4. Calls on the Commission and Member States to assess future employment developments in the steel sector for the EU as a whole, and for individual Member States, and to encourage Member States and social partners to draw up adequate plans for training, retraining, mobility and outplacement of workers within the sector; stresses the importance of EU support for training and employment in industrial transition processes in order to retain and develop skills and know-how, to anticipate skills needs, to promote training ...[+++]and skills upgrading; calls for such support to be kept in place and for its use to be monitored; is worried about the lack of systematic solutions to the generational change and the future skills shortages, loss of know-how and competences, and stresses the need to retain the workforce and skills, which are vital for the future;

The Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 June 2009 on the establishment of a European Quality Assurance Reference Framework for Vocational Education and Training stated that that Framework should support the implementation of the Common European Principles for the identification and validation of non-formal and informal learning, improving the interrelationship of education, training and employment, and building bridges between formal, non-formal and informal learning.

6. Underlines the need for effective and constructive educational and vocational guidance that is accessible for all to help learners, trainees and workers identify the education and training path that best suits their inclinations and interests; stresses that one of the main causes of structural unemployment is the mismatch between education, training and jobs; regards it as a priority to anticipate skills that will be needed in an effort to ensure that the training available corresponds to the realities of the labour market; recognises that the anticipation of labour market trends can be very useful for all those involved in order to better target their actions and make informed choices; underlines the need to improve and modernise vo ...[+++]cational training programmes in order to ensure that skills match the new and increasing demands of companies in sectors likely to ensure quality and sustainable jobs, such as the sectors linked to a sustainable and inclusive economy, environmental transition and information and communication technologies; recalls at the same time that society needs to sustain traditional crafts;

33. Reminds the importance of the headline targets for education and training in the interests of boosting employment, supporting life long learning and enabling young people in particular to find jobs; to meet these targets, it should focus its actions on how to give adequate financial support to young people, and on facilitating the transition from study and training to employment, regrets that the lack of proposals in this direction;

This recommendation should contribute to modernising education and training systems, improving the effectiveness of training by seeking to ensure that people do not leave without qualifications, improving the interrelationship of education, training and employment, building bridges between formal, non-formal and informal learning and expanding the awarding of qualifications on the basis of experience acquired,

In addition, the relevance to the labour market of training and permanent education must be increased, tax and social security benefits systems must be further reviewed in order to increase employment, and more active labour market measures must be adopted.