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Table of Contents
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Abstract
This paper presents a vision of how the Europass networks Innovation Working
Group thinks Europass should look in 2020.
Europass is now 11 years old and some of the Europass documents precede the
Europass Decision1. Save for aesthetic changes, the Europass documents remain the
same as they did in excess of a decade ago.
Few would argue that Europass is a European Commission success story. Europass
documents have been used in their millions, and it is one of the European
Commissions best known brands.
Despite this, labour markets, education systems, modes of learning and (in
particular) technology has changed enormously. Digitisation has revolutionised the
way information and data is used, and Europass must change. Whilst the CV, and
Diploma Supplements are used in huge numbers, other Europass documents (albeit
in some cases niche documents) are not widely used, not fit for purpose and in
danger of becoming obsolete.
In particular, the Working Group believes that Europass Mobility, the Certificate
Supplement and Diploma Supplement need to be modernised, and made more
suitable to the needs of end users and stakeholders. The Language Passport should
be absorbed into the CV as Working Group members see little tangible benefit in
having it as a stand-alone document. Save for the Language Passport, there should
be a move away from self-assessment tools.
When developing Europass, labour and education market needs must be taken into
account, and sector stakeholders consulted throughout the process. There should
also be a move away from Europass documents and towards services as it is
perceived that documents in the traditional sense will become obsolete in the digital
age. Facilitating the recording and recognition of non-formal and informal learning
needs to be a priority as it is an area where Europass can be of most influence.
The Innovation Working Group sees Europass an online service that includes a
Personal Environment containing all sorts of information about the users skills,
qualifications, working experience and more. It will contain information verified by
third parties, which employers and other labour and education market actors can
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DECISION No 2241/2004/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 15 December
2004 on a single Community framework for the transparency of qualifications and competences
(Europass)
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rely upon. This verified information will be issued through a separate, but linked
Issuing Environment.
These Personal and Issuing Environments will form a stable base, which will allow for
the importing and exporting of digital information in whatever form future labour
and education market needs dictate, and utilising whatever technologies become
available in the future. Because this data will contain large quantities of quality,
verified data on skills and qualifications, this data can also be utilised to inform policy
and education and labour market needs.
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Introduction
Policy background
The EU 2020 Strategy outlined the general strategy, and outlined headline targets, to
create the conditions for smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth. EU 2020s flagship
initiative The Agenda for New Skills and Jobs provides actions including:
Improving flexibility and security in the labour market.
Equipping people with the right skills for jobs
In addition the New Skills for New Jobs initiative set out to:
promote better anticipation of future skills needs;
develop better matching between skills and labour market needs;
bridge the gap between the worlds of education and work.
Europass has the potential, together with other European tools like ESCO, to perform
a vital role in contributing to many of these targets and initiatives up to 2020 and
beyond. In particular, if developed properly, it can provide data to anticipate skills
needs, match skills to jobs and provide education and labour market intelligence. In
a broader policy perspective, Europass does, and can continue to facilitate the free
movement of workers around the European Union as outlined in article 45 of the
Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union [2012] OJ C 326.
Europass was a key component on the consultation for the European Area for Skills
and Qualifications, and is now one of the focuses of the consultation on the New
Skills Agenda for Europe.
At the same time, there has been talk for some time about making changes to the
Europass Decision. The reason for this is that the Europass decision is, in the opinion
of the European Commission, too prescriptive.
It is in this context that the Europass networks Innovation Working Group is putting
forward their vision for the future of Europass.
It is worth noting that, whilst the publication of this paper coincides with the current
consultation on the New Skills Agenda for Europe, it was conceived separately, not in
response to that consultation.
With the European Commission having communicated their intention to revise the
Europass Decision, it is an opportune time to consider how Europass might look in
the future.
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stakeholders. This includes the Europass documents themselves (though we propose
that the concept of documents in the traditional sense may, in time, disappear), as
well as peripheral tools (Europass Interoperability and related tools for example),
and the use of modern and emerging technologies to distribute information to users
and stakeholders.
Taking all of this in mind, the Innovation Working Group has concentrated on 4 main
areas in this paper, and to an extent each area is linked with and builds on the
others:
Simplifying the process in deciding how Europass should evolve, we should
assess what is successful with the existing portfolio, and work to improve the
products and services taking into account feedback from stakeholders
across the whole of Europe.
Labour market needs Europass is probably best known for the Europass CV
(it is by some order of magnitude the most popular Europass document, and
probably the most popular standard CV template in the world) and its use in
the labour market. Despite this, the other existing Europass documents also
play a role. To develop Europass in this area, current and future labour
market needs must be established and met.
Education Market needs Europass also plays an important role in the
recording and recognition of formal and informal learning. Learning is
increasingly taking place outside of a formal context, particularly as
technologies evolve. Unfortunately not all of this learning is identified,
documented or recognised. Europass has the potential to play a very
important role in this area.
Futureproofing The Europass documents have not really changed very
much since the original Europass decision in 2005. This is despite huge
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changes in the labour and education markets and, in particular, technology.
There is general agreement that, despite its successes, Europass needs to be
updated, and kept up to date particularly in an environment where
commercial products receive considerable investment.
The following sections outline the general conclusions that the Innovation Working
Group came to in these areas, and puts forward our concept for how we believe
Europass can build on its successes, keep up with new and emerging technologies,
and above all meet the needs of our target groups in providing a platform for aiding
the transparency of skills, qualifications and experience in modern Europe.
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Simplifying the Process: Analysis of the current Europass Portfolio
The group also feels that it will be necessary for Europass to continually evolve as
National, European and worldwide employment and recognition practices change,
and technologies evolve.
The Working Group has analysed and discussed the existing Europass portfolio,
taking on board feedback gathered by the various National Europass Centres from
end users and stakeholders. Inevitably there was geographic variance in terms of the
usefulness of the various existing documents, but the following general conclusions
were reached:
a) Europass Mobility:
There is an ongoing need for a document that performs the role of Europass
Mobility in recording and verifying work and study placements, though it
neednt necessarily require the activity to take place in another European
country placements could take place within the same country, or anywhere
in the world.
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d) A user friendly self-guided interface for describing competences.
e) It should be perform the role of recognising informal and non-formal
learning.
There was unanimous agreement within the working group that both
documents should be digitised.
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Apart from the language section, no more self-assessment sections should be
added to the CV. The ICT section is seen critically by employers according to
feedback received by NECs.
ECVET
ECVETs connection with Europass, and especially Europass Mobility, is
evident. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) as well as the Learning
Agreement (LA) currently used by ECVET should be incorporated into a new
database for Europass Mobility.
Eures
Further co-operation with Eures is especially needed in order for Europass to
reach employers and to make sure that the interoperability between both
systems is transparent for users. Clarification is needed on the Skills
Passport: as there are currently two documents that are different, but share
the same name. Further integration of ESCO, Eures and Europass should be
explored particularly as regards job and skills matching.
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Europass and job-seeking: Establishing Labour Market Needs
Rationale
The EU2020 strategy and its flagship initiative An agenda for new skills and jobs"
aim to modernise labour markets and empower people by developing their skills
with a view to increase labour participation and better match labour supply and
demand, including through labour mobility.
In order to ensure the future success of Europass we highly recommend better and
greater engagement with employers both at national and European level.
Employers need to be considered as one of the main target groups of the Europass
portfolio. We need to change our approach to better encompass the different
employers needs. For this we need to acknowledge the wide variety in employers
needs across sectors, company sizes and resources. We must appreciate that there
will be differing needs, and that Europass is unlikely to meet all of these needs, but
must provide a best-fit.
The revision of Europass documents and tools should reflect the specific needs of
the employers and job counsellors as identified in the survey findings. Their
involvement in this process is paramount in order to have flexible, useful and
modern documents. This exercise should not be a one-off, but needs to be repeated,
in order to keep pace with changes in job-seeking conventions and future
technological developments.
From an employer point of view, Europass can increase its added value by shifting its
focus from documents to services. As such there should be more attention and
resources spent on improving interoperability services and make Europass a more
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attractive service for employers, particularly in the area of competence matching,
which is currently a major trend in employment practices.
In the long term, the Europass brand should be able to approach and engage
employers with such attractive services, which will further enhance them in using
the most popular documents that the EU has ever created.
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Europass and skills / qualifications recognition: Education Market Needs
Rationale
Following the economic crisis Europe continues to struggle with further internal and
external turbulences. Latest statistics indicate that Europe-wide unemployment
levels are in the region of 10.3%2. Levels of unemployment vary from country to
country, which means that citizens are increasingly looking to work further afield.
Employers are increasingly noticing skills gaps differences between the skills
actually required by a job, and those possessed by (potential) employees.
Citizens are also looking to up-skill in order to increase their chances of gaining
employment and to plug skills gaps. This up-skilling can take numerous forms,
including formal, and increasingly non-formal and informal education methods. The
way that learning takes place is becoming increasingly diverse, with distance
learning, e-learning, peer-to-peer and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)
becoming more and more prevalent.
The increased mobility of citizens, and increased diversity in learning are, of course,
to be encouraged, however it poses problems in terms of international recognition
qualifications, further complicated by the need for methods of recognising and
making visible education that takes place outside of a formal education setting.
For 11 years, Europass has played a major education market role providing valuable
tools for qualification, competence and skills recognition. In terms of qualification
recognition, the Diploma and Certificate Supplements, together with the European
Qualification Framework and the network of NARICs make formal qualification
recognition in Europe a reality, and fairly well developed. Although there is room for
modernisation including integration and interoperability with student record
systems, wholesale changes in this area and not necessarily a priority.
It is the opinion of the Working Group that Europass must do more to address the
issues concerning identification, recording and recognition of non-formal and
informal learning. Whilst Europass Mobility does to some extent provide a platform
for this, the scope of the document is too narrow (in terms of the circumstances in
which it can be used), the document is not fit for purpose, is antiquated, and (as
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http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Unemployment_statistics
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mentioned in the section on Simplifying the Process above) the tools for issuing
the documents vary from country to country leading to confusion.
Europass is the ideal tool to help address the shortcomings in recording non-formal
and informal education, and must seek advice from the sector on how this should be
done. Tools such as ECVET and ESCO should also be incorporated where appropriate.
Europass should provide tools and/or services to record and recognise all types of
learning including, but not limited to:
Non-formal
Informal
On-the-job
Adult
Online and electronic
Distance
Peer-to-peer
In providing a tool for recording non-formal and informal learning of the types listed
above, the Working Group feels that Europass can provide valuable tools for hard to
reach, and under-represented target groups such as low skilled people, early school
leavers, adult learners, those returning to the labour market after a period of
absence and migrants.
The working group also feels that if ESCO can be integrated into the Europass
documents, then this data can and should be used to inform education systems on
skills gaps and Europass, integrated with Eures can be a key tool for job and skills
matching.
Finally, when looking into way in which Europass can facilitate recording and
recognising formal an informal learning, consideration should be given to existing
tools and, in particular, Open Badges.
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Futureproofing: Proposals for modernisation
In this section the Innovation Working group sets out the direction that we foresee,
and would like, Europass to go. As mentioned in previous sections, the development
must be done in consultation with end users and sector stakeholders.
It should also be noted that Europass should be developed in such a way that it is
flexible enough to embrace the evolution of education and labour market needs as
well as emerging technologies.
Personal environment
The wish to stand out of the crowd when applying for a job, means that there is an
increasing need for individuals to produce graphically appealing CVs, or even to hire
a graphic designer do that for them. Many HR professionals state3 that, the
aesthetics of a CV allows them to can see who is behind it. Whether we like it or
not, the form tends to become as important as the content.
It is becoming apparent that the use of CVs for applying for a job is gradually
disappearing in certain occupational sectors, and in certain regions of Europe. Job
applicants are increasingly using other techniques, like personal websites, blogs,
videos or infographics. Whilst this is not necessarily prevalent now, it is likely to
increase in the coming years. On the other hand, we see employers searching for
suitable employees with the right skills on platforms like LinkedIn.
We believe that these developments can, and should not be ignored and Europass
should prepare itself for future developments.
3
Note that this may vary by both sector and country.
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remain essentially the same: educational history, work history, diplomas, open
badges, certificates, etc.
From this environment an individual will be able to generate products like a CV, but
also new products, like a personal clickable timeline (see figure 1 below for an
impression of how this might look) in the form of an infographic or a webpage. It is
essential that the user should be able to personalize his design.
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Figure 1
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The envisioned environment will have a stable base, and flexible output. Depending
on market needs, this environment should be able to adapt and expand relatively
easily.
There is no doubt that the Europass CV is very successful and useful, however a
weakness of CVs in general is that employers find it difficult to recognise the value
and credibility of the information contained in them. There is increasing evidence
that what employers and educational institutions want, is validated data instead of
self-assessed skills. We therefore propose that a new professional Europass Personal
Environment will support the inclusion of validated data like digital diplomas, open
badges or other verified documents and information.
Services to validate data can gradually be linked to this environment. This might
include national or institutional diploma registers, where the individual can
download his digital diploma and add it to his or her collection.
This environment would be much more attractive for employers than LinkedIn, as
the latter does not contain validated data. This is where we can provide an added
value over and above existing commercial products.
The environment could also share products on social media, but the user can also
share directly with peers, or open up a personal webpage to employers, teachers or
job coaches.
The user can also decide to allow their data to be searchable by employers and allow
data exchange with public and private employment service platforms. In order for
this to become a reality, we propose that Eures should also be involved in the
development process.
Within the environment the user should be able to construct more than one
product. For each separate product, it should be possible to give selective access to
others. Access might be provided in different ways, for example by sending a
classic Europass CV or an Infographic to an employer, or sending an employer or
teacher a link to a personal webpage that he composed within his personal
environment. The Europass Personal Environment should be multimedia friendly and
accessible from various devices.
Issuing environment
The Working Group believes that Europass should provide a single platform for
issuing proof of competency in whichever form. This could be mobility
experiences, domestic experiences, or more specific learning. It should, of course,
cover both formal and non-formal learning.
The simplicity of use of the environment is a critical success factor. The environment
should enable the use of standardized competencies, based on ESCO and/or ECVET.
Europass can grow to be an important distributor of these competency collections.
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The environment delivers digital documents like PDFs, though in the current climate,
we see these being replaced with Open Badges. Open Badges have the advantages
that they are secure and interoperable in their own right.
Secure information is of more use to employers, who can then rely on data that is
not self-assessed. An Open Badge issued in the Europass Issuing environment could
be directly used in any other environment, and Open Badges from any other source,
can be directly used within the Personal Europass Environment (mentioned
above).
The advantage of the Issuing Environment is that in the future, to stay flexible, other
technology might be added. These will be technologies that we are not aware of at
this time. Importantly, in a rapidly changing world these environments would offer a
solid base with flexibility in terms of output. This is why it is of great importance to
make Europass 2020 completely interoperable with other future digital tools.
The issuing environment also acts as a skills feeder to the Europass personal
environment. Products that are generated through the Europass Issuing
Environment can be automatically presented as a node or event to be presented
through the user interface. This way, personal skills will become more visible to both
employers and institutions should the individual choose to share them.
An important added value of centralizing the Europass issuing platform is that the
system will centre around a unique database with large amounts of data on skills
throughout Europe. The more the system is used, and the longer it is in existence,
the more data will be collected. Valuable intelligence and statistics from this
database can be linked to tools like the Skills Panorama, and be used by policy
makers, education systems and institutions.
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Conclusions
In the 11 years since Europass was launched the needs of the labour and education
markets have evolved That is not to say actors in those markets necessarily need
different information, in general their needs are very similar, however the way in
which information is consumed and technologies utilised are changing. It is also now
possible, due to increasing digitisation, for information to be easily shared and
verified.
The labour market is evolving, and many vacancies are applied for electronically,
either via email, or tools like LinkedIn. Increasingly, employers are not requiring the
use of a CV in the form that we know it.
Similarly, in the education sector, digital student data is becoming more prevalent,
and a number of organisations all over the world are exploring tools like digital
diploma registers and electronic diploma supplements which do so much more with
data.
Learning methods are also evolving, and migrating from traditional formal education
settings. Recording and recognising this learning is proving problematic, but tools
like Open Badges are filling this space.
It is the opinion of the Innovation Working Group, that Europass must evolve, not to
survive, but in order to provide a tool which meets these changing needs, as there is
currently no one tool which meets all of these needs.
The model that we have proposed in this paper is intended to provide a modern,
flexible infrastructure that will allow Europass to meet Europes needs in terms of
recording and sharing a citizens skills and qualifications. It is ambitious, but
achievable, and provides a platform to allow further evolution as new tools and
technologies arise. It also has the potential to collect data that can be fed back into
the education and labour markets and educate future policies and agendas.
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Contributors
*Please note that the above list represents members of the working group. This
paper is a collaborative effort and does not necessarily represent the views of all of
the individual members of the group.
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