TRAINING : EU TO FACILITATE SKILLS MATCHING TO LABOUR MARKET NEEDS.

• Position: Brief article

Proposals for better job matching and better ways to analyse and forecast which skills will be needed in the labour market for both companies and citizens were presented by the European Commission, on 16 December. The main thrust of the communication, entitled New skills for new jobs', is to better match people's skills with vacancies in the Union. These measures are expected to help the EU tackle the short-term employment impact of the economic crisis and improve the long-term job prospects of EU workers.

In a joint statement, Commissioners Vladimir Spidla (employment) and Jan Figel (education) said that "It makes no sense in these difficult economic times to see unemployment rising but job vacancies still not being filled". The proposals are part of the Commission's European economic recovery plan. Their aim is to organise skills assessments, pool the efforts of member states and other international organisations and improve access to information on future needs.

The...