Apprenticeship supply in the EU - Findings from a comparative survey -

1. Apprenticeship supply in the EU - Findings from a comparative survey - Christiane Westphal European Commission DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Meeting of the Advisory Committee for Vocational Training Brussels 29 June 2012

2. Policy context: youth unemployment crisis EU youth unemployment over 22 % = 5.5 million unemployed aged under 25 Nearly 1/3 of low skilled youth on the labour market are unemployed Over 7.5 million young people 15-24 not in education or training or employment (NEET)

3. EU Youth Opportunities Initiative • Priorities: • - preventing early-school leaving • - developing skills that are relevant to the labour market • - helping gain first work experience/training • apprenticeships and traineeships • - helping access the labour market and get a job • Delivery: • European Semester, Structural Funds, EU actions

4. Good arguments for apprenticeships… • Combine theory imparted at schools with practical training in real work situations (enterprises) • Facilitate rapid school-work transitions for young people • Also used (by individuals or enterprises) as a tool for LLL • Facilitate identification of skill shortages and influence of companies on the VET training supply => linkage between productive system and training system • Provide “recruitment”, “productive” and “new Knowledge” benefits for enterprises

5. Where do we stand? • VET often not regarded as valuable option, but: increasing importance attributed to workplace-based training • Constant definitiondilemma • Strong differences in apprenticeship-type schemes • Different intensity of workplace training • Different roles and relationships amongst parties involved

6. Some aggregate figures (2009) • EU-27: approximately a total of 3.7 million students in apprenticeship in the strict sense • Another 5.7 million students attend other apprenticeship-type schemes (i.e. mainly school-based VET training with compulsory work-based training) • Together, EU businesses supplied company training positions for a total of 9.4 million students • = apprenticeship-type students represent approximately 85.2% of total secondary VET students and 40.5% of total secondary students in the EU-27.

7. Insufficient vocational pathways

8. Variety of systems • All MS: schemes at upper secondary level where workplace training plays a significant role => apprenticeship-type schemes • In 24/27 MS: VET schemes which can be labeled as mainly company based (i.e. > 50% of training in companies) -> apprenticeship system in a strict sense. • In 18/24 MS, company based apprenticeship coexists with other mainly school-based trainingschemes

10. Are all actors involved?

11. Who decides company participation ? Denmark: Trade committee of respective branch Estonia: Vocational schools France: Chambers Germany: Special bipartite VT committee Poland: Vocational schools Slovakia: Vocational Training Institutions Spain: Training centre Netherlands: 17 sector VET knowledge centres United Kingdom: Very few requisites for employers

12. Student/Company relationship Criticalfactors: • Partiesinvolved • Contents • Remuneration • Exams and degrees

13. Some crisis effects • More students interested in pursuing VET in some countries • Downward trend in the amount of apprenticeships and in-company training placements offered by enterprises • Reduced public resources for promoting apprenticeship-type schemes • Use of apprenticeship students as a kind of cheap labour • Increasing share of experienced unemployed professionals who try to find a job through an apprenticeship

14. Wide range of challenges… • System design • Access and Provision • Inclusion

15. Further information • http://bookshop.europa.eu/en/apprenticeship-supply-in-the-member-states-of-the-european-union--pbKE3012434/ • http://ec.europa.eu/social/yoi