#Erasmus: New report on fostering mobility in VET backed by MEPs

Mobility in vocational education and training (VET)  is essential for ensuring personal development, improvement of language skills and employability. While most university students participate in exchange programmes, still only 1% of apprentices and other young people currently in professional training are involved in a mobility programme. The report on Erasmus+ and other tools to foster mobility in VET has been adopted today by a large majority. This own-initiative report shall draw the Commission's and member states' attention to the need to implement measures to foster mobility in vocational education, such as creating a one-stop shop to centralize information and to facilitate contacts among all actors involved in mobility programmes.

Among those supporting the report by Greens/EFA MEP Ernest Maragall is the ALDE Group.

ALDE shadow Ilhan Kyuchyuk commented after the vote: "Experience-oriented education and of course the learning and training mobility within it, incorporates inputs from the business environment and enables participants to react in a flexible way to the rapidly changing world. This becomes increasingly important since the labour market demands professional and real-world knowledge and skills. If adequately developed, VET can help talented youths and adults break out of unemployment and reach their full potential. Mobility programmes bolster the competitiveness of the European labour market but what is also very important is that learning and training mobility enhances participants´ engagement in social activities."

ALDE MEP Enrique Calvet Chambon, co-rapporteur of the opinion given by the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, added: "I am delighted as co-rapporteur to say, that the time for the European Parliament to promote mobility in vocational education and training (VET) has arrived. The EU finally moves towards a common vocational education and training. This initiative will enhance social cohesion and integration and will sustain innovation, growth and employment. The Commission has to ensure support to the Erasmus+ projects. This should be done by providing sufficient financial means and by broadening their capacity to provide mobility in VET programs."

But MEPs rejected an amendment calling for the documentation about the programme to be made available in the languages of the school systems in the countries in which Erasmus+ operates. It was hoped that making documents available in languages of education such as Catalan, Basque and others would help improve access to the scheme.

 Erasmus+ was launched in 2014 and brings together all of the EU's education, training, youth and sport schemes, enabling students and many young people to study in another European country. More than 3 million Europeans have taken part since the inception of the original Erasmus programme in 1987.

 The rapporteur Maragall said that whilst he regretted the 'missed opportunity' on languages, he was confident that the recommendations approved in his report would help improve mobility for young apprentices and students in vocational education. He believes that improving mobility in vocational training can make a major contribution to tackling youth unemployment in Europe.

 Maragall said: "Whilst Erasmus+ has been a great success up to now, it hasn't yet been able to realise the full potential of improving mobility in vocational training, especially in helping tackle youth unemployment. Greater mobility means greater employability, and that is the real promise of Erasmus+. There is much in this report that will help improve mobility, including building partnerships across sectors to build professional training schemes for apprentices abroad.

"Improving access is also vitally important, and making information available in applicants' own languages is critical to this. That's why it was such a missed opportunity to reject an amendment that would require information about Erasmus+ to be available in the school languages of individual countries.

"There is no better way to improve access to a scheme like Erasmus+ than to make information available in the native languages of the applicants. It is a matter of regret that other MEP chose to vote this amendment down, apparently for narrow party political reasons. Nonetheless, we must not let that distract us from working together to unlock the potential of Erasmus+ for a new generation of young Europeans."

 Specific innovations in the report include simplifying the Erasmus+ application process, strengthening the role of the intermediary institutions, both territorial and sectorial, involved in the preparation, management and follow-up of mobility, validation and recognition of skills and competences, promoting longer-term mobility periods, facilitating complementary financial measures, providing teachers with adequate training and professional development.

 The report says that Erasmus+ can be part of the answer to the current economic and social situation in the different European countries and reduce rates of, especially, youth unemployment by building strong links between education and training and employment.

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