‘Employers and trade unions are crucial labour market players and know first-hand what skills are in demand, where the shortages are, and what to anticipate in the future,’ said Gerard Mayen, ETF expert who leads the new project. ‘Education policy makers, who set curricula, need to tap into this knowledge to make education and training more relevant.’
That’s why the ETF has launched the project that will try to reinforce the capacities of social partners—trade unions and employers organisations—to play a more active role in the field of vocational education and training (VET). The ETF’s initiative will concentrate especially on continued education and lifelong learning. It will involve social partners in Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, occupied Palestinian territory, and Syria, as well as the social partners and other organisations in the EU.
‘There is a need to empower social partners’ organisations to make sure they can formulate their demands in the area of education and training, and that they can enter in a dialogue with governments,’ said Madlen Serban, ETF director. ‘When it comes to education policy reforms it is not enough to talk only with suppliers of education.’
That’s why the ETF has launched the project that will try to reinforce the capacities of social partners—trade unions and employers organisations—to play a more active role in the field of vocational education and training (VET). The ETF’s initiative will concentrate especially on continued education and lifelong learning. It will involve social partners in Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, occupied Palestinian territory, and Syria, as well as the social partners and other organisations in the EU.
‘There is a need to empower social partners’ organisations to make sure they can formulate their demands in the area of education and training, and that they can enter in a dialogue with governments,’ said Madlen Serban, ETF director. ‘When it comes to education policy reforms it is not enough to talk only with suppliers of education.’
In 2010 an ETF study on the social partners in education found that VET is rarely considered a regular and permanent area of formal dialogue between government, trade unions and employers’ organisations. Part of the reason is that social partners lack knowledge and experience in the field.
‘Social dialogue is paramount to development, but what we are experiencing now in the region is lack of social dialogue,’ said Mohamed Mongi Amami, Executive Director of Union générale tunisien du Travail, a Tunisian trade union. ‘I hope the revolutions that are taking place right now in the region will create a new situation, in which social dialogue will be one of the pillars’.
Mr Mayen underlined that ‘social partners who represent employers and employees, represent at the same time the civil society. ‘And without the voice of civil society, it’s becoming to be difficult to imagine vocational education and training system that fits the needs of workers and society on one side and on the other side the capacity of enterprises to develop,' said Mr Mayen.
The project has two components. The first will help exchange experiences and knowledge between organisations from the EU and the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean region. It will also facilitate peer learning among social partners of the six Arab countries. The second component focuses on national capacity building i.a., on mapping roles of social partners, raising awareness, and elaborating cooperation frameworks.
Year/Date: 18/07/2011
http://www.etf.europa.eu/web.nsf/(RSS)/B02DC82AAE8D0029C12578D1004E0133?OpenDocument&LAN=EN
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