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Plenary Speeches
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Theme 4
THROUGH INTERPRETER (Dr Klaus Draxler spoke in French) Two concepts that we like to use are employability and social inclusion. In public opinion it is often thought that there is a dichotomy between competitiveness and social inclusion, but this is to take rather a destructive view of competitiveness, in its effects on employment, because the effect is insecurity as regards employment. If you are opposed to that reductive vision of the world, and if you feel that type of vision it signifies is rather negative, the European Commission has a more constructive vision, the Europe of Learning, the Europe of Knowledge. If you are talking about knowledge and skills, what you mean depends on what language you speak. You have to be very careful because the word you use might be false and misleading. When you are talking about the Europe of Knowledge as a Commission policy, you have to be very careful because within that notion, there is no law that applies to their elements, their activities, their actions, over the 15 countries. I would like to remind you of the Council in Luxembourg in November 1997, during which we adopted a new strategy about employment. These employment guidelines we organised around the pillars of employability, adaptability, entrepreneurship and equality, and it is round these pillars that the member states are supposed to plan for employment. That new approach is also a way of discovering a new concept, a new philosophy which is the Europe of Knowledge. Our role within the Commission is to present a report that is a synthesis and the 15 member states will have to present national reports of course. The dimensions of education and training are certainly reflected in the report. I now refer to the Green Paper published by Mr Delors. What is our vision of competitiveness? In his analysis, Delors proposes that competitiveness should be envisaged as a quality factor that ensures a European area which is attractive as far as employability is concerned and as far as competitiveness is concerned. That positive vision is also more dynamic. It is not focused on the present state of affairs, it allows a positive development, and it is certainly a very strong element in the guidelines and the policy we have to set up. It is the type of message we've got to transmit throughout Europe, but also beyond the European frontiers. In Europe it is true we have a very generous wealth, but not necessarily the capacity to exploit the available wealth. There is an essential element which needs to be stressed. If you want to implement all the elements that have been acquired, what we need is a material investment, if we want to remain competitive. Philosophy of Innovation Regarding innovation it appears, in fact it is certain, that equipment and material investment are complementary, and in fact the innovating element is within the non-material investment. In that philosophy of innovation, it is at the non-material level that innovation takes place, so it is a question not only of research but also training and the type of human relationship we establish. What we observe is that a certain innovating attitude is essential and is inseparable from the notion of employment and social inclusion. Many signs show that there is such a correlation and that, at the level of individuals, we see that there is a strong correlation between good general knowledge, the capacity for adaptability, flexibility and the average levels for social inclusion. At the level of companies, there is a positive correlation between investment in the area of research and development, innovation in new technologies and in the organisation of the employment markets. As regards territories and countries, there is also positive correlation between the efforts carried on in the area of high technologies and the implementation of extremely flexible structures. The skills that are required for innovation go beyond the mere area of sciences and research and development. Employability and Skills There is another thought that I would like to put to you and which may be at the heart of this presentation. It is centred on this pair, employability and skills. It is easier in fact to define unemployability, what the factors are that lead to not being employable: they are very often that permanent training has been insufficient and a barrier to professional mobility; and it is a kind of common perception that is shared between employers and employees about the unavailability of resources for training. Now, how would you define these notions in relation to the positive side of it, in other words employability and how we can understand that positive notion? What we are trying to do is to sell is the idea of competence, an idea that is more progressive and more dynamic than what is usually meant by the idea of skill and competence. What we have in mind is something that is connected to an experience and it is not reduced to the acquired element, what you have picked up here and there throughout your life. It is characterised by an aptitude to openness and transparence towards the future; it is the idea of using competencies and skills and it is the question of not focusing too strongly on the acquired elements. The individual must be envisaged within a larger context that takes into account his position within society at large, within his place of work. It is a bit difficult to give a general interpretation of that notion because in fact it is all centred on the individual. The role of the individual is at the heart of that new model; and that new interpretation of competence and of skills is not something that has been fixed, the debate is still going on. We always have problems with that notion, that theme. The very notion of skills is a prisoner of a contradiction: are we talking about the knowhow, in other words the acquired competencies, or is it something that is more projective and prospective? If the notion of skills and competence is to have any meaning, it has to go beyond narrow interpretations and put into question the presupposed hypothesis and assumptions, because in fact in the new working conditions, the starting data, will not be known and will have to be discovered as we go along. In most cases in fact, work organisations are often regarded as a set of jobs and we have to define in theory the content of this task rather than try to work out a synergy. Regarding the idea that development of skills and competence is at the very heart of the capacity of a company to move forward, the new management theories are often considered as a sort of costly implementation. I mean in fact what we have got to adopt is the policy of lifelong learning, and that is going to be the effective leverage if we want to get the revolution to come into place and move forward. Lifelong learning is effective because it encourages a sort of development and building up of the very notion of skills and this idea of development taking place throughout life. Wider Vision To be direct, what we want is to defend a wider vision of skills and competence. That is what we want to see defended and encouraged all round the member states, a philosophy that goes beyond requiring merely the acquisition of skills which are of very limited use for the unemployed person. What we are defending rather is an approach that has to be implemented by member states and which has to have a stimulating action. It is a very ambitious strategy and the target, that all European citizens should develop their competence to level 3. It is the level 3 that gives people access to the basic skills, by giving young people at the end of compulsory schooling a sort of basic knowledge which makes it possible for them to go on developing general knowledge and linguistic skills throughout their lives, and gives them the possibility of having access to scientific knowledge. The definition of that basis is the process of access for all European, is certainly a decisive element regarding employability. We also need to have continuous access to professional skills and, thirdly, access to key competencies in the context of new types of organisation for work within companies and between companies, in the generalised process of worldwide application of economies, and for inclusion and active participation as a citizen into social life. Such a policy and the various points that I have just made are what we can use to apply all of this. More specifically, we will have at our disposal an action programme called LEONARDO, which is currently being completed and will be replaced shortly by a new programme. This is a laboratory, a kind of instrument which will make it possible to test the ideas which are there, because the application of those is not something that the commission can order. We have to work together so that we can use our experience and have a transfer of information. By means of this dialogue within a programme we would be able to promote the Europe of Knowledge that would be more pleasant to live in and more agreeable for its citizens.
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