The European Parliament has adopted a report on the Erasmus+ programme and other tools to support life-long learning. The Erasmus+ programme centralises the programmes on training and education, formerly comprising Erasmus (students), Comenius (primary and secondary schools), vocational education and training (Leonardo Da Vinci) and adult education (Grundtvig).
What is there for older persons?
The Parliament deplores that especially vocational education and adult education have lost visibility in the Erasmus+ programme, often seen by outsiders as being only for higher education students.
The Parliament underlined here the importance of training and upskilling needs of long-term unemployed and as well as the role of senior citizens in training programmes. It demands in this new report that continuous vocational education and training should be taken into account by the programme and that mobility retraining programmes should be open for unemployed people of all ages. The Parliament calls upon the Commission to publish a Green paper on vocational education, training and mobility and the recognition of skills and competences in Europe
An important issue in the field of lifelong learning is the certification and recognition of skills: member states have very different systems of valuing skills from informal (non-certifying courses) and non-formal (gained by experience) skills. Even for formal qualifications, acquired during an Erasmus+ scholarship, recognition is not a given. The Parliament highlights these misgivings and calls for a stronger recognition of this issue.
AGE Platform Europe welcomes the Parliament report and its role in highlighting the importance of the Erasmus+ programme also for older citizens. Informal and non-formal education should have a greater role and its outcomes certified and recognised by a common framework, in order to value the rich experience of older workers. Erasmus+ has also an important role in supporting senior volunteering and therefore to develop active and thereby healthy ageing in Europe.
Read the report here.
