EU urged to address paradox of high unemployment and skills shortages

High youth unemployment and shortage of skilled labour is not a problem particular to the European Union. It is also a problem in Asia. Shortage of skilled labour is also a problem and leads to import of skilled labour. Youth want to enter into academic universities thinking that that will lead to higher paying jobs and status, upward social mobility but the fact is that become unemployed or unemployable. They would be better off learning skills but learning skills must lead to better paying jobs and status but corporations are working on the basis of cheap skilled labour and these are found in Asia and elsewhere and in the new Member States of the EU. So, it needs re-thinking of corporations especially if they embrace CSR that raising wages for skiled labour is a social responsibility even if it cuts into their profit margins. if corporations believe also in humanity, in human values, they have to raise wages and better the social status of labour. Money means better life and social status which is a feature of capitalist life.

We must note also that not everyone can be skilled to that high degree required and so what is to be done for those with lower skills or without skills. How can they have gainful employment? Are they condemned to living on unemployment benefits? Unemployment schemes now speak of skilling the unemployed but are these the correct skills. Corporations must come in to state what skills are required and give all a chance to be skilled. Obviously individual attitudes are important to learn skills, to learn about being independent and not be dependent on the dole.

This subject is more complicated of course. This is just one viewpoint. The development of capitalism, of the needs of industry, of the services sector .... are full of contradictions.

From my perspective, the issue would seem to be that the EU is not up-to-date with either present or future skills needs. So for instance EUROGEO estimates the geospatial sector (an ICT sector) now has a shortage of 45-50,000 workers in Europe. The trouble is the geospatial sector is not even defined as a workforce group by the EC - so no research is being carried out to understand the needs and demands of an industry growing at 7-10% per annum.
Europe needs to identify these areas and focus on developing education in them. The iGuess 2 project (www.iguess.eu) has introduced and piloted state-of-the-art training, but this needs to be scaled up. What options are there for this to be done? Very few. National education systems do not respond, even when facts are placed before them. They cite lack of opportunity, a crowded curriculum or slow change processes as reasons why tradition permeates.
So antiquated education systems dominate across Europe. National curricula provide little or no incentive for innovation, they are dominated by agencies who do not encourage change. As a result, the uses of ICT in education remain predominantly based on 1990's parameters. Social media, the Cloud, mobile devices and Web 2.0 are not embraced, in fact they are actively discouraged as 'disruptive' in many institutions.
The EC is also slow to respond, while looking at futures is being attempted (for example via Futurium), implementing and managing change requires strong leadership in education. Training (and rewarding) of generations of education leaders is essential - those with open minds and creative visions.
Under the digital-earth.eu project (www.digital-earth.eu) we are trying to identify and reward Centres of Excellence across Europe, who can respond to the changing technological environment, support teachers and educators, work with the (geospatial) industry and advise Ministries and other stakeholders. Is this a model that could be tried with other skill shortage areas?

To Paul, I have heard that it is more expensive to pay the pension bill than to pay unemployment allowances. This is a big contradiction. The pensioners paid for their pension and expect the return. So, it is easier to keep them in jobs. There are countries like Canada and Australia which, I understand do not have retirement ages and so people keep working. The experience and skills are considered valuable. Of course, young people cannot get in. If there were places for young people to occupy, will employers want to employ young people on long term contracts. We are seeing an age of precarious jobs.

I am concerned about those who have no university education as most of us responding are. Where are the jobs for them.

Martin spoke of cheaper foreign skilled labour in the IT. There's lot of it in Asia, for example. Trying to bring in Indians. This is an issue of the international division of labour, globalisation.

Yes, education is an issue. Has always been an issue of how university and industry cooperate. Industry too has to play a part in getting directly involved in curricula-building and not expect universities and schools to produce instant skilled workers. German dual system could be looked at.

This problem of education is world-wide. What is education for? Commodfication of education: is it good? Does it produce the creative and inventive mind? ETc. Etc.