PURPOSE: presentation of the final accounts of the European Centre for the Development for vocational training (Cedefop) for the financial year 2008.
CONTENT: this document sets out a detailed account of the Centre’s expenditure in 2008. According to this document, the final budget amounted to EUR 18.38 million (compared to EUR 17.4 million in 2007) representing a 93% Community contribution.
As regards the staffing policy, the Centre, which is based in Thessaloniki (Greece), officially set out 99 posts in the establishment plan. 97 of these positions are currently occupied with other staff (contract staff and seconded national experts) totalling 128 assigned to operational, administrative tasks.
During 2008, the Centre mainly focused on the following activities:
· Strategy documents: the impact of the Centre in providing analysis and research results for evidence based policy-making is best illustrated by the fact that 21 major policy documents (for example Council Conclusions on future priorities for enhanced European cooperation in Vocational Education Training (VET) or Commission Communication on new skills for new jobs) not only reflected the Centre’s work but also requested the Centre to further contribute or monitor, etc. This shows also appreciation for the work done. The draft policy report contributed greatly to the preparation of the ministerial conference of the French presidency and the Bordeaux communiqué in November. The Centre worked closely with both 2008 presidencies and provided major input (publications, background material, keynote speeches, etc.) to all the major events relating to VET (for example guidance conference in Lyon).
· Work on skills: the Centre’s work on skills needs to be further developed. At the request of the EC President, the forecast was extended to 2020. The publication ‘Skill needs in Europe: focus on 2020’ was downloaded over 140 000 times. In November 2008, the Centre’s proposal to introduce future skill needs as a forward looking indicator to analyse employment was adopted by the Employment Committee indicators group.
· Europass website and European CVs: after the adoption of the European Qualification Framework (EQF), implementation in Member States of the European tools for VET has accelerated. The Centre has contributed substantially towards the development of these tools (EQF, European Credit transfer system, Quality assurance, Guidance, Europass) and continued to support the EC working groups and clusters and to host the Europass website. Its use by European citizens continued to increase. In 2008, over 6 million visits to the website were recorded and more than 2 million European CVs have been completed online. An external evaluation confirmed the positive development.
· Study visits: a revised study visits programme has been successfully implemented.
· Workshops and conferences: with more than 65 workshops and conferences, 24 new publications, a newly established press service (19 press releases in 2008), 8 policy briefs the Centre continued to provide a platform for VET stakeholders and provided updated information on VET in the European Union.
The complete version of the final accounts may be found at the following address: http://www.cedefop.europa.eu/about/budget_discharge.asp