European Trade Union Committee for Education

On 11 October 2016, the ETUCE Committee adopted the new ETUCE position on the New Skills Agenda for Europe initiative of the European Commission, following the previous ETUCE statement which was endorsed in February. The upcoming meeting of the Education Council on 21-22 November intends to adopt a Conclusion on the New Skills Agenda. The ETUCE position stands as a contribution to this decision since the European Commission’s initiative will have direct influence on the work of teachers.

In its position, ETUCE highlights that quality skills provision for all requires:

• A long-term vision on education instead of shaping it following short-term  labour market needs;
• Effective social dialogue with education trade unions for the design and implementation of national actions following in the initiative;
• Importance of investment in education since education has been suffering from austerity and privatisation, which led to a downgrade of quality and efficiency of education;
• Limited role for businesses in education as companies being involved in “all sectors and levels of education and training”, as suggested by the Commission, would have negative impact on the quality and autonomy of education;
• Supporting equal access to education with more investment and strategic actions in order to support the integration of migrants and disadvantaged groups into society and employment;
• Comprehensive EU-level governance on education and training policies which should be based on the EU2020 strategy.

Read the full position