The Commission evaluated the actions taken in response to the Council Recommendation on Upskilling Pathways, assessed the experience gained and drew implications for the future. Our network has been involved in the process on several levels. On behalf of EBSN former Secretary General Graciela Sbertoli was interviewed by the Evaluator as part of the qualitative evaluation. Many of our members were involved in the national level evaluation processes. As part of the public consultation carried out within the European level evaluation, EBSN edited and submitted the relevant parts of the Conference Declarations from 2021 (Malta) and 2022 (Vienna) as its position paper. They were integrated into the the factual summary of the consultation published as Improving adults’ basic skills (“Upskilling pathways recommendation”).
As a summary of key findings, the Commission released an Evaluation Report (download here) and a Staff Working Document (download here) On 17 July 2023 .
The overall all picture painted by the reports shows incremential impacts.
Key findings:
- Relevant indicators show moderate positive trends.
- Implementation has been uneven across the Member States with measures often lacking scale and coordination.
- Some stakeholders view the Recommendation as a catalyst for renewed focus on support for adults to acquire basic skills as well as upskilling in general.
- The three step-approach based on integrated pathways consisting of skills assessment, provision of tailored and flexible learning offer and validation and recognition is considered as a useful reference point.
- The objectives of the Recommendations are still relevant.
Based on the results, as well as increasing labour shortages and skills mismatches, the implementation of the Recommendation clearly needs improvement, the Commission finds.
EBSN Executive Committe finds UP Recommendation still highly relevant and will discuss the findings of the report and its position in early Autumn.