Participants in Cedefop’s conference on tackling skills mismatch agreed that Europe needs to implement policy initiatives on developing work-based learning as an answer to rising youth unemployment.

High-level participants in the two-day conference, which finished on Thursday, included European Union Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth Androulla Vassiliou, German Parliamentary Secretary of State, Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Thomas Rachel and Thessaloniki Mayor Yiannis Boutaris.

The UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) has issued its report to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. 'The Action Agenda for Sustainable Development' argues that a sustainable development path must be based on four related normative concepts: the right to development for every country; human rights and social inclusion; convergence of living standards across countries; and shared responsibilities and opportunities.