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Publications
This catalogue contains all ETF publications available to download, including studies on our partner countries, corporate publications and statutory documents. All publications are free of charge.
Skills and skills development are again recognised by the international donor community to be important for poverty reduction. But it is not clear what this means for the systematic reforms of vocational education and training in the ETF partner countries. There is an urgent need to relate the development aid debate on skills development to the practice of system VET reforms in the transition countries. They can benefit from both the experience with skills development projects in developing countries and from the experience with national competence-based education and training policies in developed countries. These issues need to be clarified in order to understand the role that the ETF can play.
The aim of this note is to provide background reading and questions for discussion at the thematic workshop on employment policy in ETF partner countries at the Advisory Forum 2006. This paper consists of two sections that discuss current employment and employment policy trends in the EU and relevant experience in ETF partner countries. In addition, three seperate notes have been prepared covering in more detail developments in three broad regions: Western Balkans, MEDA, and CIS.
Poverty anywhere in the world affects us all. Apart from immense personal suffering, it causes social unrest and instability, which in turn are major causes of displacement, fractured societies and even deeper poverty. In the past 50 years, European countries have convincingly proved that educationand training are tremendously powerful tools to help people escape poverty and break through traditional social barriers into a world of opportunities for gainful employment, bringing dignity and self-respect. As such, Europe has much experience to offer its neighbouring regions in how education and training can be deployed to combat poverty. Its huge array of policies that over the years have contributed to the current European learning climate can be a source of inspiration and information that can greatly help policy makers in other countries to develop their own ways of tackling the challenges of poverty with the help of education and training. Much of the work presented in this publication is rooted in or developed further from the proceedings of the ETF Advisory Forum triennial conference held in June 2006 in Turin. The ETF Yearbook has the dual aim of helping ETF to reflect on their experience and to share it with colleagues in the European Union, in the ETF's partner countries and in the wider international education and training community.
