About 200 hundred years ago, Wilhelm von Humboldt in Germany established theoretical foundations for so-called "free universities", i.e. high schools that can by themselves decide education and training programs. However, life is changing and so is the universities' aims and purposes. Present days' educational requirements for higher educated people do not belong only to the "governing elites". For example, in Denmark the task is to provide at least 25 per cent of students with long-standing education aimed at tackling global challenges. That makes education process "targeted": aimed at providing necessary education and training for modern social and economic challenges. The same is, of course, true for the Baltic States.
For all this to happen, the member states' education and training systems need investment. It could come from businesses, which would harvest the new and much needed workforce.
Education, presently, is in the centre of policy-making in both the EU and the member states. Every year, when the Commission, together with the member states identifies priorities for reforms, the Commission encourages all governments to modernize and invest in their education systems. The EU's message is clear: investment in education and training must continue; even under strict conditions in public finances.
Androulla Vassiliou, Commissioner responsible for education and culture in her lecture in University of Maastricht (The Netherlands, 6 February 2014) underlined that it is in the common European interest to educate and train specialists for new and modern challenges that national economies need to sustain global competition. The new market challenges in Europe and around the world need in greater numbers new, more sophisticated specialist with new skills.
The EU authorities are striving to search for a new "European narrative", a new Europe-wide analysis to understand (and explain) why the Union's members need each other more than ever before. The starting point is Europe's place in the world. The ultimate question is, what does it mean to be European presently, and how the member states see the EU role in the world?
European reminiscence
The year 2014 is symbolic year: 100 years since the tragic event of the WW-1, the war that cost more than ten million lives, and planted the deadly seed for many more conflicts in the century that followed.
Historians have argued about the causes of the First World War ever since it ended, and that debate continues. For example, recent bestseller, a non-fiction book in Germany is a detailed account of the causes of the war, written by an Australian historian who lectures in England.
Another event, 75 years since the WW-2; however, there are some good events: 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall and 10 years since new 10 member states from Eastern and Central Europe joined the European Communities.
The Commissioner underlines, that 1914 saw the failure of Europe's elites: political leaders at that time lacked imagination to see that war was coming. They lacked imagination to see that it would cost so many lives. They were incapable of breaking free from their nationalist attitudes. They were unable to build trust among peoples, unable to meet together to resolve their differences.
In other words, it was "the absence of Europe", Europe that today is taken for granted and which helps to eradicate the threats of military conflicts. A century ago, there were no common institutions, no common political culture that could prevent Europe's leaders from falling into narrow national concerns.
Vital role of education in European challenges
Education and science –as the main tools- can help people to choose and shape the society they want to live in. Education, the Commissioner stressed was, surely, one of the places where people can rediscover European humanity, the values and a sense of meaning.
However, Europe faces a number of urgent challenges, and the EU' task is to help the member states and their education systems to adapt to a fast-changing world; hence the education policy is the EU's supplementing competence.
One of the most difficult problems is the mismatch between what young people are learning in universities and what the world markets demand. This partially clarifies the reason that youth unemployment has reached unacceptable levels in many EU countries. Thus, today, one in three employers cannot find people with the right skills to fill job vacancies; two million jobs across the EU are waiting for the right job-profiles.
This is a complex problem with no easy answers, and it will take time before the real progress takes place. Nevertheless, this issue is at the very centre of the debate on education, and the EU is working closely with the member states to find solutions.
Above all, the EU needs to reform education systems so that they give pupils and students the right mix of skills for a world that is increasingly mobile, multicultural and fast changing. The member states have to give young people the tools that will allow them to find their own path to happiness, fulfilment and place in the society.
Reforming the system
A crucial task is the way to reform national systems of vocational education and training; several member states have already started to undertake such reforms. The rewards for success are clear: those countries with strong vocational systems often enjoy lower levels of youth unemployment, argued the Commissioner.
The need is to support and finance the new alliances between training providers and businesses to modernize vocational teaching; and at the same time, to boost the quality and quantity of apprenticeships across Europe.
For the same reasons, there is a need to bring universities and businesses closer together, so that the former can modernize curricula and teaching methods. Education must remain independent and freethinking, but this should not prevent universities from opening up to the communities around them. On the contrary, this is where their future lies – and increasingly they need to open up to the world.
A global race for best talents in higher education is visible: the best teachers, the best courses and the best students are known; this is a race that Europe wants to win as the EU economic prosperity depends on it. However, the respect of EU fundamental values in that competition must be ensured, the Commissioner added.
This means that it is the EU's duty to ensure fair and open access, as well as supporting the underprivileged students; the EU wants to make sure that this is a race to the top – not the bottom – and that every young person has a fair chance to succeed, whatever his or her background.
EU programs for better education
Erasmus+ is the European Union's response to these challenges with many opportunities. Erasmus+ is the new EU programme for education, training and youth. It will give four million people the opportunity to study, train, work and volunteer in a new country.
With a budget of almost €15 billion (an increase of 40 per cent compared to the previous programs), Erasmus+ offers hope to young people across Europe as well as to the general public and education institutions.
The Commission strives to put education and training at the heart of the European Union's plans for growth and jobs. The human capital embedded in knowledge, skills and creativity of people, this is what will deliver the intelligent, sustainable and inclusive growth. So to say, Erasmus+ turns that vision into reality.
Learning mobility remains at the heart of the new programme: while studying abroad, young people develop many of the skills that will serve them for the rest of their life. They learn to stand on their own, they learn to live and work with people from other cultures, they learn a new language and a different way of thinking.
They see the world through the eyes of someone else and they open their minds.
One of the innovations of the new programme is a loan guarantee, which will help bachelor/master students to spend time in another country, as Erasmus+ covers more and more parts of the education system.
The EU is to be prepared for a mobile and multicultural Europe, a continent that sees diversity as an opportunity rather than a threat, a Europe that is open among its neighbours and open to the world.
This, of course is true for the member states' vision of educating their work force: the strategy is "common European" though the states' approach could be different. Erasmus+ could be a good helping hand for European's youth.
