Access to continuing training in the Union. Report

The Committee endorses the approach adopted in drawing up the final report. The incorporation of different and sometimes contradictory points of view, all of them however relevant to improving access to training, has enhanced the methodological approach underlying the report, giving a broad overview of the progress achieved in implementing the recommendation. The Committee supports the initiatives being taken to standardize the criteria used in drawing up the reports of the Member States and social partners. Harmonization in this area in no way implies interference in the prerogatives of the Member States. Using similar parameters, rather, makes it easier to assess the situation with regard to access in all the Member States. The Committee is surprised that the report makes no mention of CEDEFOP's (The European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training) contribution to vocational training. The Committee feels that the Commission should take account of this as an additional component of the efforts being made to promote access to continuing training. The Committee calls on the Commission and the Member States, in the interests of equity and solidarity, to concentrate their efforts on those with the most acute skills-related problems, i.e. the young unemployed, the long-term unemployed, the unemployed over-forties, the least skilled workers etc. Finally, the Committee would like to stress the role to be played by the various institutional participants.�