Choosing Europe for training

The choice of Europe should be an obvious one, especially for training. Among the undeniable successes of European construction are higher education with the Erasmus program and research, embodied for example by the European Research Council. However, a certain reluctance is apparent. The reluctance of young people who are sometimes attracted by other destinations, for more or less good reasons. There is also a certain reluctance on the part of the heads of training organizations who often set their sights on Asia or Africa before moving forward with our friends and neighbors on our Continent. Fortunately, there are messages that support the European ambition in the field of training. Such is the case with the launch of European universities, strongly backed by the President of the Republic. Let us also recall the half-century of the law on vocational training brought by that great European, Jacques Delors.

If the academic and scientific dimension is part of a European horizon, the same remains to be done for professional issues. This means, of course, solving technical and even political difficulties: this is the challenge that the very dynamic team of Euro App Mobility, under the presidency of Jean Arthuis, takes up every day. But the Europe of professions is also a matter of attractiveness and therefore of shared conviction, between trainers and learners, between institutions of all the countries of the Union. It is a long term task, but an exciting one, because it is based on the enhancement of our mutual assets, our own know-how, and ultimately our deep identity as Europeans. Telling the story of our collective added value requires a high-level benchmark. We must start from and acknowledge good practices wherever they are found and rely on them to acculturate young people to the challenges that await them.

Europe is indeed a tremendous reservoir of resources, often unknown and generally under-exploited. Because of its extraordinary diversity, Europe must be read as a mosaic of relevant professional practices. This implies the convergence of two objectives: to uncover the added value brought by a way of exercising a profession; to transform it into a training baggage. Some professional sectors sometimes narrow their horizons, especially when they refer to companies that are mainly anchored in national territory, around insufficiently recognized professions. And yet, it only takes a little digging to see that, for example, the service sector is being revolutionized in northern European countries or that the field of clothing or fashion accessories has become a trademark in Spain or Italy. Every actor in every profession must be convinced of the importance of rubbing shoulders with another culture, by going to Europe or by receiving a young European, because reciprocity is of course a sine qua non condition. Making the Europe of skills the backdrop of the revival, allowing to strengthen the trades by preparing young people who are used to international openness and curious about the best way to succeed in a project, their project.

Olivier Faron
Secretary General and General administrator of the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers