European Trade Union Committee for Education

The recommendation was originally adopted in 1962 and was revised in 1974 and 2001. The aim of the current revision is to reflect new trends and issues in the field, considering demographic changes, youth unemployment and growing inequality as well as the central role of "skills for work and life" in the process of defining global priorities for education beyond 2015. Following a limited consultation earlier this year, to which EI's Task Force on Vocational Education and Training contributed, a first draft of the Revised Recommendation has now been sent to Member States. The revision is, in fact, a complete rewrite of the recommendation. The new draft is significantly shorter than the recommendation approved in 2001.

Member States have been invited to return their comments to the UNESCO Secretariat by 10 January 2015. UNESCO will then review the draft text accordingly, in order to circulate a final draft text to Member States by April 2015, in view of a scheduled discussion during the 38th session of its General Conference in November 2015.

Education International invites all member organisations to contact their governments and National Commissions for UNESCO to share their feedback on the new draft recommendation. In order to support you in this endeavour, EI has identified a number of areas that we believe require improvements and further work.

Read the preliminary report of UNESCO's Director-General to Member States and the first draft of the Revised Recommendation.