History
Against a background of social changes and economic problems in the mid-1970s, Cedefop emerged as a consensus among Member States of the then European Economic Community (EEC) over the need to improve vocational education and training (VET). Although education had been a research field since the early 1960s, the late 1960s and early 1970s saw a trend towards more focused and systematic research into VET. West Germany set up its Federal Institute for Vocational Training Research (Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildungsforschung) in 1969. In France, the Centre d’études et de recherches sur les qualifications (CEREQ) was set up in 1970. Three years later, Italy also set up a vocational training institute, the Istituto per lo sviluppo della formazione professionale dei lavoratori (ISFOL).
In 1970, the EEC’s Economic and Social Committee set up a study group to examine education and training in the then six EEC Member States. The committee proposed establishing a European institute for vocational training research and guidance, largely based on the West German model.
On 10 February 1975 Cedefop was established. It was located in West Berlin as a clear signal that the western sector of the then divided city was a part of the EEC. In October 1993 the Council of Ministers decided to relocate Cedefop to Greece. On 1 September 1995 Cedefop set up in provisional premises in Thessaloniki, moving to its own building in August 1999.
Much of Cedefop’s early work involved studying the comparability of vocational training qualifications in Member States. Around 200 occupations were categorised and their equivalence with other occupations and qualifications determined. The assumption was that vocational training policies in Member States would increasingly be brought into line with each other leading to a mutual recognition of qualifications and certificates and development of a common vocational training policy, as foreseen under Article 128 of the Treaty of Rome.
However, agreement was not reached on mutual recognition, other than for the regulated professions, or on a common vocational training policy. The 1992 Treaty on European Union (Article 129) changed the role of EU policy on vocational training to one of supporting and supplementing action of Member States, while fully respecting the responsibility of Member States for the content and organisation of vocational training. This role has been transferred to Article 166 of the Lisbon Treaty, which entered into force on 1 December 2009.
Read more about this topic: European Centre For The Development Of Vocational Training
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The best history is but like the art of Rembrandt; it casts a vivid light on certain selected causes, on those which were best and greatest; it leaves all the rest in shadow and unseen.”
—Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)
“Perhaps universal history is the history of the diverse intonation of some metaphors.”
—Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986)
“We are told that men protect us; that they are generous, even chivalric in their protection. Gentlemen, if your protectors were women, and they took all your property and your children, and paid you half as much for your work, though as well or better done than your own, would you think much of the chivalry which permitted you to sit in street-cars and picked up your pocket- handkerchief?”
—Mary B. Clay, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 3, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)