Introduction

1.1 Overview

This project falls within the scope of competence development as a means to increase employability. Competence refers to the promotion on a life-long basis of creativity, flexibility, adaptability, the ability to "learn to learn" and to solve problems. In this context, the focus of the project is placed on the key skills which enhance competence development in unemployed youth with minimum qualifications and the older long-term unemployed workers. Both these target-groups receive a priority within the specified aims of New Community Activities in the field of education, training and youth.

Moreover, the European Council draws attention to the particular importance of preventive measures to reverse the trend of youth unemployment and long-term unemployment through early identification of individual needs. The 1998 "Employment Guidelines" adopted by the Council focus on four major themes :

     I. Improving Employability
     II. Developing enterpreneurship
     III. Encouraging adaptability in business and their employees
     IV. Strengthening the policies for equal opportunities.

The proposed project is set within the context of the 1st theme, aiming to develop "preventive and employability-oriented strategies, building on the early identification of individual needs" (Presidency Conclusions of the Extraordinary European Council Meeting on Employment, Luxembourg 20-21/11/97). Such strategies are based on the identification and analysis of the "key skill" needs of youth and older long-term unemployed people; and the systematic cooperation and networking of educational, labour and welfare services in order to help these unemployed individuals build up the necessary skills for their social and employment integration.

By placing emphasis on the development of "key skills" for both the young and older unemployed persons, the philosophy of a "second chance" is projected, with reference to either education or employment. The development of "Key Skills" is conceived as a "channel" through which social groups facing exclusion from the labour market will be prepared for a "second chance" for education and training.

 

1.2 The conceptual context

The key skills concept is not clearly defined (it is not in any way regulated) in the formal or the non-formal education system, neither by the education and training providers nor by the certification system. Furthermore, the key skills as defined in the context of the KeyNET project seem to be integrated in the various school curricula or non formal training courses in a component which also includes other basic skills (both soft and process skills).

Because of the conceptual confusion which prevails in literature regarding the classification of skills, it is pertinent to define the concepts which will be used in the present report.

Basic skills: Skills developed by the 'basic training' (see CEDEFOP Glossarium) component of a curriculum or a training course; these could be both, 'affective skills' (e.g. ability to adjust to change, flexibility, creativity, social skills) and 'pre-vocational skills' (e.g. computer skills, life skills, numeracy, problem solving skills, communication skills).

It becomes clear from this definition that the concept of 'key skills' used in the context of this project is an integral part of the concept 'basic skills'. Nevertheless, to avoid any further confusion, when referring to key skills in this report they will be underlined using bold type.

Vocational skills: Occupation specific skills developed by the 'specialization training' (see CEDEFOP Glossarium) component of a curriculum or training course; these could be both, theoretical and practical job-related qualifications (e.g. mechanical drawing, electronics, cnc machining, and other 'process skills').

When viewing comparatively the above two concepts it becomes clear that the pedagogical approaches for attaining the corresponding two different types of skills are expected to be quite different. Especially for the development of some affective skills, which evidently require higher order learning approaches, one must be aware of the limitations of most of the conventional training provisions, whether they are school-based schemes or school-to-work alternace schemes, and consequently all reviews and references to them ought to consider the difficulty of their realization with conventional instructional designs.