Initial Training and Further Training in the Europe of the Nineties: Current Trends and Perspectives for the Future. Occasional Paper No. 130.

In the 1990s, vocational training must focus on improving the qualifications and competence of Europe's work force. The need for skilled labor and managerial staff will increase considerably in many European countries. As Europe moves toward economic, social, and political union, vocational education comes into the picture at four levels simultaneously: local, regional, national, and European. This will doubtless lead to an increasing number of disputes over fields of competence. The immediate effects of the internal market on training and further training will be relatively minor. Instead of a mass migration (i.e., emigration), people with special qualifications will move in both directions. Mobility will be intraindustry as well as with respect to particular occupational groups, skills, and regions. Mobility will also emerge in the educational and vocational training systems. The indirect effects of the internal market will be more important than the direct. Pressure to obtain qualifications will increase. Vocational training is already crossing national frontiers. Efforts to establish a European vocational training policy have multiplied and intensified. Milestones along the long road to this policy will be the European vocational training passport and European job profiles. (Appended is information on the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training.) (Contains 43 references.) (YLB)