Policies to improve the professional qualification of workers as strategic measure against unemployment and their articulation in the framework of the entrepreneurship 2020 action plan in Europe

Abstract

Associated to the accentuated situation of economic crisis globally registered, whose consequences have been particularly severe in some countries of the European Union such as Spain and Portugal, in recent years it has been evidenced an accelerated destruction of employment with dramatic effects at the social level. Undoubtedly, many causes have caused this situation as well as the incidence of unemployment is different depending on countries and, at national level, depending on the population characteristics. So, certain social groups show a greater risk of being affected, largely depending on the economic sector in which they provide their services, the nature of the engagement (temporary or indefinite), or other aspects such as age, sex or the level of qualification of workers and jobseekers. All this has turned this issue into the citizens’ main concern, even leading analysts and experts to talk on a breakup of the welfare state in Europe.

The described situation has impelled the politicians responsible for national governments and European institutions to promote various legislative initiatives to palliate the problem of unemployment. Specifically, and focusing attention on the above mentioned issue of the degree or level of qualification of workers, we can say that day by day it is more patent the need of designing employment policies linked to respective training and professional qualification systems. In other words, this implies the need to coordinate educational, employment and even macroeconomic policies in order to improve their efficiency and contribute to that national states are increasingly competitive and in a better position to face the challenge of substantially improving the state of well-being of the entire population.

Within this context, this paper aims analyzing the different legislative initiatives that have been developed at European Union level in order to promote an improvement of the professional qualification of workers, thus contributing to the reduction of unemployment, on the basis of the consideration and integration of the different models that have served as references for designing and construction of policies at the different European countries, i.e.: i) those focused on giving a greater importance to the academic aspects, but combined with a technical formation or professional practice (proper of Latin countries); ii) those focused on the more technical aspects of the formation and the professional performance, thus putting the academic aspects into the background as understanding them as proper of previous formative stages (which is proper of countries with an Anglo-Saxon training tradition); and iii) those based on a shared professional training system, combining the theoretical concepts taught in educative centres with professional practice in actual working environments (what has been named as “German educative model”).

Specifically, we consider those policies combining the goal of professional qualification improvement with the promotion of entrepreneurship attitudes within the framework of the Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan to boost the entrepreneurial spirit in Europe, showing their potential benefits as well as the main barriers for their effective implementation.