By 2010, some 3 million Europeans are expected to use a new 'Europass' to help them find jobs or train in other EU countries. Europass is designed to help Europeans make their qualifications clearly understood throughout Europe.
The Europass was launched on 1 February at a conference attended by representatives from 32 European countries, with a view to boosting worker mobility for both occupational and lifelong learning purposes. Jan Figel, the EU Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Multilingualism, said Europass would be a direct service to citizens, helping them "to improve their position on the European labour market and to take advantage of the European lifelong learning area".
Europass brings into a single framework several existing tools for the transparency of diplomas, certificates and competences. Besides the Europass CV, the other Europass elements focus on language skills (Europass Portfolio of Languages), mobility experiences for learning purposes (Europass Mobility) and qualifications in higher education (Europass Diploma Supplements) and vocational training (Europass Certificate Supplement).
Integrating these elements into the Europass label, says the EU executive, should make them easier to access and use, as well as more widely known and more effective.
The Europass portal (see below) will allow citizens to complete online, with the help of a tutorial and examples, their own Europass CV and Europass Language Passport.
Further help will be available in each EU country, where a National Europass Centre will promote the new instrument and coordinate all related activities, in cooperation with the relevant organisations, networks and authorities, as well as with the social partners.
By: N. Peter Kramer
