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DRIVES Project at the European Vocational Skills Week

 

News Release

DRIVES Project at the European Vocational Skills Week

 

Vienna, November 2018

 

The DRIVES project, represented by Semta, was invited to speak at the event 5 years of the European Alliance for Apprenticeships: Looking back - looking forward, organized bythe European Alliance for Apprenticeships (EAfA), as part of the European Vocational Skills Conference, in Vienna, Austria, on November 8th 2018. Taking part in the plenary session alongside EU officials, national government representatives, employers and social partners, Semta shared DRIVES’ mission to support automotive sector’s apprenticeship offer and capacity. Please follow this link to watch the intervention.

 

The speech addressed the specific initiatives that are being developed in Project DRIVES to improve engagement of apprentices and employers and overcome barriers to social mobility. Semta’s policy expert, Mick Feloy highlighted DRIVES’ aims to create a European Apprenticeship Forum for the automotive sector and an Automotive Apprentices Council. The council will bring together apprentices and enable them to “input into the design and implementation of automotive apprenticeships”.

 

Given the differences in automotive apprenticeship models in the EU, Semta underlined the important step of establishing a shared understanding; “We are undertaking a major review of apprenticeships serving the automotive sector across Europe that will allow us to identify opportunities and challenges to create a more effective automotive apprenticeship marketplace”. A clear issue within the marketplace is the imbalance in the supply of and demand for apprenticeship opportunities within large OEM employers when compared with SMEs across the supply chain. To overcome this, Mick outlined DRIVES’ aim to create a recruitment platform that will address this mismatch and facilitate greater mobility for apprentices.