EU Neighbourhood Info Centre An ENPI project Talking about the Neighbourhood
Shortcut to the job market: higher degree or practical skills? The name of the organisation, the European Training Foundation, sounds self-explanatory. In fact, it can be misleading because the ETF does not operate in the European Union, nor it is engaged in training, and is not a foundation. It’s an EU agency that helps partner countries to develop their vocational education and training (VET), as well as labour market systems related to employment, explains its Director, Madlen Serban, in an exclusive interview to the EU Neighbourhood Info Centre. Interview with Madlen Serban, Director of the European Training Foundation How does the ETF achieve its goals of helping partner countries develop vocational education and training, as well as labour market systems related to employment? We try to make sure that each country has appropriate public policies addressing these areas, that there is a legislative framework to back it, and that the stakeholders are getting support in their implementation. So the whole cycle consists of policy development, adoption and implementation. By stakeholders, I mean governments, but as the policy should be inclusive, we are also working with employers, trade union associations at the national and sectoral levels, as well as civil society organisations. We have 35 partner countries, grouped according to the EU’s external instruments into enlargement, neighbourhood South and East, and Central Asia.
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Who benefits from your work? The ETF works at the systemic level, helping partner countries to strengthen vocational educational training and labour market institutions. So the first to benefit are the policy makers, i.e. both governments and their partners – associations of employers, trade unions and civil society associations as well as institutions that specialise in vocational education and training such as VET centres or council. We encourage countries to have an inclusive policy-making process, embracing civil society. Take the young Mediterranean leaders initiative in the Southern neighbourhood, in a region where young people make up more than half the population. We cannot develop policies for them. We have to work out policies together with them. In 2012, we organised a competition to select young leaders under the age of 30 with experience in public management, with a view to involving them in the policy-making process in the VET sector, known as the Torino Process (as the ETF is based in Torino). What is the source of funding for the ETF? We are non-commercial so we do not raise funds ourselves. We act as an external arm of EU policies in education, training and employment, so we are funded by the EU, with the money being allocated by co-decision of the European Parliament (EP) and the Council. The ETF functions within a multi-year financial framework. Under discussion now, is the 2014-2020 programme, based on a multi-year strategic plan with a mid-term benchmark in 2017. In addition, we submit the annual work programme.
This is a series of interviews with people involved in the Neighbourhood, prepared by the EU Neighbourhood Info Centre © 2013