“While Europe should aim to match the US in terms of innovation, we should aim to surpass the US in supply. training and learning opportunities for adultsas well as good jobs for all, throughout their lives.
In this passage, contained in the “Report on European Competitiveness” presented by Draghi on September 11, one of the key messages for the relaunch of the EU takes shape. But what does it mean to focus on adult education and what positive examples can we follow?
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Adult education: Europe needs the skills of the future
According to data published by Eurostat in the Educational Achievement Statistics 2023, 2024, 40% of Europeans have completed higher education, a good result compared to other countries, but the quality of European training programs and their ability to guide young people and adults to work remains lower than in Asia, international survey reveals OECD PISA on educational models around the world.
European education, essential to closing the gap between job supply and demand, remains anchored in traditional programs and pays little attention to the challenges posed by digitalization, thus hindering the possibility of relocation of workers and the unemployed, especially adults. Furthermore, according to Eurostat, only 37% of the latter participate in training programs and this figure has not changed, even in Italy. According to an ISTAT study on adult training (2022), only one unemployed person (between 25 and 64 years old) in five is engaged in professional retraining, compared to a European average of one in three.
However, adult education has been at the center of European programs for years.
Participation rate in formal and non-formal activities in Italy and Europe – ISTAT 2022 data
Training 50 million additional adult workers, the key to Europe's success
In 2023, European Year of Skills, the EU has set its own objective of train at least 60% of adults each year: an ambitious objective, considering that to achieve it, around 50 million additional workers would have to be involved.
In the report on European competitiveness, Draghi clearly outlined how to act: first of all increase investments of the EU for skills development, currently stuck at 64 billion. We also need greater involvement from Member States and the industrial world in terms of continuing training and a conscious choice to direct it towards the most sought-after professions.
In this context, a starting point for improving adult education comes precisely from Europe.
Skills shortage in Europe – Source Eurostat, cited in the “European Competitiveness Report” 2024.
From Finland, a successful method of adult education
The report on European competitiveness identifies a successful training model in the continuing education system of Finland, a country where two out of three adults participate in formal or non-formal learning activities each year and also develop above-average technological skills.
Training organizations are mainly public or parapublic institutes, social partners (such as unions) are involved in defining study programs, while employers directly finance training. Adult training mainly concerns digital technologies and energy transition, so as not to leave anyone behind.
More generally, Finland has chosen to focus on continuing and permanent training of citizens as a necessary element of people’s professional development.
Continuing training of people, an opportunity for social inclusion
The example of Finland, cited by Draghi in the report, encourages Europe to change its approach to education: no longer relegated to a period of life then to occasional moments, but considered as a continuous investment and above all necessary. A investment aimed at understanding ongoing technological innovationto enable adults to enter or remain in a changing labor market.
An investment that ultimately becomes an opportunity for social inclusion for which the active and economic involvement of all the actors who will benefit from these skills remains essential: companies, social partners, States and adults themselves, without whom technological and/or educational changes would have difficulty taking off .
