Implementation of the Lisbon Objectives by the acceding and candidate countries

An article written by Jean-Raymond Masson for the European Journal of Vocational Training, N. 33, published by Cedefop. The article introduces a special issue of the Journal, focussing on the future of vocational education and training in the context of the EU enlargement. Jean-Raymond Masson shows the scale of the results already achieved and the challenges which the new member States and the candidate countries need to face in order to implement lifelong learning strategies. He reveals how the new Member States generally lag well behind the EU15 in vocational education and training. The gap would appear to be even wider than is evident from raw analysis of European Union indicators. He shows in particular how the gaps and the difficulties encountered are rooted in the problems of economic transition and of shifting social and cultural paradigms, and how the differences will make it difficult to achieve the goal of making Europe the most competitive knowledgebased economy in the world by 2010.