WORKING GROUPS

The maritime Regions firmly believe that the seas and oceans will be instrumental in achieving the objectives of the EU2020 Strategy.

The future European maritime economy needs a qualified workforce

“Blue growth” will undoubtedly be underpinned by efforts to promote maritime jobs, skills and know-how. It will thus require investment in the social dimension of European maritime policy, above all in training, at all levels and in all sectors of the maritime economy, on land and at sea.

European regions usually have significant powers in the fields of education and training. To tackle the lack of attractiveness certain maritime careers hold for young people and to tap the potential offered by new maritime activities, they are working together to find ways of making maritime occupations more dynamic and are developing appropriate schemes.

International mobility must strengthen the attractiveness of maritime training programmes and make them more vocational

In December 2009, the maritime regions put forward these points in the CPMR’s response to the European Commission’s Green paper on “Promoting the learning mobility of young people”. They now want to launch a concrete programme to encourage interregional mobility in the maritime sector – the “Vasco da Gama” programme that will focus on :

- Mobility between educational sectors

- Mobility between labour sectors linked to the sea

- Establishment of bridges between learning mobility and labour mobility

The following Regions are participating in the first phase of the project:
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (DE) – Project leader
Asturias (ES); Basse-Normandie (FR); Bretagne (FR); Cantabria (ES); Generalitat Valenciana (ES);Haute-Normandie (FR); Murcia (ES); Southwest Finland (FIN); Toscana (IT)

Under the next programming period (2014–2020), Vasco da Gama should become a European programme in its own right, with a dedicated budget line.