Motion for a recommendation | Doc. 13005 | 06 July 2012

Raise the status of technical vocational training

Signatories: Mr Piotr WACH, Poland, EPP/CD ; Mr Josep Anton BARDINA PAU, Andorra, ALDE ; Ms Anne BRASSEUR, Luxembourg, ALDE ; Mr Mevlüt ÇAVUŞOĞLU, Turkey, EDG ; Mr Boriss CILEVIČS, Latvia, SOC ; Mr Michael CONNARTY, United Kingdom, SOC ; Mr Paolo CORSINI, Italy, SOC ; Mr Carlos COSTA NEVES, Portugal, EPP/CD ; Ms Ismeta DERVOZ, Bosnia and Herzegovina, EPP/CD ; Mr Şaban DİŞLİ, Turkey, EPP/CD ; Mr Hans FRANKEN, Netherlands, EPP/CD ; Corina FUSU, Republic of Moldova, ALDE ; Ms Alena GAJDŮŠKOVÁ, Czech Republic, SOC ; Ms Elvira KOVÁCS, Serbia, EPP/CD ; Mr Anvar MAKHMUTOV, Russian Federation, EDG ; Ms Muriel MARLAND-MILITELLO, France, EPP/CD ; Ms Zaruhi POSTANJYAN, Armenia, EPP/CD ; Mr Ludo SANNEN, Belgium, SOC ; Mr Leander SCHÄDLER, Liechtenstein, EPP/CD ; Ms Elisabeth SCHNEIDER-SCHNEITER, Switzerland, EPP/CD ; Ms Bernadett SZÉL, Hungary, SOC

This motion has not been discussed in the Assembly and commits only those who have signed it.

Technical vocational training is a key step in access to employment. Today, however, the low status of technical vocational training stops young people from choosing this kind of education. Moreover, the low quality of vocational training has serious repercussions on the students’ capacity to find and retain a job and to prevent future unemployment. Urgent actions are therefore needed to solve the current problems, such as, inter alia, the outdated or absent curricula and the outdated or absent national qualifications frameworks and rosters of specializations.

The Parliamentary Assembly should look into policy changes that help raise the status of technical vocational training. This may include, for instance, measures aimed at modernising training for those who teach in vocational education programmes. Often, industry representatives are invited to provide the training, but they are ill equipped as regards methods of teaching and evaluating student competences. For that, appropriate training should be offered to improve the transmission of knowledge. And vice-versa, for those who lost contact with industry, placement in modern companies and possibilities to travel to countries using advanced technologies to exchange practices are highly recommended. Another measure is training for entrepreneurship in the framework of vocational training programmes.

The Council of Europe’s Pestalozzi Programme is designed to promote professional training and capacity building in areas in which the Council of Europe is active, but there is no equivalent body open to the 47 member States of the Council of Europe offering modern pan-European programmes of training and capacity building for vocational education professionals. The Committee of Ministers should propose measures to enhance this Programme by setting up a chapter on policies for vocational education.