Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-05-12-Speech-4-015-000"
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"Mr President, first of all, may I say that, during the sitting this morning, we will see real evidence of the work of our Committee on Culture, Education and Young People. I am rapporteur for a dossier, a very important report on Youth on the Move, which is based on a communication from the European Commission. At this point, I would like to thank my colleagues for giving me the opportunity to prepare this report and I would also like to thank the European Commission, which has prepared this report and which has included the problems faced by young people amongst the fundamental priorities of the EU’s 10-year development plan.
When drawing up this report, I worked with many stakeholders, especially representatives of young people, both from Member States and the rest of Europe, for example, with the European Youth Forum. We have had quite a few meetings and conferences. I also worked with the Committee on the Regions and the Committee on Economic and Social Affairs, so the report is a product of many exchanges of opinion during the period of its preparation. I would also point out that, at the time when this report was being adopted, my fellow Members from other political groups showed quite a constructive stance. In that respect, I would like to thank the shadow rapporteurs, in particular, who have done a good job and, as a result, we have before us today the report in its present form.
I would like to point out that, according to various studies, young people who avail themselves of the opportunity to study or work abroad perform better in school, they are more successful and more competitive in terms of job hunting, and, moreover, in terms of their integration into society. However, politics alone cannot guarantee good schools, good education or good jobs for young people. What it can do, though, is create favourable conditions to help young people achieve these things. Those conditions are most certainly linked to the modernisation of school education systems. Europe, and Member States in particular, are facing the major challenge of improving, during this decade, vocational education and training, for example, and making it more attractive and improving its quality. The European economy very much needs vocational qualifications in the next decade. By as early as 2020, I estimate that as many as 50% of all jobs will require education and training of this kind. Therefore, vocational education and training remains one of the priorities of our policy, as well as of the policies of Member States.
However, continuing the reform of the Bologna Process is even more important. European universities should be even more in touch with the economy and society at large. European universities will become more competitive when they pay even greater attention to the needs of the market, the economy, and when they also manage to find additional sources of funding. It is a fact that, in Europe, we have too little funding for higher education. The European countries, Member States of the European Union, are underinvesting in students, and this is quite a big problem.
Obviously, as part of this priority, the European Union has also set other targets which must be achieved: to reduce the dropout rate, which, at 16%, is unreasonably high, so we need to reduce it to 10%. Similarly, we will need a more highly-educated labour force in this decade if Europe is to retain its competitive edge over other parts of the world.
Since my time is up, I will take two more minutes later, after the debate, to provide further information."@en1
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