7. Deplores the persistently high unemployment rates across most Member States, and is concerned by, in particular, the youth and long-term unemployment rates; stresses the need for increased investment alongside reform of national labour markets, and the importance of taking measures to boost the economy in order to increase job creation rates; as well as concentrate on creating quality workplaces; stresses in particular the need to improve national education systems and adapt them to the new skill and knowledge demands on the EU labour market, in particular by adapting the dual-track training model which has proved particularly valu ...[+++]able in combating youth unemployment and including entrepreneurship and skills in school curricula; highlights that this necessitates a specific approach and actions for some population groups, such as younger people, low-skilled unemployed, long-term unemployed, older unemployed and women, who still face constraints as regards their full participation in the labour market; stresses, however, the need to take care to ensure that such an approach does not merely amount in practice to reductions in labour rights and social protection, or to the promotion of precarious forms of employment; calls on the Commission to examine the systems of minimum income mechanisms for the unemployed in Member States;

7. Recalls that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) form the backbone of our economy and have enormous potential for creating employment, in particular youth employment, and promoting a dual system of vocational training and apprenticeship schemes; stresses, therefore, that over 85 % of all new jobs in Europe are created through SMEs; points out, however, that the dual training systems in certain countries cannot be directly assimilated without modification and should be adapted to the realities in each Member State;

Improving the labour market relevance of education and training systems, facilitating the transition from education to work, and strengthening vocational education and training systems and their quality, including through mechanisms for skills anticipation, adaptation of curricula and the establishment and development of work-based learning systems, including dual learning systems and apprenticeship schemes.

34. Recommends that in Member States with a dual vocational training system there should be an ‘alternative apprenticeship’ scheme, and thus a Youth Guarantee scheme, in the form of vocational training with more than one employer for young people under the age of 18 who cannot obtain an apprenticeship; in countries without dual vocational training, steps should be taken to implement an appropriately adapted system;

16. Stresses that Member States and businesses should invest more in the right skills and diversify the types of training for jobs in demand, notably in technological sectors, by creating more flexible curricula, integrating entrepreneurship and transversal skills, in order to better adapt to future labour market developments; stresses the importance of enhancing youth mobility in particular by the early learning of foreign languages; calls on Member States to establish dual vocational education and training systems as an effective ...[+++]way of linking educational to labour market demands and reducing youth unemployment;

59. Calls on the Member States to modernise and increase the attractiveness and quality of VET so that it can be better adapted to the current and future needs of the changing labour market, which by 2020 will require new knowledge and skills based on diplomas that should be mutually recognised in all Member States; in that connection, highlights the great success of dual education systems in the Member States concerned;