Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-05-14-Speech-1-066"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20010514.7.1-066"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
".
Mr President, Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I expect I am stating the obvious when I say that education and training are becoming increasingly important in a modern knowledge economy, if we in Europe are to continue to compete with industrialised parts of the world. I shall limit myself to the recommendations contained in my written opinion.
Firstly: in education more attention should undoubtedly be paid to training in information technology both for pupils and for teachers. Students deprived of such a preparation run the risk of exclusion from the development of the new economy. We still lag far behind the United States as regards the use of information potential in education and business. Since no less than a quarter of newly created positions in the last decade are related to the information society, we must realise that students require thorough preparation. We must therefore also aim for optimum use of government investment in the use of technology.
Secondly: attention has been repeatedly drawn to the need to bring students closer to business in order to train tomorrow’s entrepreneurs.
Thirdly: the setting up of many more second-chance schools has become necessary, as the current number is far too low. Two pilot projects are planned for Spain, France and Germany – the large countries – but the Commission says nothing about the other countries. In view of the size of the large countries, five projects would be desirable while for smaller countries, at least two projects should be planned. By increasing the number of pilot projects, it might be possible to make the second-chance schools a more effective tool for strengthening economic and social cohesion and combating social exclusion more successfully.
Finally knowledge of languages, one of the principal European aims. Our rapporteur, whom I thank for his report, believes that even knowledge of two languages would be a success. In my opinion, I stated that I should like to go a step further. In order to promote integration and the opportunities for students in the labour market, in my view knowledge of three languages should be regarded as a minimum. Why? Because quite a few Member States have more than one official language. Belgium has three. Learning the official languages of the countries of which the students are citizens is obviously essential for their integration into the work process but an extra language in addition to the official languages is highly desirable. If we look at the most recent survey of knowledge of languages carried out by Eurostat, we see that less than half, only 45%, of citizens of the European Union can conduct a conversation in any but their native language. So there is a great deal of work ahead of us, but that is equally true of the rest of the issues raised in this instructive debate."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples