Many worlds of the ‘low-skilled’, but only one generic policy

CEPS Policy Brief n. 321/2004

This paper encourages EU and national policy-makers to invest in a more comprehensive view of the phenomenon of ‘low-skilledness’. The ‘low-skilled’ label can hide a number of different scenarios: labour market detachment, migration and obsolete skills that are the result of macroeconomic structural changes. For this reason, lifelong learning is necessary to keep up with new technology and to shield workers from the risk of skills obsolescence and detachment from the labour market.

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author(s): Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) – M. Beblavý, I. Maselli

keyword(s): labour market , social policy , youth unemployment , education , educational system , skills , employability , lifelong learning , Information Society , innovation