Focus

Agenda for new skills and jobs

As part of the Europe 2020 Strategy 'An Agenda for new skills and jobs' is the Commission's contribution to reaching the EU employment rate target for women and men of 75 % for the 20-64 years age group by 2020. The strategy also highlights the EU's targets to reduce the early school leaving rate to under 10% and increase the number of young people in higher education or equivalent vocational education to at least 40%.

To make Europe's labour markets function better and to deliver the right mix of skills, the Commission proposes concrete actions that will help:

To step up labour market reform to improve flexibility and security of labour markets ('flexicurity');
To give people and businesses the right incentives to invest in training to continuously upgrade people's skills in line with labour market needs;
To ensure decent working conditions while improving the quality of employment legislation;
To ensure the right labour market conditions are in place for job creation such as less administrative burdens or lowering the taxes on labour and mobility.

The Agenda for new skills and jobs complements the Commission's 'Youth on the Move' initiative, which aims to help young people to gain the knowledge, skills and experience they need to make their first job a reality.