LABOUR MARKET

3 EDUCATION AND TRAINING FOR THE

LABOUR MARKET

In the third chapter of the scientifi c monograph, we will describe education and training for the current and promising labour market.

According to the cited source Eurydice (2019a) in terms of Strategy 2018–2020 under Priority Axis (PA) 1 – Education is currently implemented by the third national program Dual Education and Training and Increasing the Attractiveness and Quality of Vocational Education and Training; Schools Open for Everyone; IT Academy – Education for the 21st Century. The amount of contracted funds is € 70,867,180, which represents 15.5% of the total allocation of PA 1. Within 2 announced calls (More successful in primary school, DO NOT DISQUALIFY!), 266 projects were contracted until the 16th February 2018 in the total amount of contracted funds of € 23,337,962, which represents 5.09% of the total allocation. The disbursement of funds started in 2018. The current implementation, including the rate of contracting and disbursement, was infl uenced by the focus on the preparation of national projects, which in terms of time negatively aff ected the progress in implementation and the preparation of demand-oriented calls. Out of the total number of 8 approved intentions of national projects, the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport (MESRS) of the Slovak Republic decided not to further implement 4 national projects, resp. project themes put into demand-oriented calls (e.g. support for the training of future pedagogical and professional employee). Based on experience and to maximize the benefi ts for participants in education within individual priority areas, the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic has focused on increased support for the announcement of demand-oriented calls since 2018. The preparation and setting of calls are closely related to the process of preparation and use of simplifi ed reporting of expenditure (hereinafter “SCO”) to simplify implementation both on the side of the benefi ciary and on the side of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic. The Ministry of Education, science, research and sport of the Slovak Republic uses the SCO in the form of a delegated act, i.e. approval of the standard scales of unit costs of the EP, while this process lasts around 12 months and the conditions of using the SCO need to be defi ned directly in the call/

calls. At the end of January and the beginning of February 2018, the Action Plan for Strengthening the Transparency of the Implementation of PA1 was approved, which we wrote about in the text above, the aim of which is to strengthen not only transparency but also the eff ectiveness of PA1 implementation (Eurydice, 2019a).

In 2017, an author’s document was published for the area of education and training for the next 10 years called Learning Slovakia, which formulates the changes and aims that need to be met to meet the challenges of Slovak education. Following it, the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic prepared the National Program for the Development of Education and Training, which takes the form of multi-annual action plans. It also includes legislative measures in the fi eld of regional education, higher education and further education. (Eurydice, 2019a). For the next years of implementation of PA 1 - the Ministry of Education, science, research and sport of the Slovak Republic, based on the setting of PA 1, i.e. setting specifi c aims, taking into account the current and future needs of participants in education at all levels of the education system; 1. education for the needs of the labour market (employability), e.g.: • support for career and educational counselling, • support of the integration of vocational education and training with practice, • improving the quality of vocational education and training, • support for entrepreneurial skills, 2. Improving learning outcomes and inclusion, e.g.: • support for PISA literacy, • support of global education and the 2030 Agenda, • improving the quality of education, • support of inclusive activities, 3. results-oriented higher education, e.g.: • support of the creation and implementation of professionally oriented bachelor’s programs, • support of IT skills, • removing barriers to access to higher education, 4. increasing the professional competencies of pedagogical and professional employees and increasing the attractiveness of the teaching profession, e.g.: • improving the training of future pedagogical and professional employees;

• increasing the professional competencies of pedagogical and professional employees; 5. lifelong learning, including non-formal education, e.g.: • setting up a system for recognizing non-formal learning outcomes (validation of results), • improving the quality of further education, • support for increasing adult participation in further education etc. (Eurydice, 2019).

According to the above-cited source, within the planned measures, European Commission initiatives for lagging regions and transforming coal regions will also be supported in individual areas. The strategy of the approach to the implementation of these priorities is in creating a direct relationship between the declared National Project and calls for the Operational Programme (if relevant). They will be announced in synergy concerning the topic, respectively defi ned priority areas. The aim of the National Project needs to be synergistic and complementary to several Operational Programme calls, with an emphasis on announcing Operational Programmes calls. The aim of supporting the above priorities in the fi eld of education is to contribute to the quality and accessible education and to strengthen the effi ciency and eff ectiveness of PA1. The vocational education and training (VET) plan concerns not only the dual system of education and training but also study and teaching fi elds, in which it is not possible in terms of their nature to introduce the dual system of education and training) and the addition of the possibility of using fi nancial instruments. As part of its activities, the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic plans to supplement specifi c activities supporting European Commission initiatives aimed at lagging regions and transforming coal regions.

Currently, seven National Projects is being implemented: Employment practice; Graduate internship starts employment; Successfully in the labour market; Chance for young people; Education of young job seekers; Restart for young job seekers; Selected active labour market measures for young jobseekers. The amount of contracted funds is € 163,909,804, which represents 79.29% of the total allocation of PA 2. Within the announced calls for the Operational Programme (Support for the entry of selected groups of young people into the labour market; New or innovative programs for improving young people’s self-employment; Activation and support of young NEET) only 6

projects are currently contracted in the total amount of contracted funds € 627,693, which represents 0.30% of the total allocation of PA 2. Calls for the Operational Programme, aimed at supporting the entry of selected young people into the labour market and improvements in young people’s self-employment have not been successful, mainly because of the incorrect settings which have limited participation in planned measures to jobseekers, subject to a minimum length of registration at employment offi ces. Compared to the fi rst two calls, many more applications were received, but the evaluation process indicates that many applicants did not reach the minimum required numbers of points (Eurydice, 2019a).

Concerning youth unemployment (Eurydice, 2019a), the public employment services have limited capacity to intervene on time and tailor services to jobseekers’ profi les, as well as to catch unregistered young people. Therefore, it is necessary to act in these areas, in line with the objectives of the Youth Guarantee. The priority will be given to specialized support for young people which helps them to fi nd the right opportunities, to prepare, to fi nd and keep a job through holistic programs for young people who are out of school, unemployed and they face barriers during fi nding employment, with a view to grouping more eff ectively the services that will be off ered to them, while developing a mechanism to help keep them interested in continuing lifelong learning. To capture the widest possible range of inactive young people as well as unemployed low-skilled young people, regular workshops will be held to work with representatives of civil society and local and regional authorities. The aim will be to identify examples of good practice applicable in the wider context of the challenges oriented at this group. At the same time, inspiration and experience of some EU member states from the application of the so-called “Template calls”, i.e. calls with predefi ned measures, preparation of which is clear and simple for potential applicants, which is also confi rmed by the experience from the calls announced so far under PA 2. Potential applicants are small nongovernmental organizations (MVO) and small municipalities, often those with the presence of marginalized Roma communities. It stays from the PA 2 allocation at the current level of concluded contracts 42 million € (as of 2018). It is assumed that the Central Offi ce of Labour, Social Aff airs and Family will not exhaust the amount of approx. 58 mill. €. The reason is the fact that the original setting of some national projects was based on much higher numbers of registered young unemployed people. After the change in the

situation on the labour market, the set values of indicators in projects became unrealistic. Thus, ÉUR100 million is available for the planned measures from EU resources. Because of the above-mentioned evaluation of the implementation of PA 2, no fundamental changes in its setting are necessary (Eurydice, 2019a).

Madzin et al. (2018) state that the dual system of education and training, which we have already mentioned in the text, is a system of vocational education and training, which is based on a close connection between general and vocational theoretical education in secondary vocational school with practical training in a specifi c company. Following the above authors, we state that the dual system of education and training is one of the possibilities of eff ective education and training for the current and future labour market not only in the conditions of our society.