Commission Recommendation of 6 July 1977 to the Member States on
Vocational Preparation for Young People Who Are Unemployed or Threatened by
Unemployment (77/467/EEC)
Commission Recommendation of 6 July 1977 to the Member States on
Vocational Preparation for Young People Who Are Unemployed or Threatened by Unemployment
(77/467/EEC)
Youth unemployment in the European Community has grown continuously since
1970. The level of youth unemployment has more than doubled since 1973. In the
spring of 1977 approximately 2 000 000 young people under 25 in the European
Community were unemployed.
The outlook is uncertain. The expected improvement in the economic situation
should result in some increase in employment. In most Member States the increase
in demand for output is leading to a revival in the demand for labour. It
remains to be seen whether this demand will be adequate to absorb the available
labour.
In addition the potential labour supply in Member States is expected to
increase by about two million people between 1976 and 1980 owing to a
significant increase in the number of people entering the labour market and a
fall in the number of those retiring. Unemployment as a whole will remain a
serious socio-economic problem, and youth unemployment may become more acute. In
the longer term (from about 1985 onwards) the situation should become easier as
the young people born in the years of low birth rates since 1968 start entering
the labour market.
Youth unemployment is not caused solely by quantitative factors. It is also
the outcome of a growing difference between the characteristics of the young
people entering the labour market and the nature of the jobs which the economy
provides for them, particularly in terms of the level of qualifications and the
conditions of work.
It is always a serious matter for young people to find that work cannot be
obtained when they enter the labour market. The traumatic effect of being
rejected from active participation in economic life before one has even had the
experience of a job and the independence which this gives tends to warp the
attitude of young people to work itself, to job mobility and to society at large
for many years ahead.
To solve the unemployment problems of young people calls for action over a
wide range: economic policy, education policy, labour-market policy, in which
the Communities have already started a number of actions.
However, in the Commission's opinion, the most urgent task is to help those
young people who are unemployed or threatened by unemployment and who have no
opportunity for vocational training. Hence the Commission has decided, as a
first step, to draw up a recommendation concerning the vocational preparation of
young people in this specific category. The Commission concurs with the opinion
expressed by both the European Parliament and the Economic and Social Committee
that this recommendation should be supplemented by additional (and possibly more
binding) measures to promote the employment of young people.
The decision as to priority meets the wish of the Social Partners as it was
expressed at the meeting of the Standing Employment Committee of 3 June 1975,
and the concern expressed on numerous occasions by Ministers of social affairs.
There have been intensive consultations with the national authorities and with
the Social Partners; the experience of certain Member States in this field was
also taken into account.
During the preparatory work, it became apparent that it was helpful to
distinguish young people in employment difficulties according to their
situation: - the situation of young people who are unemployed and who have never
received adequate vocational training,
the situation of young people who have found employment without having
received vocational training, and for this reason are threatened by
unemployment,
the situation of young people who have received a vocational training but who
have either been unable to find a job or have lost their job.
In agreement with the Social Partners, the present recommendation is aimed at
the first of these situations, which covers, in most Member States, a
substantial proportion of the unemployed. The second situation is also covered
in the present recommendation in so far as the problems of these young people
are the same as those of the young people in the first situation. On the other
hand, the problems of young people who have received vocational training are of
a different character and, for this reason are not covered in this
recommendation.
This recommendation is situated in the context of the previous actions of
the Community in the field of vocational training. The 1963 Council Decision on
the General Principles for Implementing a Vocational Training Policy provides
that "in conformity with these general principles and in order to obtain
the objectives stated therein, the Commission may propose to the Council or to
the Member States, within the framework of the Treaty, such appropriate measures
as may appear to be necessary" (1).
The General Guidelines for the Development of the Programme of Vocational
Training at Community Level (2) accepted by the Council on 26 July 1971
reinforced the Council's intention that vocational training should be used as an
instrument of an active employment policy. The Recommendation of the Commission
on Vocational Guidance (3) has already called upon Member States to develop
vocational guidance for young people and adults; to adapt the organizational
development of vocational guidance and its means of action to the needs of the
population; to be concerned with better continuity in vocational guidance and
its close cooperation with employment offices, and to strengthen the general
coordination of the vocational guidance and other services; and to strengthen
cooperation within the Community.
The Social Action Programme approved by the Council in 1974 (4) includes the
examination by the Commission of the possibility of developing Community
initiatives to help, among others, unemployed school leavers. The Council
Decision of 22 July 1975 (5), to make grants from the European Social Fund
available to young unemployed people, particularly those seeking their first
employment, represents an initial step in this direction. The proposed
recommendation represents another. The Commission intends as far as possible to
take into account the terms of the recommendation in the allocation of Social
Fund grants to training programmes for young people.
The problems of transition from school to work are also being tackled in the
Action programme in the field of education approved by the Council and the
Ministers of Education meeting within the Council on 9 February 1976 (6).
The specific measures to be taken were enumerated in a subsequent resolution in
December 1976 (7). At Community level they include pilot projects, studies and
visits, as well as the preparation of reports and statistics.
Certain aspects of the employment problems of women and girls are dealt with
in the Council Directive of 9 February 1976 (8) on the equal treatment for men
and women as regards access to employment, vocational training, and promotion.
This Directive lays down the principle of non-discrimination between men and
women in, inter alia, vocational training. In accordance with this principle,
the present recommendation applies with equal force to young men and young women
without discrimination. However the special problems of young women in the field
of vocational training require additional measures which the Commission is
currently preparing.
The specific concern of this recommendation is the large number of young
people who enter the labour market every year without adequate preparation for
the world of work. They leave school at the minimum school leaving age (which in
the Community ranges from 14 to 16 years), often with a poor effective command
of the basic skills. Since at present they receive little guidance or training,
they have difficulty in finding employment at times when the general level of
unemployment is high. Thus it is this category of young people which needs the
help of well integrated guidance, training and placement services.
The recommendation should provide help for those young people who, without
any prior vocational training, have found work of an unskilled type. Such work
is often subject to redundancy at short notice. The recommendation therefore
also covers young people who have or have had a job of this type. The aim is to
improve their chances of keeping their jobs or of finding new jobs.
The action proposed in this recommendation should in no way be regarded as
affecting the efforts of Member States to expend their general vocational
training system.
The principal object of this recommendation is to promote, in the Member
States, means of providing, at the end of compulsory schooling, an appropriate
vocational preparation for young people who have no other opportunity to receive
vocational training either at school or with an employer. The term
"vocational preparation" is used in this recommendation to designate
those activities that aim to assure for young people a satisfactory transition
from school to work by providing them with the minimum knowledge and skills
necessary for working life.
Despite the progress made in recent years in the area of vocational
training, a large proportion of school leavers in the Community still receive
little or no vocational training either before or after leaving school. Even at
times of full employment the transition from school to working life is often a
painful and frustrating experience. When work is difficult to find this
experience of unemployment in the early years may affect the attitude to work of
young people throughout their lives.
Hence governments should assume the responsibility for ensuring that
unemployed young people receive effective vocational preparation. The form and
content of such preparation will vary according to the content of the compulsory
education provided by the individual Member State, the needs of its labour
market, and the needs of the young people concerned.
The young people who have the greatest difficulty in finding jobs are often
those who also have benifited least from what the school system was able to
offer. They may therefore already have begun to consider themselves failures and
be lacking in confidence. Their knowledge of career opportunities is also likely
to be limited. Hence the provision of vocational guidance becomes more important
and should include the assessment of aptitudes and abilities using methods that
do not rely solely on the school record, so that advice on appropriate job
opportunities and the appropriate training for them may be given.
The school leavers who have the poorest results also often lack basic skills
that are taken for granted in the adult world. They find it difficult to
understand instructions, to complete forms, to communicate effectively by word
of mouth and writing, and to use the social and other services provided by
Member States. Hence some reinforcement of basic knowledge and skills, and help
with the application of these to practical situations is likely to be needed.
Many of those who leave school at the minimum school leaving age do so
because they find the school atmosphere uncongenial and unresponsive to their
adolescent interests. Therefore the vocational preparation proposed should be
set in a context appropriate to young adults and related closely to their
practical needs. Formidable tasks remain in developing the right approaches and
systems. It is possible that the relevant methods and techniques in the field of
adult education and training which have been developed in the Member States
since the Second World War may be useful. The preparation should equip young
people not only with the social skills needed at work, but also provide basic
practical training in a well defined area of skills, such as building,
engineering or office-work. This basic training should be so designed as to
enable the trainee to undertake a specific job in the chosen area and also
qualify him to move into recognized courses of operative or craft training.
Since the problems of many young people also stem from ignorance of the
world of work, contextual studies and practical experience should form part of
vocational preparation:
contextual studies would include material relevant
to people at work, such as the basic principles of economic and social
organization, the law relating to social security and employment, the roles of
management and of trade unions, the nature of the world of work, industrial
safety and hygiene, industrial relations and the use of guidance, training and
placement services;
practical experience of work could be provided by various means which could
include one of the following:
encouraging employers, where appropriate by
means of incentives, to take on young people for periods of practical
experiences without commitment,
simulating work experience in the training context,
organizing a publicly financed work-creation programme.
Where vocational preparation involves "in-plant" training or work
experience provided with aid from public funds, it is important that this is
organized so as to achieve the greatest benefit for the trainee. There is a
danger that the training or work experience will be too limited in scope,
restricted to specific skills of immediate utility, i.e. its content will be
influenced more by the need of the employer for immediate production than by the
broader needs of the trainees. Hence it is necessary for public authorities to
take measures to ensure the quality of such "in-plant" training and
work experience.
In order to ensure that no obstacles are placed in the way of young people
who wish to undertake such vocational preparation, governments should take
action in two areas:
young people threatened by unemployment should be given
reasonable leave of absence from their work in order to attend such courses,
with the aim of enabling them to keep their jobs or to find new jobs;
all young people attending these courses (both those who are unemployed and
those in employment) should be paid maintenance allowances. The allowance should
be related to means and should be sufficient to cover reasonable living
expenses, fees (if any) and the incidental costs of the courses, and should be
large enough to ensure that young persons attending such forms of vocational
preparation are financially better off than they would be if they remained
unemployed.
In order to achieve the recommended objective of providing adequate
vocational preparation for all unemployed young people, it will be necessary to
use all existing and potential educational and training resources. The Social
Partners have both resources and experience to contribute and should therefore
be associated with the planning, organization and implementation of vocational
preparation programmes.
In one Member State the minimum school leaving age is lower than the minimum
age at which young people may begin work or apprenticeships or attend training
courses at institutions run by the employment services, since these activities
are classified as work. Clearly this situation is unsatisfactory. Until the
school leaving age is raised to close the gap between it and the minimum age for
work the law should be changed so as to permit school leavers to undertake
vocational training or to take up employment.
It seems necessary to draw attention in this context to the importance
(recognized previously in the Recommendation of the Commission on Vocational
Guidance (1) to the importance of close coordination of the activities of
guidance, training and placement. In particular it is important that the
vocational guidance and vocational training services work in close liaison with
the placement services. At present this does not always occur since in a number
of Member States the responsibility for the different services continues to rest
with different government departments or agencies.
The Commission of the European Communities has therefore prepared the
following recommendation to the Member States. The recommendation finds its
basis in those provisions of the Treaty of Rome which are directly concerned
with the employment and training of young people. These include Article 117
which expressly stresses the need for an improvement in the living and working
conditions of workers; Article 118 which assigns to the Commission the duty of
promoting close cooperation between Member States on social problems,
particularly on employment, and basic and advanced vocational training; the
general principles for implementing a common vocational training policy laid
down by the Council on the basis of Article 128. The recommendation is based on
Article 155, which empowers the Commission to formulate recommendations. (1) See
paragraph 11.
On these grounds and as a first action to promote the employment of young
people, the Commission of the European Communities, pursuant to the objectives
and terms of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community and in
particular to Article 155 thereof, to the Decision of the Council of Ministers
of 2 April 1963 and after consulting the European Parliament (1) and the
Economic and Social Committee (2) recommends to the Member States that they take
the measures set out below.
Vocational preparation should be made available to young people between the
end of compulsory attendance and the age of 25 who are either unemployed or
thereatened by unemployment, and who have no other opportunity for vocational
training. Where necessary, priority should be given to those who leave school
with no formal educational qualifications.
The object of vocational preparation should include, as appropriate:
vocational guidance, aimed at relating the aptitudes and interests of the young
person concerned to training and to employment opportunities;
the reinforcement and application of basic skills such as oral and written
expression and elementary mathematical calculation, as well as the social skills
needed to work;
understanding the basic principles of economic and social organization, the
law relating to social security and employment, the roles of management and of
trade unions, the nature of the world of work, industrial safety and hygiene,
industrial relations, and the use of guidance, training and placement services;
practical initial training in a broad skills area which is so designed as to
enable the trainee to undertake a specific job in the chosen area and also
qualify him to undertake more advanced training at a later stage;
practical experience of work, either in an enterprise or by such other means
as provide equivalent experience.
Vocational preparation should use modern teaching methods appropriate to the
age and adult status of the young people.
In providing vocational preparation full use should be made of all existing
training resources and experience including those of employers, trade unions,
and other appropriate bodies. The Social Partners should be associated with the
planning, organization and implementation of vocational preparation.
Where vocational preparation involves the financing from public funds of
in-plant training and/or work experience, public authorities should ensure that
both the training and the work experience is of good quality and relevant to the
needs of the young people.
Young people threatened by unemployment should be given reasonable leave of
absence from their work in order to undertake vocational preparation, with the
aim of enabling them to keep their jobs or to find new jobs.
Allowances sufficient to cover maintenance, fees (if any) and the incidental
costs of courses should be paid, in accordance with means, to young people
attending publicly approved forms of vocational preparation. The maintenance
allowance should be large enough to ensure that young people attending such
forms of vocational preparation are financially better off than they would be if
they remained unemployed.
Action should be taken to inform young people of the schemes of vocational
preparation available and of the facilities provided to enable them to follow
the courses.
B. COORDINATION OF LEGISLATION RELATING TO COMPULSORY SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND TO
ACCESS TO WORK
The Member States shall examine their legislation and take such steps as may
be necessary to ensure that young people who leave school at the minimum school
leaving age are not prevented by legal restrictions from undertaking vocational
training or taking up employment. (1)Resolution of the European Parliament
embodying its opinion on the recommendation: 18 November 1976. OJ No C 293,
13.12.1976, p. 48. (2)Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the draft
recommendation: 26 January 1977. OJ No C 61, 10.3.1977, p. 25.
The Member States should ensure that there is effective coordination between
the vocational guidance services, the vocational training services and placement
services. In order to ensure full information about the condition of the labour
market Member States should ensure that employers and trade unions are
associated with these services at both national and local levels.
The Member States shall inform the Commission before 31 December 1978
and at yearly intervals thereafter of the measures that they have taken to
implement this recommendation.
The Commission will periodically publish a report on the action taken by
Member States to implement this recommendation.
