BM 62 – Call for Lithuanian Goverment to concentrate on employability of students
In response to the current situation of youth unemployment in Lithuania and all over the Europe, European Students’ Union (ESU) calls upon the Government of the Republic of Lithuania for actions. While spontaneous short-term actions are highly unlikely to introduce major changes in solving long-term problem of unemployment, strategic and systemic approach is needed, particularly in the field of education. As a result, ESU stresses three main areas of focus:
Promotion of the necessity for strategic thinking in regards to higher education (HE) in Lithuania: All decisions concerning HE must be based on a clear higher education strategy which sets the main priorities for higher education development. A good example could be provided by public policy-making that aims at adjusting the distribution between students in sectors of education: colleges, universities of applied science and universities. Also, there is a high need to focus on long-term planning needs of professions and qualifications.
Developing and implementing professional orientation system: Career guidance at schools should be introduced at the very beginning of education experience, starting with students of elementary school. Career orientation system should be based on informal and formal learning methods and involve private partners and higher education institutions. The lack of such a practice may result to the continuing situation where majority of graduates begin to plan their studies only at the end of the school years or upon maturity of the graduates exams.
Prioritization of higher education quality assurance and implementation of a student-centered learning (SCL) model: For implementation of SCL it is essential to promote mentioned methodology among students, teaching personnel and HE’s administration and to ensure the responsibility of all involved interest groups. ESU notes, that learning process should not only develop academic but also personal skills that later could be transferred to labor market for graduates.
Implementation of these proposals would influence qualitative and quantitative changes for higher education and students employability.
