BAKGRUNN (fra kommisjonsmeddelelsen, engelsk utgave)

The severity of the financial crisis adds an exceptional degree of unpredictability about the future of the world’s economy – yet in order to put Europe on the road to recovery it is essential to enhance human capital and employability by upgrading skills. But upgrading skills is not enough: ensuring a better match between the supply of skills and labour market demand is just as necessary.

As part of the European Economic Recovery Plan proposed by the Commission [1] to help Europe alleviate the effect of the immediate crisis and prepare for the economic upturn, the Commission launched a major European employment support initiative. This initiative aims to promote employment and reintegration into the labour market of workers made redundant through activation, retraining and skills upgrading measures.

Skills upgrading is critically important for Europe's short-term recovery and longer term growth and productivity, for its jobs and its capacity to adapt to change, for equity, gender equality and social cohesion.