2 research outputs found
The rise and change of the competence strategy: reflections on twenty-five years of skills policies in the EU
The principal aim of this article is to provide a historical overview of 25 years of competence policy in the European Union, highlighting connections between past and current initiatives and outlining possible scenarios for the decade to come. The article presents the social investment turn in social policy as the critical political background against which the emergence of a competence strategy in European Union education policy should be analysed and understood. The competence strategy, it is argued, finds its roots in a renewed attention at the European Union level for harmonising educational outputs and labour market demands. While trying to produce a schematic history of the emergence and change of the competence strategy, the article does not seek to offer strict definitions of competence itself; instead, it conveys the nebulous and context-dependent nature of the concept
Governing quality Early Childhood Education and Care in a global crisis: first lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic. Analytical report.
This report explores the different ways in which European Union (EU) Member States (MS)
have attempted to ensure high-quality ECEC (Early Childhood Education and Care) for
children and families in the era of COVID-19. The rationale for the report builds on the
Conclusions of the European Council concerning the fight against COVID-19 in education
and training, which stipulate that Member States should share information and best
practices and continue exchanging information about possible ways to adapt to this new
situation at the level of education and training (Council of the European Union, 2020).
All children, and particularly those who are most societally disadvantaged, risk being
among the biggest victims of the pandemic (World Health Organization, 2020; Muroga et
al, 2020) due to both the socio-economic impact of the crisis on their families, and the
consequences of the measures taken to contain the virus, which affect their learning and
wellbeing (United Nations, 2020). By interconnecting its functions – educational (investing
in children’s wellbeing, learning, participation); social (supporting families in the upbringing
of their children); and economic (helping parents in combining work and household
responsibilities) – ECEC can play a key role in supporting all children and families to face
the crisis, and especially those at risk of social exclusion. ECEC can greatly contribute to
breaking the cycles of poverty and discrimination, as already stated in many EU documents
(European Commission, 2013; European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, 2018;
European Commission, 2021a; 2021b). The COVID-19 situation may, therefore, represent
an opportunity for the ECEC sector to revisit its identity and evaluate the lessons learned,
both in terms of its daily practice after the emergency, and as a possible preparation for
future crises.
The central aim of this study is to examine what measures have been taken by selected
EU member states – two countries (Sweden and Croatia), as well as three regions (Flanders
in Belgium, Berlin in Germany and Emilia-Romagna in Italy) – to deal with the COVID-19
crisis during the first year of the pandemic (March-December 2020), in order to ensure
quality ECEC for children and families. It is expected that this analysis of coping strategies
and lessons learned will be relevant to other EU Member States and regions.
The European Quality Framework (EQF) on ECEC (Council of the European Union, 2019)
has been used as a lens with which to explore aspects including accessibility, workforce,
curriculum, monitoring and evaluation, finance and governance. After an introductory first
chapter, Chapter 2 analyses the effects of the pandemic on children and families, to explore
what role ECEC can play in addressing their needs in times of crisis. Chapter 3 focuses on
the impact of COVID-19 on the societal functions of ECEC. Chapter 4 explores in greater
depth the various aspects of quality that may have been affected during this crisis, while
Chapter 5 reports on the relevant lessons learned and policy guidelines.
The data analysed show that ECEC played a crucial role in countering the negative effects
of the pandemic on children, families and communities. However, compared with other
levels of education, ECEC appears to have been one of the sectors most vulnerable
to the policy decisions taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, in line with the findings of
other research (Gromada, Richardson and Rees, 2020). This highlights the need to raise
the profile of ECEC within the field of education/care sector policies. In addition, the
importance of ECEC must be recognised as part of emergency response strategies, in order
to urgently accelerate efforts to address gaps in access, as underlined in the last Unicef
Innocenti Working Paper (Muroga et al., 2020)