Educate for employment

On 26 April 2012, during the European Business Summit devoted to "skills for growth", BUSINESSEUROPE President Jürgen Thumann handed over BUSINESSEUROPE's brochure "Educate for employment" to European Commission President Barroso. "Educate for employment" is a wake-up call from business for a new approach to education in Europe. It is urgent to act to ensure that investments in education deliver the skills needed on labour markets. Quality of initial education should be ensured by governments and the right framework conditions should be put in place at national level to encourage companies and workers to invest in continuing education. To end the longstanding and growing skills mismatch observed on European labour markets, all actors, education and employment experts, companies and social partners should act together as part of a renewed EU skills governance so that education really leads to employment. The European Union should support Member States’ efforts to reform their education and training systems. In particular, EU financial support could help reduce youth unemployment by allowing Member States who so wish to establish, reform or expand their dual-learning systems. Finally, remaining unjustified obstacles to worker mobility and to skilled immigration should be removed.