Today, the renewed EAfA published its action plan and planned activities for 2020/2021, addressing its six priorities.

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Following the launch of the Commission’s Youth Employment Support Package on 1 July 2020 and the announcement of a renewed EAfA, Nicholas Schmit, the European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, hosted a High-Level Expert Live Discussion on 15 July 2020 presenting the priorities of the Alliance. The discussion introduced the new commitments on ‘digital’ and ‘green’ apprenticeships and explored what the renewed EAfA means from the perspective of different stakeholder groups.

By continuing to bring together governments, social partners, businesses, chambers, regions, youth organisations, VET providers and think tanks, the renewed EAfA will unlock decisive actions by all actors. Today, the renewed EAfA published its Action Plan and planned activities for 2020/2021 addressing the following six priorities:

• Encouraging commitment among Member States and companies to quality and effective apprenticeships by fostering national apprenticeship coalitions;
• Incentivising support to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in providing a stable supply of quality and effective apprenticeships;
• Mobilising local and regional authorities as catalysts for apprenticeships within the local business environment;
• Strengthening social dialogue through more active involvement by national social partner organisations;
• Proactively engaging European sectoral social dialogue committees on apprenticeships, with a view to obtaining agreement on joint sectoral pledges;
• Supporting the representation of apprentices in Member States by relaunching the European Apprentices Network (EAN).

Important horizontal issues such as gender, social inclusion, health and safety, and internationalisation of vocational education and training will also be addressed and integrated in many EAfA activities linked to the six main priorities.

The renewed Alliance will be embedded in the Pact for Skills as announced in the European Skills Agenda for sustainable competitiveness, social fairness and resilience. The main objective of the Pact is to mobilise and incentivise all relevant stakeholders to take concrete actions for the upskilling and reskilling of the workforce by pooling efforts and setting up partnerships to address the needs of the labour market, thus supporting green and digital transitions as well as local, regional growth strategies.

The Pact will be launched in November during the 2020 European Vocational Skills Week. Individual actors and partnerships would commit to a charter and concrete actions. EAfA will contribute to promoting the Pact for Skills and its benefits.

Download the Action Plan 2020-2021 as well as the EAfA Activities Calendar from the Related Documents section below.