EU memo: Invest in skills, says Education Commissioner

The new EU Education Commissioner has a message for those planning the region’s official  investment strategy: Think soft, not hard.

In an interview with Science|Business, Tibor Navracsics said he would like to see more money for the so-called Juncker Plan for investment go towards ‘soft’ projects that build European job skills – in entrepreneurship, digital know-how and other educational attainments. These are essential for economic growth and competitiveness, he argued.

“Spending on ‘hardware’ is important and I understand it, but I would like to see spending on ‘soft’ skills too,” said Navracsics, a Hungarian who is Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, in an interview with Science|Business. For instance, one suggestion from the Commission’s directorate general for education and culture or DG EAC, which Navracsics manages, suggested €100 million should be put aside to invest in a scoring tool for universities that teach entrepreneurship modules.

Under the Juncker Plan, named for Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, member-states have proposed hundreds of investment projects in transport, energy, agriculture, broadband, research and other fields. Investment professionals, including at the European Investment Bank, are to select those with the greatest potential for attracting private investment and economic returns – up to a total value of €315 billion, including public and private financing.

But in a massive ‘shopping list’ released last December, it was revealed member states are mostly interested in financing conventional infrastructure projects, such as more roads, energy efficient buildings – and even many of the educational projects have a hardware element, such as a French proposal to buy school computers.  Greece wants to spend some of the money on renovating school buildings.

Will Navracsics use his office to try and exert some influence when it comes to picking project winners? Member states and appointees from EIB will be the main people involved, he explained.

Growing in stature

A former colleague of Hungary’s controversial Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, whose government frequently clashes with Brussels on media and judicial reforms, Navracsics came to Europe’s capital with some hard-to-ignore baggage. It was trial-by-fire last autumn for the Commissioner-designate, who faced a hot reception from politicians during his confirmation hearing in the European Parliament. Nevertheless, he was chosen for Juncker’s team, and the tumult surrounding his appointment has since died down.

Despite the difficult start, there’s recent evidence the Commissioner is knuckling down to his task. Tragic events at the beginning of the year in Paris, when a horrified city witnessed a massacre at the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, has thrust anti-radicalisation policies to the top of the agenda. Speaking in the French capital two months later, the Commissioner announced, “I plan to prepare the ground for inclusion, diversity and civic values in our schools to be at the centre of the new EU priorities for education and training I will present later this year.”

His portfolio is bizarrely diverse: Education, culture, youth, sport, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, the Joint Research Centres – even the Commission’s Publications Office. The EIT faces a €350 million or 13 per cent budget cut to help finance the Juncker Plan – but Navracsics said its core mission of collaborative innovation and education will be unscathed. “We expect cuts to have more overall effect on the administrative side” of the programme, he said. He added that a top priority for the EIT will be simply becoming more visible – for instance, demonstrating through case studies that it’s worth the investment.

As for the JRC, the Commission’s 3,000-employee in-house labs, the Commissioner confirmed he is pushing to enhance its role as a regular supplier of scientific advice to other parts of the Commission – in energy, digital affairs and other fields. “We think it can come out of the silo and develop into an in-house think tank,” said Navracsics. He denied Brussels rumours of deeper budget cuts there, noting that while there had been some administrative savings, “we don’t plan any cuts to research.”

Must-have skills

When asked in the interview what skills are needed by Europe’s students, Navracsics did not begin with the conventional EU answer: science, technology, engineering and maths – the so-called STEM topics. Instead, he said, the ability to think like an entrepreneur, and greater fluency with foreign languages and all things digital, are the three must-have skills for students.  

Getting graduates into jobs is the “first challenge” for all of Europe’s member states, he said. With the EU emerging, blinking and wounded, from a catastrophic financial crisis and recession, it’s hardly surprising that he would say that. Supporting universities as they try and map out future job market needs will be a key part of his mandate, the Commissioner added.

The Hungarian education system can offer some lessons here, Navracsics observed. As a result of recent reforms, which have drawn flak from researchers in his country, there is a sharper focus on quality of graduates and employability, he explained. “It’s pretty characteristic of [this step-change] that the minister responsible for education comes from industry (an engineer),” he said.

Of course, the picture’s not all rosy, he conceded: “There have been budget cuts and the [dropout] rate from universities is high.”

Is there a model of higher education in Europe he particularly likes? “There’s no one universal model,” he diplomatically replied.