRENTICESHIP MOBILITY FOR INDIVIDUALS AND

COMPANIES?

Quentin Dickinson from Radio France introduced the topic and speakers. He pointed out that it is important to recognise difficulties related to apprenticeship mobility, such as the too short duration of the stay, the difficulty to recognise the value of the stay abroad and the credits.

Jean-Claude Bellanger from the Compagnons du devoir crafts guild presented the activities of his organisation that offers six years tour de France including one year international mobility. Going abroad is very advantageous for young persons, because they learn another language and get familiar with going abroad. 30 % set up their own business within 3 years.

Joachim James Calleja, Director of the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP) started his speech by recalling the appalling reality of 58 % of unemployed youth in Thessaloniki, where the agency is located. He also mentioned results of a recent survey of 49 000 adult workers, which show serious problems regarding over-qualification for the jobs, qualifications mismatches, lack of lifelong learning and of work based learning. It is urgent that Member States narrow the gap between education and work and put in place a real dialogue between those two words.

Apprenticeships can be an answer to the lack of link between education and workplace. There has to be a certain level of harmonisation between national apprenticeship systems. That does not mean making all the systems similar, but the systems have to read each other – as it is the case in higher education, under the Bologna process – the all should lead to recognised qualifications, linked to a national qualifications framework. Serious campaigns are needed to improve VET image so that parents consider it as a valid option for their children. Finally, Mr Calleja also talked about his agency’s current work on reviews of apprenticeship models in Malta, Lithuania, Italy, Slovenia and Greece.

Julien Louis Achille, French apprentice explained his experience with apprenticeship and mobility. Although he had a sociology diploma, he preferred to learn a manual work and joined the Compagnons du Devoir. He carried out a 2 years apprenticeship in Belgium and also spent 2 weeks in Italy. Julien Louis Achille explained some of the difficulties he had to face, such as the non-recognition of the qualification acquired in Belgium by France and the insufficient salary he received as apprentice in Belgium.

Anna Sauruck, Austrian apprentice explained her one month experience as apprentice in a travel agency in Italy. She found that the time spent in Italy was too short and regretted that she was informed about that possibility at a very late stage in her studies.

During the lively debate that followed, participants spoke about issues such as: lifelong learning, current skepticism in some countries about mobility of workers, European citizenship feeling, social security for apprentices when they are mobile, the need of legal frameworks, recognition frameworks for apprenticeships, creating a positive image of VET and the need for increased funding and for including handicapped people.

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Several speakers agreed on the important role of business world and of social partners regarding VET. Companies, in particular multinationals, have a big responsibility and bear costs for training young people; many of them consider this as an investment in workforce.

Mr Calleja pointed out that in many EU countries there is still no apprenticeship culture and that you first need strong apprenticeship systems with an attractive image and credit systems and then mobility will be able to become a reality. Mr Arthuis added that at the moment, apprentices from countries with a less developed apprenticeship system could go to countries where there are more places for apprentices; that possibility of mobility could contribute to improve apprenticeship’s image in their origin countries. They both agreed on the fact that a real work programme could be injected into the Alliance for apprenticeships to improve VET and mobility.

PANEL 2 – UPDATE ON APPRENTICESHIP MOBILITY IN THE EU

WHAT INSTRUMENTS EXIST TO ENCOURAGE APPRENTICESHIP MOBILITY? ARE THEY USED ADEQUATELY? WHAT ARE THE REMAINING CHALLENGES FOR APPRENTICESHIP MOBILITY

AND WHAT BEST PRACTICES CAN BE ADOPTED?

Christa Schweng introduced the panellists.

Doede Ackers from the European Commission gave a short overview of the existing instruments for apprenticeship mobility, their implementation and remaining challenges.

EC’s focus is on improving the supply and the quality of apprentices. There should be appropriate cooperation mechanisms between relevant stakeholders at local, regional and national level. The right framework and resources in sending and host countries have to be put in place to improve mobility of apprentices. In this field, the Commission wants to make the best of existing instruments and is ready to examine new projects such as the one presented by Mr Arthuis. Regarding the current tools:

- The Youth Guarantee: in their implementation plans, most Member States did not introduce new instruments but referred to already existing mechanisms, sucha s Erasmus + or the Eures Network. The challenge lies in the implementation, and there is a slowdown in the apprenticeship offers.

- The Erasmus + programme: the ambitious target of funding 650 000 trainings in VET was set and this possibility should be used as much as possible. The issue is about the duration of the learning experience abroad: under Erasmus +, the duration of the stay abroad can be from 2 weeks to one year. Employers are reluctant to lose apprentices for one year, and experience shows that a mobility experience of 3-4 months is sufficient.

- The European Alliance for apprenticeships: its key objectives are to increase the supply, quality and image of apprenticeships, but the current pledges are rather general and there are not enough commitments from companies. The Commission wants to reboost the Alliance and get more employers on board.

- Your first Eures job: the idea was to help young people to find a job in another country, but at Council’s request, the Commission is also supporting apprenticeship placements for young people. However, there are some implementation challenges and the first lessons learned are that

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young people need more support and mentoring and that mobility projects need to be done in a broader framework, in a programme logic, and not for a specific need, that can quickly change.

Finally, Mr Achers mentioned some new projects:- a project done on the model of the successful example of the German mobility project MobiPro:

its idea is about bringing apprentices from various countries (Spain, Portugal, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy) to Germany

- a mobility scoreboard done by the EC and CEDEFOP to identify nature of bottlenecks in Member States.

Stefano Tirati, from EuropeMobility presented the network, a community of 31 countries, 314 members in the portal, which gave opportunities to almost 700 000 learners among whom 19 425 mobile learners. He pointed out that there are different target groups (students, apprentices, young entrepreneurs…) who need targeted solutions and an inclusive approach. Mr Tirati spoke about the activities that they carry out, raising awareness among youngsters and peer learning. There are many funds available (ESF, regional / national funds, private initiatives…) but the funding allocated for each experience has not increased. Challenges also exist in terms of quality of mobility experiences, transparency and recognition, cooperation between relevant actors. Apprentices present peculiarities related to their age, autonomy, language skills, and technical skills and need specific support. Focus is on apprentices but Mr Tirati found it very important and urgent to further support host organisations and companies - 90 % of them are SMEs that are not structured to manage mobility. Regarding the issue of the duration of mobility experience, Mr Tirati considered that a very short mobility does not allow youngsters to learn enough.

The next speaker was Sabine Weger who spoke on behalf of the French Permanent Assembly of the Chamber of Trades and Crafts and the European Association of Craft, Small & Medium-sized Enterprises (UEAPME). She presented the EuroApprenticeship network that includes 100 apprenticeship centres and provides mobility for both young people and teachers. The network’s objectives are to establish links and peer learning, promote hosting apprentices as well as transparency and recognition of qualifications. Increasing mutual confidence and cooperation between stakeholders are crucial. The network promotes a label for companies that establish specific criteria for firms which provide a certain learning experience and particularly support apprentices.

Ms Weger finally spoke about a few concrete improvements that are needed: simplification of EU programmes such as Erasmus+, which should also better take into account specificities of apprentices, better funding for language training, simplification of the funding and better complementary between the numerous funds available.

Paul Rübig, Member of the European Parliament pointed out that in the apprenticeship field, a cooperation between the Parliament and the EESC is important and constitutes a strong signal for action for young unemployed people.

He talked about the usefulness of apprentices for young people, including migrants. Exchanges between older people and younger people can be very valuable and women should more encouraged to train in technology. Mr Rübig also gave examples of exchanges of apprentices between Austria and France, financed by companies.

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During the debate that followed, participants spoke about various issues, such as the need for more simplicity and for raising awareness on mobility for apprentices.

Géraldine Béalu, Vice-President of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council Pays de la Loire and elected member of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Maine et Loire presented her region in which there are 27 000 apprentices, out of which 4000 have benefitted from mobility. She showed a video with testimonies from young apprentices and presented the conclusions of the European Forum of apprenticeship that was held in Nantes in February 2015: - improve funding of mobility through sponsoring, specific bank solutions for apprentices, crossed

partnerships between 2training centres or companies;- ensuring an equality between apprentices and students as regards mobility, by increasing duration

of mobility for apprentices and a tax relief on companies that host apprentices from other countries;

- raising awareness on the value of experiences abroad, establishing communities to help young apprentices, create apprenticeship passports, giving a regional award, putting in place “mobile enterprises” labels, ensuring that diplomas are recognised by both sending and host Member States.

Finally, Ms Béalu also mentioned the specific recommendations of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Maine et Loire:- improve funding: enhance EU, national and regional policies to increase mobility;- value mobility of apprentices and increase its attractiveness (recognize mobility’s value and the

skills acquired, putting in place ambassadors for mobility and an apprenticeship passport);- ensure the same conditions for apprentices and university students under Erasmus + (language

training for apprentices);- improve hosting of apprentices by companies, in France and other countries.

Audrey Noble from the Plastics federation presented the Europlastic apprentices mobility programme that exists between France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Italy and Spain. She pointed out some lessons learned in the plastics sector:- sometimes apprentices do not behave well in the host company; therefore, only the ones who are

genuinely motivated are now selected to go abroad and the mobility is seen as a bonus of the apprenticeship;

- companies have difficulties to leave their apprentice go abroad for longer durations. If the sending company received the equivalent salary from the host company, the problem is that there are big differences between the salaries practiced in Eastern / Central Europe and France;

- EU finds are difficult to access, so organisations prefer to access regional funds.

Antoine Godbert, Director of the French Erasmus + Agency considered important to ensure the possibility of apprentices at all levels to have an experience abroad. He also pointed out some difficulties related to - the different treatment of apprentices and university students under the Erasmus + programme –

e. g. language level self-evaluation is only possible for higher education students, duration of mobility is different.

- disparities between the apprentices’ status in the various Member States.

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During the debate that followed, participants discussed about the involvement of NGOs in mobility projects, which sometimes lead projects, like public authorities and VET organisations, and about the support that Europlastics is giving to apprentices.

PANEL 3 - OPTIMISING APPRENTICESHIP MOBILITY

HOW TO OVERCOME REMAINING BARRIERS TO APPRENTICESHIP MOBILITY? HOW DOES THE WAY FORWARD LOOK FOR EU POLICIES? THE SINGLE APPRENTICESHIP CONTRACT: A

POSSIBLE SOLUTION?

Mr Arthuis presented the panellists.

Brando Benifei, Member of the European Parliament recalled the benefit of a key EU principle, the free movement of people and workers within the EU and recognise that only a very minor portion of citizens go to another Member States for training or work. Mobility of apprentices can be useful to bridge the gap between education and labour market, to make companies cooperate and to develop the sense of being European. At the moment, there is no common definition of apprenticeship in the EU, there is a constellation of instruments and funds and the quality of offers to young people under the Youth Guarantee is problematic. Therefore, clear political orientations and a common European vision are needed, so a single apprenticeship framework could bring a certain harmonisation and mutual recognition of experience acquired through mobility.

Claude Rolin, Member of the European Parliament talked about the complexity of the situation of apprentices in Belgium. He also spoke about the negative image of VET, the risk of apprentices to be considered as cheap labour, the companies’ role in training young people and of the shortage of skilled workers. He supported the pilot project initiated by Mr Arthuis and considered that a single framework would be useful. In this context, certifications of skills acquired through mobility is important, as well as the role of social partners.

Marian Harkin, Member of the European Parliament focused her intervention on the need to change mind-sets and improve VET image. Skills acquired through apprenticeships should be seen as transferrable from one industry to another and this would increase employability. Quality of apprenticeships, learning outcomes, the protection of apprentices are crucial. Lastly, Ms Harkin insisted on the fact that all the various partners have a role to play to improve correct situation.

Ben Butters from the Association of European Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Eurochambres) started his presentation by recalling the important role of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, that manage 600 000 apprentices per year. He also gave some examples of cooperation between the German and Spanish Chambers as regards mobility for apprentices. Eurochambers is very supportive of increasing such mobility in the EU and welcomes Mr Arthui’s project, as there is a need for new momentum for mobility.

Mr Butters recalled that too few VET students actually spend their time in a company and that national apprenticeship systems should become more robust and effective. Regarding mobility, some practical issues should be tackled, such as the suitable duration of the stay abroad (one year is too long

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for companies and apprentices) and the recognition of diplomas. In this sense, the issuing of joint diplomas can be interesting.

Agnès Roman from the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) spoke about several challenges regarding mobility of apprentices:- first and foremost, there is no common definition of apprenticeship, and apprenticeships have to

be improved as well as the attractiveness of VET;- there are lots of expectations from young people: they have to have basic skills, to know

languages, to be mobile- mobility of minors is difficult- Europe is diverse, and experience shows that recipient countries are only the ones of which

national languages are learned in other countries – the UK, France, Germany and Spain. For the other countries, it is problematic.

- there is a lack of apprenticeship places on offer. SMEs are reluctant to receiving apprentices and in many countries there is no industry anymore and not enough companies to host youngsters.

- all existing initiatives at the EU level should be linked and the question of increased mobility for apprentices should be better introduced in the European Alliance for Apprenticeships and EURES.

- quality assurance is essential – both as learning experience and as work. Teachers also need to be trained in real companies and VET schools have to be well equipped. Apprentices should not end up being used as cheap labour and brain-drain should be avoided.

- recognition of skills acquired is important and Europass could be better used, but it is not obligatory for companies to fill it in.

Furthermore, Ms Roman talked about the findings and 21 recommendations adopted in the context of an ETUC project that started in 2012 “Towards a European quality framework for apprenticeships and work-based learning - best practices and trade union contributions”. According these recommendations, apprenticeship schemes should:- be built on stable foundations – on the basis of national law, regulations and/or collective

bargaining agreements ;- cater for the real employment and skills needs of employers and at the same time the personal

development and career opportunities of apprentices;- require employers to enter into formal employment contracts with apprentices or require training

institutions to enter into training contracts with apprentices;- ensure that apprentices are paid by the employer, according to collective agreements, or a

national and/or sectoral minimum legal wage;- guarantee good quality and safe working environments, and the social partners should be given

responsibility for monitoring the suitability of workplaces and for accrediting interested companies;

- provide appropriate guidance for apprentices and good quality training in the workplace, with in-company mentors trained for this purpose, and also within training institutions employing trainers that have up-to-date and appropriate skills;

- be certified by competent tri-partite bodies to ensure that the knowledge, skills and competences acquired are recognised;

- offer qualifications which are clearly placed within National Qualifications Frameworks (NQFs).

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Luis Alvarado Martinez, Vice-President of the European Youth Forum was the last speaker and focus on quality of apprenticeships and the fact that strong learning objectives must be define before starting an apprenticeship experience. He announced that the forum has just published European charter for quality apprenticeships and an Employers’ guide. He also mentioned the need to be paid for the apprenticeship, to make mobility more inclusive, to ensure rights and the portability of social security rights and to have tailored mechanisms for various EU countries.

During the debate, interventions dealt with various issues, such as avoiding cheap labour, importance of apprentices’ transferrable social security rights, bridging the gap between universities and VET and impact of digital era on apprenticeships. Participants agreed that more work-based learning is needed and that close cooperation between all relevant stakeholders is key.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLOSING OF THE EVENT

Jean Arthuis drew conclusions focusing on topics such as portable rights for mobile apprentices, recognition of qualifications, mutual confidence and avoiding use of youngsters as a cheap labour force. A real dialogue has to be put in place between social partners, chambers of commerce and industry, businesses and VET organisations. Coherence has to be ensured among the vast number of existing tools in this field and efforts have to be made for greater pragmatism and simplification. He recalled his pilot project’s aim which is to assess the situation on the ground and go further to respond to people’s needs.

Christa Schweng closed the event by adding that first and foremost, investment is needed to improve national apprenticeship systems. For these to be effective, institutions have to be put in place to guarantee the quality of schemes, employers have to be willing to train young people and a change in mind set of the whole society is needed.

Dual education and apprenticeship must become an attractive, reasonable path for young people, not a second option and enough funding must be allocated to them. Mobility can contribute to that attractiveness and at sectoral level; social partners have a major role to play in improving the image of some sectors, to develop job profiles and learning content. More efforts are also needed to make it possible for companies to send apprentices abroad. Mobility in apprenticeship needs the trust that the dual learning functions on the receiving place as in the sending place - if the collaboration of enterprises is promoted, mobility could take place on the basis of reciprocity. Finally, Ms Schweng pointed out that once a young person has decided to go abroad, it is important to have a structure in place to support him/her.

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