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McCoshan

McCoshan

Mon, 2013-05-13 09:23

• general

Andrew McCoshan is an associate fellow at the University of Warwick’s Centre for Education and Industry, and a director of Ecorys Research and Consulting. He was recently the lead author of a study of vocational training for the European Commission and directed a UK study to develop indicators on the responsiveness of vocational qualifications. He was interviewed by EurActiv’s Jeremy Fleming.

What is a dual vocational system?

Repeated doses of austerity under international bailouts have almost tripled Greece's jobless rate since its debt crisis began in 2009, weighing on an economy in its sixth year of recession.

Overall unemployment has risen to an all-time high of 27%, data showed on Thursday (9 May), while joblessness in the 15-to-24 age group jumped to 64.2% in February from 59.3% in January.

Hans-Werner Sinn, president of the Ifo Institute at the University of Munich, wrote recently that the migration of Roma will inevitably erode the German welfare state.

This position contradicts earlier statements by the European Commission, which said it had no evidence of so-called ‘benefit tourism’ from newer member states.

Focus groups commissioned by the Department for Energy and Climate Change (Decc) to assess the "perceptions" and "potential take-up" of the green deal and Energy Company Obligation (ECO) found significant concerns, a freedom of information request has revealed.

The green deal facilitates loans - paid back via energy bills - to allow property owners to make energy-saving improvements. The ECO was introduced in January to work alongside the green deal to force energy companies to help low-income and vulnerable groups to make similar improvements.

Business federations of Austria, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland held a conference in Brussels on 26 April to brainstorm on how best to present and transpose successful apprenticeship systems to other EU states.

With youth unemployment soaring across Europe, the apprenticeship - or dual education - model is seen as an efficient way of bringing youngsters closer to the job market by building their skills.

A Commission spokesman said on Thursday (25 April) that figures were missing to back the ministers' claim.

Two days before, the Commission had received a letter from the interior ministers of the UK, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands, warning that some cities in their countries were being put "under a considerable strain by certain immigrants from other member states".

Switzerland said on Wednesday (24 April) it would reintroduce quotas for EU workers, bowing to growing unease about immigration from poorer neighbours, in a decision Brussels says violates an accord.

Prosperous, landlocked Switzerland has seen the net influx of workers rise to up to 80,000 a year, contributing to a house price bubble and prompting criticism from right-wing parties.