8 Youth on the Move
| (a)
(31954)
13726/10
COM(10) 477
+ ADD 1
(b)
(31955)
13729/10
COM(10) 478
+ ADD 1
+ ADDs 2-3
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Commission Communication: Youth on the Move: An initiative to unleash the potential of young people to achieve smart, sustainable and inclusive growth in the European Union
Commission Staff Working Document: A guide to the rights of mobile students in the European Union
Council Recommendation: Youth on the Move: promoting the learning mobility of young people
Commission Staff Working Document — results of consultation on the Green Paper on the learning mobility of young people
Commission Staff Working Documents: Impact assessment and summary
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| Legal base | (a) —
(b) Articles 165 and 166 TFEU; co-decision; QMV
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| Document originated | 15 September 2010
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| Deposited in Parliament | 22 September 2010
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| Department | Business, Innovation and Skills
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| Basis of consideration | EM of 6 October 2010
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| Previous Committee Report | None
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| To be discussed in Council | 19 November 2010
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| Committee's assessment | Politically important
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| Committee's decision | Cleared
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Background
8.1 In June 2010, the European Council agreed a new European Strategy
for Jobs and Growth (the "Europe 2020 Strategy") and
identified five "headline targets" to guide Member States
and the European Union in their efforts to promote employment
and green growth, encourage innovation, research and development,
improve levels of educational attainment and reduce poverty. Two
of the headline targets are particularly relevant to young people:
- "improving education levels, in particular by aiming
to reduce school drop-out rates to less than 10% and by increasing
the share of 30-34 year olds having completed tertiary or equivalent
education to at least 40%; and
- "aiming to raise to 75% the employment rate
for women and men aged 20-64, including through the greater participation
of young people, older workers and low-skilled workers and the
better integration of legal migrants."[20]
8.2 In its Communication on the Europe 2020 Strategy,
the Commission proposed seven new "flagship initiatives",
including one entitled "Youth on the Move" which seeks
to identify a number of actions at EU and national level to enhance
the performance of education systems, improve the quality of education
and training across the EU, promote mobility, and facilitate the
entry of young people to the labour market.[21]
The Commission Communication
8.3 In its latest Communication, the Commission fleshes
out the actions it envisages to take forward its flagship initiative,
Youth on the Move. According to the Commission, action is needed
because youth unemployment is unacceptably high (averaging almost
21% across the EU for those under 25) and too many young people
leave school early, resulting in skills shortages (especially
in the IT sector) and an inability to compete for jobs requiring
high-level qualifications. Youth on the Move seeks to put "young
people at the centre of the EU's agenda to create an economy based
on knowledge, research and innovation, high levels of education
and skills in line with labour market needs, adaptability and
creativity, inclusive labour markets and active participation
in society."[22]
8.4 The Commission proposes a variety of actions,
summarised below under four main headings:
8.5 Promoting lifelong learning by increasing
investment in education and training, reducing school drop-out
rates, improving early years education, and strengthening the
links between employers and the education sector (including through
work experience, apprenticeships, vocational training and careers
advice). Specific actions proposed include:
- two Council Recommendations,
the first (in 2010) to provide a framework for measures to reduce
school drop-out rates, and the second (in 2011) to promote the
recognition and validation of skills acquired outside formal learning
structures, such as volunteering and youth work;
- establishment of a high-level expert group on
literacy to share and develop best practice on improving literacy
among adults and children;
- strengthened co-operation in the field of vocational
education and training; and
- measures to improve the quality and availability
of traineeships.
8.6 Increasing the rate of participation in higher
education by investing in universities, diversifying sources
of funding, strengthening co-operation on quality assurance and
building "knowledge partnerships" to encourage research
and innovation. Specific actions proposed for 2011 include:
- a further Communication setting
out a new agenda for reforming higher education to make it more
accessible, to strengthen links between academia and industry
and to make graduates more employable;
- publication of a feasibility study on the establishment
of an alternative university ranking system to provide a more
complete picture of performance based on a broader range of performance
indicators; and
- a proposal for a multiannual Strategic Innovation
Agenda to develop the role of the European Institute for Innovation
and Technology[23] in
promoting research, innovation and entrepreneurship.
8.7 Encouraging learning and employment mobility
by providing opportunities for all young people to study, train
or work abroad by 2020. Specific actions proposed include:
- a new Youth on the Move website
to provide information on opportunities to study or gain work
experience abroad;
- a Council Recommendation to remove obstacles
to, and promote, learning mobility;[24]
- a Youth on the Move card to provide benefits
and discounts for young people;
- a European Skills Passport to record and encourage
recognition of skills acquired in different EU countries;
- a pilot project ("Your first EURES job")
to provide advice, recruitment and financial support to young
jobseekers willing to work abroad and to SMEs keen to recruit
mobile workers; and
- a European Vacancy Monitor to record job vacancies
across the EU.
8.8 Improving opportunities for youth employment
by ensuring more young people stay in further education or undertake
training and providing active support to gain entry to the labour
market. Specific actions proposed include:
- encouraging use of the Commission's
new European Progress Micro-finance Facility[25]
to support potential young entrepreneurs;
- measures to make better use of the European Social
Fund to support young people;
- examining the feasibility of creating an EU student
loan facility, in co-operation with the European Investment Bank,
to support students wishing to train or study abroad; and
- an analysis of factors affecting labour market
outcomes for young people, especially the impact of successive
short-term temporary contracts on wage levels, pensions and training
opportunities.
8.9 The Commission urges Member States to introduce
a "Youth Guarantee" to ensure that young people enter
higher education or have a job or work experience within four
months of leaving school. The Commission says that Member States
should also provide an adequate social safety net for young people,
through access to targeted benefits which are conditional on seeking
employment or training. Other suggestions include the introduction
of a minimum income for young people combined with incentives
for employers to make the use of permanent, rather than temporary,
contracts more attractive.
8.10 The Commission indicates that the Youth on the
Move initiative will be funded from existing EU programmes for
education and training and that greater use should be made of
the European Social Fund. Additional sources of funding may be
needed if the idea of creating an EU student loan facility is
pursued further.
The draft Council Recommendation
8.11 The draft Recommendation forms part of the Youth
on the Move initiative. It draws on responses to a Commission
Green Paper on Learning Mobility (2009) which, according to the
Commission, "revealed a clear consensus . . . . . on the
objective of expanding mobility opportunities for young people"[26]
while also recognising that obstacles remained. The purpose of
the draft Recommendation is to provide specific guidance to Member
States on the removal of remaining obstacles to learning mobility
and on fostering a "mobility culture" amongst all young
people. Recommendations to Member States include:
- raising awareness about the
opportunities for learning abroad through better information and
advice, including on grants and funding;
- promoting the value of learning mobility in
terms of personal and professional development and future employability;
- facilitating mobility by, for example, recognising
the importance of language learning in the school curriculum;
- removing legal, institutional and administrative
obstacles to learning abroad;
- ensuring that educational grants and loans can
be used for learning abroad;
- introducing quality assurance schemes for mobile
learning;
- improving procedures for recognising and validating
periods of learning abroad;
- providing specially targeted information and
intervention (mobilising teachers, youth workers, etc) for disadvantaged
learners;
- encouraging mobility partnerships, especially
between the education and business sector, and providing incentives
(for example, special grants to business) to offer places for
trainees, interns or apprentices;
- using "multipliers" — teachers,
trainers and youth workers — to promote mobility; and
- establishing a "Mobility Scoreboard"
to monitor progress in removing obstacles to mobility.
8.12 In addition, the draft Recommendation "takes
note" of a number of actions to be taken by the Commission
in line with its Communication. For example, the Commission will
review existing EU education, training and youth programmes with
a view to developing an integrated approach under the next Financial
Framework (2014-20) to support the Youth on the Move Strategy.
8.13 The legal bases proposed for the draft Recommendation
are Articles 165 and 166 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the
European Union (TFEU) which enable the Council to adopt (non-binding)
recommendations to encourage youth exchanges and the mobility
of teachers, students, instructors and trainees.
The Government's view
8.14 The Minister of State for Universities and Science
(Mr David Willetts) notes that the Communication and draft Recommendation
are linked to the Europe 2020 Strategy and focus on non-binding
measures, such as target-setting, reports and recommendations,
which allow Member States to determine what action to take in
light of their own circumstances. He continues:
"Although the initiative does not indicate a
direct increase of EU competence, it does represent an extension
of reach and influence ... The Government would not accept any
prescriptive action at European level in the areas covered, for
example in the proposed 'Youth Guarantee', or in the proposed
Recommendation on reducing early school leaving or in removing
obstacles to learning abroad".
8.15 The Minister expresses the Government's support
for the modernisation of higher education systems across Europe,
but questions the need for a new EU agenda for reform before existing
EU initiatives have been evaluated. He indicates that the Government
does not consider the Commission's proposal to develop a new university
ranking system to be a priority. The Minister says that many of
the ideas concerning youth employment, such as the micro-finance
facility, the skills passport, the Youth on the Move card, and
a possible student loan facility for mobile learners will require
separate proposals which will be subject to scrutiny.
8.16 The Government supports the main points in the
draft Council Recommendation on promoting learning mobility, including
the emphasis on achieving "quality outcomes", but "would
be unwilling to make changes to present policies if this would
result in greater costs to the UK of funding young people abroad".
The Minister explains that financial support is available for
students studying abroad as part of their UK higher education
course, but that "there are no current plans to extend the
provision of financial support to students wishing to undertake
study solely at European institutions". The Government would,
however, continue to review the potential for introducing such
provision.
8.17 While supporting the focus on young people's
access to the job market through better education, training and
mobility, the Government also emphasises the importance it attaches
to adult education so that older learners can continue to improve
their skills and employment prospects.
Conclusion
8.18 The Youth on the Move initiative is intended
to proceed in parallel with the implementation of the Europe 2020
Strategy for Jobs and Growth. The EU, however, has limited competence
in the field of education and vocational training under Articles
165 and 166 TFEU, which specify that any EU measures must "support
and supplement the action of Member States". As a result,
the Communication and draft Recommendation seek to mobilise the
efforts of Member States and a range of other actors — teachers,
trainers, youth workers, businesses — to support the goal
of promoting learning mobility. The broad scope of the Commission's
Communication makes it difficult to discern where the boundary
between EU and national action lies. It is not clear what locus
the EU has on a number of ideas contained within the Communication,
such as school drop-out rates, developing a new university ranking
system, or determining the content of the "Youth Guarantee".
Nor is it clear how some of these ideas will contribute to learning
mobility.
8.19 We note that many of the ideas in the Communication
will be the subject of separate scrutiny, at which point we will
seek assurances from the Government that any proposed action at
EU level remains within the powers conferred on the EU under Articles
165 and 166 TFEU. Meanwhile, we are content to clear the Communication
and draft Recommendation from scrutiny.
20 See European Council Conclusions of 17 June 2010
on the Europe 2020 Strategy at http://ec.europa.eu/eu2020/pdf/115346.pdf. Back
21
See Commission Communication on Europe 2020 at http://ec.europa.eu/eu2020/pdf/COMPLET%20EN%20BARROSO%20%20%20007%20-%20Europe%202020%20-%20EN%20version.pdf. Back
22
Paragraph 9 of the Commission Communication. Back
23
The European Institute of Innovation and Technology was established
in 2008 to encourage innovation by developing partnerships between
higher education and research organisations and industry. Back
24
The Commission defines learning mobility as transnational mobility
for the purpose of acquiring new skills. Back
25
The Facility was established in March 2010 to facilitate access
to microfinance and has a budget of €100 million for the
period 2010-2013. Back
26
See 13729/10, ADD 1, paragraph 1. Back
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