The European Commission has adopted a proposal to revise the well-known Europass suite of tools and services, that is the single European framework for the transparency of qualifications and skills.  The Europass’s core aim is to support mobility of people in Europe by proving access to tools which make skills visible, easy to understand, and comparable for education and employment purposes across the EU and oversees, and is backed up with on-ground support services in Member States.  

Since its establishment in 2005, over 60 million users have created Europass CVs and learners have benefitted from diploma and certificate supplements that make their attained skills transparent internationally. The Europass Framework saw its last revision in 2013, and since then it is time for an update that responds to technological advances, as well as new globalization challenges in the communication of qualifications.

To simplify and modernise the Europass, binging it up to par with a digital age and to add ‘a new feature to map and anticipate labour market trends’ the European Commission will seek improvements that include:  

• A better online tool for creating CV and skills profiles
• Free self-assessment tools to encourage the evaluation of individual skills
• Tailored information of learning opportunities across the EU
• Enhanced information and support services to aid people attain skills recognition
• Access to labour market intelligence indicating where and what types of skills are in high demand

The new framework will capitalise on the currently successful formula of offering easy to use tools for transmitting qualifications in all EU languages. To further enhance user-friendliness Europass will be linked to other EU tools and promote more joined-up services. This will ease the exchange of qualifications and skills information across labour, education and training services, such as the EURES job portal. The feature of increased interoperability will allow job applicants to directly upload their Europass CV into online job application forms, instead of re-entering and re-writing the same information across different employer portals, which is to save time, streamline recruitment and reduce redundancies. The launch of the Europass revision is part of the New Skills Agenda for Europe (ACA Newsletter Education Europe, June 2016), released this June.

To encourage people in creating a comprehensive overview of education and training achievements, professional experience and competences using Europass tools, The National Agency for Erasmus+ and ACA member OeAD, produced a film to show people how to complete it. An English and a German version are available on Youtube.

European Commission – Press release