EU-LAC SUMMIT — Action Plan — Final Declaration

5. Edu­ca­tion and employ­ment to pro­mote social inclu­sion and cohesion

Main objec­tives in this area are to pro­mote edu­ca­tion, life-long learn­ing and train­ing (includ­ing voca­tion­al edu­ca­tion and train­ing) tak­ing into account diver­si­ty and lev­els of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty as well as to improve the func­tion­ing of labour mar­kets, includ­ing through tri­an­gu­lar coop­er­a­tion, tak­ing into account the impor­tant role of cor­po­rate social action. This should lead to eas­i­er access to employ­ment, decent, dig­ni­fied and pro­duc­tive work and job oppor­tu­ni­ties, in par­tic­u­lar for women and young peo­ple, as well as for oth­er vul­ner­a­ble groups, and should con­tribute to increased social inclu­sion and cohesion. 

Work Pro­gramme:

* Dia­logue

a. Estab­lish a reg­u­lar bi-region­al dia­logue on edu­ca­tion and employ­ment, build­ing upon the results of the II EU-LAC Forum on Social Cohesion 

* Coop­er­a­tion activ­i­ties and initiatives

b. Sup­port qual­i­ty and equal access to high­er edu­ca­tion, life-long learn­ing, voca­tion­al edu­ca­tion and train­ing and increased region­al inte­gra­tion in this domain.

c. Pro­mote mobil­i­ty of stu­dents, teach­ers, and staff and exchanges between high­er edu­ca­tion insti­tu­tions from the EU and LAC countries.

d. Pro­mote tech­ni­cal and voca­tion­al edu­ca­tion and train­ing sys­tems, includ­ing trans­ver­sal, that respond to the needs of the labour mar­ket and nation­al devel­op­ment objectives.

e. Con­tribute to meet­ing the edu­ca­tion­al objec­tives 2021 as referred in the EU-LAC Min­is­te­r­i­al Forum on “Edu­ca­tion, Inno­va­tion and Social Inclusion”.

f. Imple­ment pro­grammes for fos­ter­ing for­mal employ­ment start­ing with the first job expe­ri­ences, includ­ing through the pro­mo­tion of entre­pre­neur­ship and improv­ing access by young peo­ple to social pro­tec­tion mechanisms.

g. Imple­ment pro­grammes to reduce dis­crim­i­na­tion at work of young peo­ple, women and per­sons with disabilities.

h. Pro­mote bi-region­al pro­grammes to exchange expe­ri­ences and know-how on the labour sys­tems and their link with the sys­tem of tech­ni­cal edu­ca­tion and train­ing for employment.

*Expect­ed results

i. Increased mobil­i­ty, aca­d­e­m­ic exchanges and long-last­ing part­ner­ships between EU and LAC students/teachers/higher edu­ca­tion insti­tu­tions, tak­ing into account the need to pre­vent the “brain drain” phenomenon.

j. Strate­gic reviews on the func­tion­ing of con­tem­po­rary labour mar­ket infor­ma­tion sys­tems lead­ing to the estab­lish­ment and imple­men­ta­tion of the nec­es­sary capac­i­ty­build­ing plans and the improve­ment of the rel­e­vant sta­tis­ti­cal services.

k. Emer­gence of a net­work of high-qual­i­ty and inclu­sive tech­ni­cal and voca­tion­al edu­ca­tion and train­ing institutions.

l. Improved inte­gra­tion of young work­ers into decent, dig­ni­fied and pro­duc­tive jobs. m. School dropout rates reduc­tion and links among basic, voca­tion­al and high­er edu­ca­tion strengthened.

n. Progress towards meet­ing the Edu­ca­tion­al Objec­tives 2021