The 4th European Vocational Skills Week garnered a lot of attention

In the week from 14 to 18 October, the central event of the 4th EVSW took place at the Finlandia Hall congress centre (Finlandia Hall) in Helsinki under the auspices of the Finnish Presidency of the EU Council. The entire manifestation this year was co-created by 46 countries which organised more than 1,600 national level events. Among them were the central conference with the VET award ceremony. The aim of the awards is to bring attention to and increase the attractiveness of VET.

The slogan of this year’s EVSW was VET for All—Skills for Life which proves that a great deal of attention was devoted to engaging adults in VET. Global, demographic and technological changes, constant new challenges in the workplace, disappearance of certain professions and the creation of new ones … all of this speaks in favour of vocational reskilling and upskilling of adults. The paths and approaches are, of course, different for them than for young people.

There were so many valuable contents and impressions from the various workshops and panel meetings that they warranted daily blog mentions (in Slovenian).

The blog with impressions from the EVSW is available at EPALE platform. The organisers summarised the campaign information at EVSW website. You are warmly invited to read all of these! The representation of Slovenia in the group of EVSW ambassadors and the VET round table for people of all ages must also be mentioned. Both roles were played by Adrijana Hodak, head of the Inter-Company Training Centre at the Nova Gorica School Centre. She was selected as the Slovenian EVSW ambassador because of her inspirational past and current contribution to the promotion of VET. According to Marianne Thyssen, European Commissioner for

Eurostat and Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility and the sponsor of the EVSW, VET is an excellent first and not only second choice as it equips people with skills required by the labour market in the 21st century. It opens up a myriad of career opportunities.

The next EVSW will be organised by the German Presidency of the EU Council from 9 to 13 November 2020 in Berlin, while in the second half of 2021 its organisation and the EU Council Presidency will be taken over by Slovenia. The EVSW represents a great challenge in terms of content and organisation, which is why we should probably start preparing for it right away.

Zvonka Pangerc Pahernik, MSc (zvonka.pangerc@acs.si), SIAE

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