On the 15th of november, the college of european commissioners gathered withtin the framework of the mobility of competences and talent package. European commission presented renwed objectives to tackle international mobility of students and young citizens, especifically apprentices. This proposition, coupled with a set of recommandations, aims to stenghen « the share of graduates with a learning mobility experience [so it would represents] at least 25% », while theses figures were about 15% in 2022. The European Commission also wants to accelerate the inclusiveness of the European Education Area by focusing on mobilites of students with least opportunities, so 20% of them would go abroad, and on apprentices. Focus on european ambitions to « promoting the EU as an attractive destination for talents to learn, study and work ».
Apprentices : a public far from mobility
International mobility is an integral part of european project, in particular since the 90s and the creation of Erasmus+ programme that spread universities’ exhanges at the european scale. However, apprentices remains largely far from international experiences. In addition to the general obstacles to mobility – financial, linguistic, social and information barriers – apprentices face inherent difficulties to their situation and status. Indeed, enhancing the value of their qualifications and recognising the skills they have acquired whilst abroad is a difficult challenge to overcome. In addition, companies are quite reluctant to let their students go abroad or to host international students.
International apprenticeships: a vector for attractiveness
While Europe faces a complicated context of decline of available technical and skilled labor-force, the commission wants to boost learning opportunities so that 15% of apprentices would go abroad in 2030, compared with just 3% today. The EU’s ambition is to on one hand, becoming an « attractive destination for talents from third countries to learn, train and study » and on the other hand, « boosting innovation and job creation » for a better economic stability. To achieve this, the cross-disciplinary skills developed during an international experience need to be promoted, and an educational paradigm needs to focusing on the mobility of apprentices. This new policy framework will be supported by european mechanisms such as the Eramsus+ programme, the European Solidarity Corps and the European University Alliances. However, in compliance with the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality, Member States are free to follow and implement these recommendations. Disparities between states in this respect are significant, even if some countries have committed to improving the mobility of apprentices, notably Denmark, Germany, Poland or France, which have started working on an erasmus of apprenticeship.
Sources : Eurobarometer surveys: Youth and Democracy in the European Year of Youth – May 2022; Integration of young people into the labour market with particular focus on traineeships – April 2023
European Commission – Proposal for a Council Recommendation ‘Europe on the Move’ – learning mobility for everyone – Novembre 2023 file:///C:/Users/europ/Downloads/europe-on-the-move-recommendation-COM_2023_719_1_EN.pdf
