Academic literature on the topic 'School-to-work transition – European Union countries'

This paper focuses on the processes of school-to-work transitions in a selected group of countries from South-eastern Europe (SEE), namely: Bosnia and Herzegovina; Croatia; Montenegro; North Macedonia; Serbia; and, Slovenia. Each of these countries display the same roots of development in their educational systems: however, due to their transition and integration processes within the European Union, they implemented different concepts of reforms within their educational systems. In addition, the challenges of youth employability are a common problem for each of the selected countries, and the effectiveness of the processes of school-to-work-transition varies across the countries. By using panel data and multiple linear regression models, this paper estimates the impact of different educational levels on youth employability and changes in the rates of NEET population (aged 15–24) in the selected group of countries over the period 2009 to 2019. The results suggest that the impact of the attained level of education has an ambiguous effect on the rates of youth employment; moreover, the relationship with changes in NEET rates are statistically significant and negative in most of the selected group of countries.

Countries’ institutional configurations and structural characteristics play an important role in shaping transitions from school to work. Recent empirical evidence shows significant regional and territorial differences in youth unemployment and labor market participation. Along this research strand, we argue in favor of a place-sensitive approach to youth labor market integration in order to address the regional disparities of young people’s opportunities. In order to investigate the synergic effect of different contextual configurations, we construct a composite measure, namely, the youth labor market integration (YLMI) index. This considers a wide range of indicators of the access, exclusion, and duration of the transition into employment at the regional level. The YLMI index allows cross-regional and longitudinal comparisons of the European Union (EU) local labor markets and youth employment opportunities.

Carbon dioxide emissions are on the rise, posing a serious global issue. Therefore, it is important that policymakers identify the exact causes of these emissions. This paper investigates the influence of financial development, primary energy consumption, and economic growth on CO2 emissions in 11 post-transition European economies. The assessment was made for the 1995–2017 period using panel cointegration and causality analyses. The causality analyses did not reveal significant connection between financial sector development and CO2 emissions, but rather a two-way causality between primary energy consumption and economic growth, on one hand, and CO2 emissions on the other. Meanwhile, long-run analysis disclosed that financial sector development and primary energy consumption positively affected CO2 emissions. Our results seek to grab the attention of policy makers, who could work towards creating country-specific strategies that balance the relationship between financial development and CO2 emissions. These long-term policies could ensure both development of the financial sector and environmental protection.

This article discusses ways in which programs have facilitated better understanding among European Union (EU) countries and specialist organizations that work with visually impaired people. It then describes several EU projects that are designed to support visually impaired adults to obtain employment and social integration.

Development management in most cases starts closer economic cooperation in order to increase GDP and welfare, which is primarily economic. Market liberalization has in fact started the integration of European states. The countries of South East Europe need to aim at for development paying particular attention to the maintenance of macroeconomic stability South East Europe need to aim at management changes paying particular attention to the maintenance of macroeconomic stability, competitiveness and cooperation with the European Union.In this work, the author wishes to emphasize the importance of development management, long-term sustainable and stable growth is the priority of every society that passes through the transition period. The focus of the paper is the management of market development, where a comparison of the situation of the three countries within the European Union is given: Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria and three candidate countries for membership of the European Union: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro.

This article analyzes the dissemination of the main global management standards, the ISO 9000, within the transition economies of the European Union (EU). In the article, the specific case of the Baltic States is analyzed in depth. The work refers to the diffusion of the ISO 9000 standard in the Baltic States in terms of its certification intensity and sectorial distribution. Likewise, the work refers to the huge increase of certifications achieved by the countries and the other transition economies in the previous years of their adhesion to the European Union in years 2004 and 2007. The conclusions drawn in the article may be of interest both for academic and professional spheres of activity but, overall, for public-decisors.

SummaryOne of the most important characteristics of the process of globalization is the creation of different regional economic integrations. The most developed regional economic integration in the world is the European Union. Since it was found, when six founder countries created the free trade area for coal and steel, European Union passed all the phases of development of the economic integration, through the customs union and common market to the economic and monetary union. Through the six waves of enlargement European Union has become the integration of 28 countries with over 500 million habitants. Every enlargement of this regional integration had an impact on the economic position and the development of both the old and the new members. The biggest increase in the number of members brought the 5th big enlargement of the European Union, when the number of the member countries increased in total for 12 countries, first for 10, and then for 2 more.The effects of this enlargement on former soviet countries are specially interesting not only because of the number of the new members, but also because of the fact that these countries during the joining have also pass the process of the transition to the market economy.The aim of this work is to examine the effects of the enlargement on the foreign trade of the new members, and the effects of the changes in foreign trade on the economic development of these countries. The analysis of the effects of joining the European Union could be interesting for the countries which strive to become members of this economic regional integration.

At present, the state of the economy of the agricultural sector in many countries of the world, including in the countries of the European Union (EU), inherent in developed industry, has led to the transition to a new environmentally oriented agricultural policy. An important role is assigned to state support of agricultural producers, through subsidies, preferential credit policy, and in some countries, the complete abolition of taxation of entrepreneurial activity in rural areas, which confirms the relevance and national economic significance of the article. In domestic agroeconomic science and practice, there is no scientific concept of state participation in the process of bringing the agricultural sector out of the crisis. Research objectives – consider the development policy of the agricultural sector of the EU countries; study the level of state support for agricultural producers. The purpose of the work is to consider the degree of development of the agricultural policy of the EU countries in the context of ensuring food security. The methods and methodology of the research were general scientific, particular methods of cognition, including the historical and logical, the method of observation and comparison. Shows the main approaches to state regulation of the development of the agro-industrial sector at the level of the European Union as a whole and in the context of member countries; characteristic features and principles that determine the success and integrity of a unified agricultural policy; factors contributing to the productivity of agricultural land; agro-ecological requirements restricting the import of genetically modified products; the main tasks in the development of a new policy of the agrarian sector of the economy; priority directions of regulation of measures to support agricultural producers, integrated development of rural areas, increasing the competitiveness of the EU agricultural sector. The practical significance of the work lies in the fact that this study will allow the state bodies of Belarus to better understand how it is necessary to form an agricultural policy in the context of ensuring food security.

The concept of a ‘just transition’ encompasses political and policy imperatives to minimize the harmful impacts of industrial and economic transitions on workers, communities, and society more generally, and to maximize their potential benefits. This imperative has gained heightened importance as governments commit to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. A wide range of policies, strategies and initiatives have been adopted by national and regional governments to facilitate and help manage a just transition. It is a concept that is increasingly being put into practice. This scoping study identifies and compares strategies, policies, and practices that are presently being implemented in order to manage a just transition across 25 countries and 74 regions alongside European Union-level policies. This work develops a typology of policy instruments to manage just transitions and identifies implementation gaps and leading practices.

Temporary work is common across Europe, especially among young people. Whether temporary employment is a transitory stage on the road to standard employment, and whether this varies depending on institutional contexts, is controversial. This article investigates variability in transition rates from temporary to permanent employment across Europe, and how this is related to employment protection legislation (EPL) and the vocational specificity of education systems. We utilize harmonized panel data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions, covering 18 European countries and including 34,088 temporary workers aged 18–30. The results show that stricter EPL is associated with lower rates of transitions to permanent employment, while partial deregulation, with strict EPL for permanent contracts but weaker EPL for temporary contracts, is associated with higher transition rates. Vocationally specific education systems have higher transition rates, on average. Moreover, the role of EPL is conditional on the degree of vocational specificity.

Defence date: 28 May 2010
Examining Board: Fabrizio Bernardi (EUI); Jaap Dronkes (formerly EUI/Univ. Maastricht, Supervisor); Markus Gangl (Univ. Wisconsin, in absentia); Irena Kogan (Univ. Mannheim)
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses
This thesis concerns the labour market outcomes of early school leavers in a European, cross-national perspective. More specifically, it deals with the way country level factors shape the disadvantages these early school leavers experience on the European labour market, when compared with those who have at least upper secondary education. To the extent that country level variation in the labour market integration of early school leavers can be attributed to specific institutional and macro-structural characteristics, it enriches the single cross-national definition of early school leaving, and points towards best practices that can be learned from. The overarching research question that runs through this thesis is twofold. To what extent is the labour market integration of early school leavers in Europe obstructed by the country-specific macro-structural factors underlying a knowledge economy? And, second, can the various education and labour market policies across the European countries help to decrease the relative labour market disadvantage of early school leavers? The concept of early school leaving, the process of ranking and rating countries on the basis of institutional and macro-structural characteristics, and the increasing availability of standardised country level indicators have all developed through a cross-fertilisation of academic research and EU policy making, which is why this thesis draws upon both the empirical literature and the Lisbon objectives when arguing the relevance of the research and formulating its conclusions. Using the ESS, the ECHP, and the EU-SILC, this thesis addresses the cross-level influences of educational expansion, skill-biased occupational change, the type and quality of the education and training system, and labour market policies. In conclusion, attention is drawn to the three most relevant findings in this research. These are (1) the downside of an equitable educational system, (2) the benefit of a higher educational quality, and (3) the influence of durable active labour market policy.

Youth transitions to employment and adulthood have become increasingly protracted and precarious. The Great Recession exacerbated these difficulties. The varied European experiences affect young people differently in terms of their gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, even in successful countries. Youth Labor in Transition examines young people’s integration into employment, transitions affected by the family and moving away to live independently, and the decisions and consequences of migrating to find work and later returning home. The authors identify some of the key challenges for the future concerning young people not in employment, education, or training (NEETs); overeducation; self-employment; ethnicity; scarring effects; as well as the values and attitudes of young people and how they identify with trade unions. The central concept informing this research is based on a comparative analysis of transitions, policy performance, and learning approaches to overcoming youth unemployment. It illuminates when and how labor market analysis informs policy formulation, implementation, and evaluation based on extensive multimethod empirical research across the European continent. Collectively, the authors illustrate the need to encompass a wider understanding of youth employment and job insecurity by including an analysis of both the sphere of economic production and how it relates to social reproduction of labor if policy intervention is to be effective. Mapping and extensively analyzing these transitions is the result of original empirical analysis drawn from a three-and-a-half-year European Union-funded research project: STYLE—Strategic Transitions for Youth Labour in Europe.

This chapter previews the book’s recurring themes, highlighting the dynamic nature of an international court’s impact in countries directly affected by its work. The ICTY’s local impact has been a function not only of its own performance, but also of evolving social and political conditions in Bosnia and Serbia. Those conditions have, in turn, have been influenced by the policies of external actors, including the European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The introduction also highlights the book’s contributions to two related questions: (1) What goals should be ascribed to international criminal courts?; and (2) Under what conditions, and to what extent, can international justice advance aims widely associated with home-grown measures of transitional justice?

This book ambitiously seeks to lay the groundwork for a new field of study and teaching known as “comparative foreign relations law.” Comparative foreign relations law compares and contrasts how nations, and also supranational entities such as the European Union, structure their decisions about matters such as entering into and exiting from international agreements, engaging with international institutions, and using military force, as well as how they incorporate treaties and customary international law into their domestic legal systems. The book consists of forty-six chapters, written by leading authors from around the world. Some of the chapters are empirically focused, others are theoretical, and still others contain in-depth case studies. In addition to being an invaluable resource for scholars working in this area, the book should be of interest to lawyers, judges, and law students. Foreign relations law issues are addressed regularly by lawyers working in foreign ministries, and globalization has meant that domestic judges, too, increasingly are confronted by them. In addition, private lawyers who work on matters that extend beyond their home countries often are required to navigate issues of foreign relations law. An increasing number of law school courses in comparative foreign relations law are also now being developed, making this volume an important resource for students as well.

The main milestones of the formation and development of astronomical science in Kharkiv during 1883–1945 are reconstructed on the example of the activities of the astronomical observatory of Kharkiv University. During this period, the outstanding worldview science in Kharkiv has achieved significant success: the works of Kharkiv astronomers have received world recognition; a well-known scientific planetary school has been established at the Observatory; the scientific community highly appreciated the research on the physics and chemistry of the Moon, the giant and small planets of the Solar System. The primary goal of the research is to inscribe the history of the university Observatory into the European and world context. Its purpose is to summarize the results of a comprehensive historical ad scientific study of the development of astronomical research in Kharkiv at the end of the 19th century – the first half of the 20th century and identification of ways of further scientific research. The completed research, which continues the problems of works devoted to the study of the history of astronomical science in Ukraine, focuses on expanding the well-known source base by attracting new retro-information resources. In particular, the monograph used a significant array of archival primary sources from almost twenty archival and library institutions of different countries. Most of them were introduced into scientific circulation for the first time, which allowed to determine and specify the sequence of stages of development of astronomical science in Kharkiv during the research period, to clarify and identify the little-known circumstances of the observatory life. The methodological basis of the study is the principles of historism, objectivity and a systematic approach to studying the problem. To solve specific problematic tasks in the monograph, general scientific and specially historical methods were used which allowed to study, analyze and summarize the presented factual material in a complex manner. The main sections of the monograph represent the dynamics of replenishment of the instrumental base of the university observatory, the chronology of the construction of the observatory complex of buildings at the location of the modern Scientific Research Institute of Astronomy of the V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University. According to the author’s periodization, the stages of formation of subjects and directions of scientific work of university astronomers have been analyzed, including: seismic observations with the help of horizontal Rebeur-Paschwitz pendulums, research of the activity of the Sun, astrometric observations on the Repsold meridian circle of for the purpose of compiling a catalog of zodiac stars, studying lunar eclipses and meteor showers. The participation of university astronomers in the creation of the plan of the city of Kharkiv and its connection with the general network of precise geometric leveling of the Military Topographic Department of the General Staff; the organization of observations by an expedition of Kharkiv astronomers of the total Solar eclipse of 1914 in Henichesk; the creation of the School-workshop of precision mechanics at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Kharkiv University were considered; information on the participation of Kharkiv astronomers in the events of the civil war during the Ukrainian Revolution was documented. The scientific research activity of Kharkiv astronomers during 1920-1930-s which was devoted to carrying out important astrometric works on meridian observations of star declinations by absolute methods and observations of Kopf-Rentz stars according to the programs of the International Astronomical Union; the initiation of the creation of the Catalog of faint stars; research in astrophysics aimed at studying the physical conditions on the Moon and the Sun, planets and the interstellar environment; performing long series of spectrophotometric observations of the Moon, Jupiter, Mars and Saturn under different conditions of observation; study of the kinematics of stellar systems of different order, the physical parameters and evolution of stars, the morphology of the Galaxy, the nature of the stellar subsurfaces and atmospheres, dust and gas nebulae, new stars and the variability of stars have been considered; the directions of solid works carried out in the field of celestial mechanics, devoted to the dynamics of the minor planets of the Jupiter group, the definition and improvement of the orbits of minor planets have been clarified. The development of amateur astronomy in Kharkiv, in particular, the functioning of circles and societies that directed their activities to the dissemination of astronomical knowledge, was highlighted; the participation of their representatives in astronomical observations at the Kharkiv Astronomical Observatory was emphasized. Reconstructed the development of historical events in the 1930s related to the involvement of Soviet and Western astronomers in the processes of political confrontation between the USSR and the Western world; investigated the course of circumstances that prevented the implementation of the project of creating a new modern astronomical center of national importance – the central Ukrainian observatory in Kharkiv; the participation of an expedition of Kharkiv astronomers in the observation of the «great Soviet eclipse» – the total solar eclipse of 1936 – in the North Caucasus is highlighted; established the facts of political «purges» and repressions by the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs ( the NKVD) in the Kharkiv Astronomical Observatory. The activity of the Kharkiv Astronomical Observatory has been documented and authentic biographical information about its representatives during the Nazi occupation of 1941–1943, the period of the German-Soviet war, has been presented; the unpopular facts of the forced collaboration of some scientists are highlighted; the process of recovery and reconstruction of the Kharkiv Astronomical Observatory after the liberation of the city is characterized. With the aim of researching the personal history of Kharkiv astronomy of the studied period, the monograph presents the results of a historical and biographical study of facts of life and scientific heritage of scientists who fully devoted themselves to Science, laid the foundations for the future development of many directions of modern astronomical research, made a significant contribution to the treasury of the national and European astronomical science, whose activities were connected with the Kharkiv Astronomical Observatory, in particular: Grigory Levytsky, Ludwig Struve, Mykola Evdokymov, Otto Struve, Mykola Barabashov, Boris Gerasimovich, Vasil Fesenkov, Oleksiy Razdolsky, Boris Ostashchenko-Kudryavtsev, Nicholas Bobrovnikov, Paraskovia Parkhomenko, Mstislav Savron, Boris Semeykin, Kostyantyn Savchenko and others (25 biographical essays are presented). A significant part of the mentioned factual material was also introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. A separate section of the monograph provides chronologically structured information that reflects the sequence of research work of the Kharkiv Astronomical Observatory employees during the period under study: from astrometric observations of stars and seismic research to spectrohelioscopic and spectroheliographic observations of the Sun and the initiation of the Kharkiv school of planetary science. It is assumed that the materials of the monograph will be used in research work devoted to the study of the process of institutionalization of astronomical research in Kharkiv at the end of the 19th century – the first half of the 20th century.

AbstractThe “innovation divide” has been a common and persistent problem since the onset of Framework Programmes for Research and Innovation. Especially, for the group of countries that joined the European Union after 2004. Several initiatives have been implemented by the Union for encouraging the participation of these countries in these collaborative programmes, trying to maximize and extend the benefits of a knowledge economy across the EU. In this chapter, we explore how these instruments have been deployed paying special attention to the origins of “Spreading Excellence and Widening Participation” Horizon 2020 Work Programme. We explore its objectives and rationale, and we address some of its weaknesses and pitfalls. We argue that the “innovation divide” is not only a matter of providing adequate resources and encouraging participation for these countries and they cannot be treated as a homogeneous group. Particularly, in a moment of transition regarding innovation policies.

AbstractThis short paper describes the preliminary phase in an innovative line of research comparing educational robotics in Italy and other countries, from the perspective of media education, and based on the European Parliament recommendations to the Commission on civil law rules on robotics. More specifically, all decision processes that affect digital citizenship should have the support of children and teenagers. For these reasons, this paper looks at the work of a group of Italian high school students in the fifth year of upper secondary school, who formulated a SWOT analysis to highlight their attitudes to robotics issues in relation to the European Union recommendations. This research started in 2018 and will be repeated this academic year with Italian and Congolese students—from the Institut Supérieur des Techniques Appliquées—with a qualitative analysis to establish student attitudes to robotics issues. Qualitative analysis was selected because the SWOT analysis is already divided into information categories, revealing a variety of concepts that are grouped together from the collected data. These results will be compared with any obtained in future years in Italy and other countries, to find further potential patterns.

This chapter presents a cross-country comparative analysis of the variation in European youth-related school-to-work (STW) transition regimes. The chapter assesses youth labor market performance during the Great Recession in eight countries belonging to five different institutional clusters, as well as the effect of recent policy innovations on each STW transition regime’s structure and logic. The analysis shows that the institutional configurations of STW regimes in Europe are currently in flux as a result of ongoing dynamics of regime hybridization. Despite some emerging trends of convergence across regimes in the design of youth-transition policy instruments, institutional change remains limited at the level of policy implementation. Although positive policy intentions improve the efficacy of STW transition policies, performance differences across regimes persist. This is due to a combination of institutional and macroeconomic factors, together with a common trend of progressive deterioration in the quality of youth transitions across the board.

This chapter analyzes whether work values differ between birth cohorts, age groups, and time periods. Using large cross-national surveys from more than 30 countries, it is shown that the centrality of work is highest in the middle age groups and significantly lower during 2005–2009 than in the 1990s. However, there are no detectable gaps between birth cohorts. Thus, in contemporary Europe, the generations are not divided significantly with regard to their work values so that rather than pointing to generational differences, the lack of them should be emphasized. From a policy standpoint, this means that the generational differences often referred to in public debates and used in political discourses are a myth. The results presented in this chapter imply that if sound European Union policies are implemented to cope with youth unemployment, they will not fail because of generation-specific attitudes.

This chapter examines the labor market integration of recent migrant youth from Central and Eastern Europe (EU8) countries, Bulgaria and Romania (EU2), Southern Europe, and the remaining European Union in the German and UK labor markets. The chapter measures levels of employment, income, marginal employment, fixed-term employment, (solo) self-employment, and the skills/qualification mismatch of each group compared to nationals before and after the financial crisis. Despite institutional differences, young EU citizens are well integrated into the respective labor markets (especially in the United Kingdom) in terms of employment rates. However, EU youth migrants’ qualitative labor market integration seems to mirror the existing stratification across regions of Europe: EU8 and EU2 citizens often work in precarious and nonstandard employment, youth from Southern Europe take a middle position, and youth from the remaining EU countries do as well or better on several indicators compared to their native peers.

This chapter presents an in-depth review of the literature addressing the work transitions of emerging adults from the South of Europe (Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain). These countries were severely hit by the 2008 economic crisis, which strongly impacted youth facing labor market integration. For southern European youth, labor market integration remains as a key transition enabling engagement in other adult roles and responsibilities. To address the work transitions of young people from the South of Europe, the authors (a) outline the specifics of the Mediterranean context influencing these transitions; (b) look into the general patterns and timing of youth work transitions in these countries; and (c) discuss how such transition patterns and timing affect how emerging adults approach and live their lives, in particular how they navigate the ongoing, multiple, and interconnected transitions to adulthood. The chapter concludes by highlighting the impact changing, adverse social contexts have on the ways in which youth construct their pathways to work and adulthood.

In the aftermath of the Great Recession, rising levels of youth unemployment led to an array of policy responses involving learning, transfer, and experimentation to address the complex needs of youth at risk. Reviewing these recent experiences, this chapter examines nine European countries (including Turkey) representing a range of different school-to-work transition regimes and with varying levels of youth unemployment and gender inequalities. It analyzes the institutional and process “enablers” of and “barriers” to policy learning and innovation, and it traces the pathways and major foci of learning and transfer within and between countries, as well as through supranational channels. This examination highlights where changes in policy governance have occurred. It is concluded that innovative initiatives for sustained labor market integration of youth require a policy environment that is conducive to coordinated sharing and diffusion of knowledge between different levels of administration and joint stakeholders’ bodies.

Abstract Climate change is no longer a myth and is evident worldwide in different alterations of the weather. Over the past two decades, scientists worked to find alternate sources of energy that were not fossil-based. Success in this endeavour led to what is now termed as a global transition to renewable and sustainable energy. In most climes, this marks a new beginning filled with opportunities and a chance to allow the earth to heal. Highly developed economies like Norway and some member countries of the European Union, being the driver of the transition, have begun to make policies that align with the new age, setting themselves to have a stake in the profit. The African continent, which has abundant energy resources but is neither a major contributor nor a driver of climate change but suffers just as much as other continents in the world from its effects, is not in a position to take any corrective action, showing the incapacity to participate in any potential economic gain. This paper studies the Sub-Saharan landscape by visiting the histories of the nations in question based on the energy resources within their borders and the current state of energy transition development. It examines the freedom of said countries to create policies that work for them, indicating the implications of lack of planning and the taint it may have on the new trend in the countries of interest. Efforts would also be made in highlighting a roadmap that can serve as a knowledge base to facilitate the implementation of best strategies in enabling successful energy transition in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Desertification is one of the major problems affecting our environment in the 21st century. Indeed, it threatens more than 1.5 million people worldwide and affects a quarter of the land in less than 100 countries, it spreads over half a billion hectares per year and reduces the surface water and groundwater. Thus, according to a report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation written in 1993, the direct and visible impacts of desertification are the damage on crops, on livestock, on the electricity productivity, etc. Indirect impacts are lack of food production, poverty, social upheaval, rural exodus to cities. In this paper, our work consists in modelling the degradation process of land whose advanced level leads to the desertification. The first step consists in assessing the degradation of land with the MEDALUS model developed by the MEDALUS project of the commission of the European Union. This model assesses desertification by its sensitivity index which is the geometric mean of four quality factor indexes of soil, vegetation, climate and management (land use). This assessment method uses the major part of the parameters influencing the land degradation process. The second step is to model the land degradation process using cellular automata (CA) approach. For that purpose, the study area will be divided into a regular grid of cells. Initially, each cell has a state (desertification sensitivity index) whose evolution at each discrete time step depends on the states of its neighbours through a built transition function. As a result, this study allows to introduce a dynamical process in MEDALUS model. Indeed, from an initial configuration of an area, the model can predict its evolution over time and space according to a continuous state transition function that extend the classical CA approach and fit to the MEDALUS model parameters.

Complexity of learning causes at all stages of development of human society, the search for new methods, new tools, new resources for relevant efficiency in education. Until now developed new theories and methods developed by educators and psychologists were reformed and modernized education systems of the countries have adapted curriculum learning goals were always set new directions in scientific research. Over time, changes in all scientific theories, methods and techniques of investigation of development of human knowledge that influence the overall development of human society. To achieve development and efficiency in life, one must continually adapt to the changes of knowledge. In education, particularly learning and improvement, the emergence of new information and communication technologies (ICT) to improve pedagogical theories and psychological forces pupils / students, teachers, parents and professionals to adapt to these changes. What do pupils and students? What do teachers and parents? What do experts? What are governments? An Example. INTIME Project (1999-2001). "The mission of INTIME is to help educators improve student learning at all levels (PK thru University work) and in all content areas. We work with PK thru 12th grade teachers and university faculty to accomplish this mission. We use contemporary technology, high quality conceptual models, online streaming videos, case studies and probing questions analysis to help educators learn the skills necessary for improving student learning". Technology as Facilitator of Quality Education Model: A Model (by William P. Callahan and Thomas J. Switzer, College of Education, University of Northern): o COMPUTER: means for forming a new vision of education, research and innovation. o TECHNOLOGY: mediator of quality education. o STUDENTS: active participants in their own learning process. Computer Aided Learning Many educational projects that use computer and software are the result of complex ideas and exploratory actions immediately after 2000. Already there were many changes in education by supporting it with systems, programs and applications, including the development of IDD shape (Open Distance Learning). At that time - the transition from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 technology, the terms "e-Learning" and "Educational Software" appeared more often in various articles, studies, reports, etc.. Today, some experts in e-learning and educational software actually admit that at the time concepts were not clear and do not understand the context of their use in education and training. After 10 years, by following some step-difficult-sometimes even e-Learning products and educational software incorporates not only expertise in informatics and IT professionals, especially teachers and teaching scenarios for learning: IAC (Computer Aided Training). Systemic approach to learning and teaching strategy Computer assisted learning systems approach to training enables a new vision that psycho-pedagogy one theorized in recent years, but which becomes operative when teaching strategy is combined with multimedia technologies. While in training designed as a system can be determined: for the system (training objectives), the processes by which it is achieved for (type of activities, learning situations in which students must participate to achieve the targets) and the results that they want to reach (translated into effective procurement categories of students), educational software design allows even cover the main elements of the system, helping to optimize the learning process. News trends New trends in education highlights the need for a teaching tool that involves both players learning process: teachers and students.Changing the paradigm shift from learning and knowledge acquisition in the development of skills, values and attitudes necessary focus on training activities and voluntary dominant active participation of students to the needs, interests and their learning profiles. Differentiated Instruction and its contextualization is particularly useful support in using computers in the classroom. The Power of Learning "Teaching is more than imparting knowledge, it is inspiring change. Learning is more than absorbing facts, it is acquiring understanding." William Arthur Ward Knowledge and lifelong learning frees you from ignorance and superficiality. Today, technology and software resources help business efficiency and a better job in this regard. "Educational content it should encourage students to create their own knowledge by experiment, not by learning a text by heart." Radu Jugureanu The responsibility for education is nowadays shared: collaborative demarches and adequate commitment from all stakeholders is very much increasing the effects of education as a whole, oriented towards preparing competitive human resources equipped with competences for the 21st Century: cooperation, communication, critical thinking, creativity, innovation. In the United States and also in UNESCO strategies these are referred to as the 21st Century Skills. The European Union in the Lisbon framework outlines eight domains of Key Competences for Lifelong Learning. These 21st Century Skills are critically important to support the challenges of the modern workplace and its dynamic and the rapidly changing knowledge society. There is a growing and widely accepted understanding that a different set of skills need to be developed by our students in our school systems. Highly structured and disciplined schooling systems do not necessarily prepare students well for the dynamics and challenges of the 21st century workplace and society. For Dr. Howard Gardner (American Psychologist and Educator), intelligence is (Building the 21st-Century Mind: www.howardgardner.com, Gardner, 2009): o the ability to create an effective product or offer a service that is valued in a culture; o a set of skills that make it possible for a person to solve problems in life; o the potential for finding or creating solutions for problems, which involves gathering new knowledge. Skills are critically important to support the challenges of the modern workplace and its dynamic and the rapidly changing knowledge society. There is a growing and widely accepted understanding that a different set of skills need to be developed by our students in our school systems. Highly structured and disciplined schooling systems do not necessarily prepare students well for the dynamics and challenges of the 21st century workplace and society. More self-motivated, individualized, group and collaborative learning processes, supported by ICT will contribute significantly to the preparation of a more agile modern workforce (Hamilton, & O'Duffy 2009).

The worst effect that continuous bullying can cause is dropping out of school. And these children are turning into young NEETs: young people outside the education, employment or training systems. Based on suffering, self-distrust reaches adults who find it difficult to find a job and integrate socially without frustration. Both in the European Union and individually in the countries of the European Union, the largest subcategory in the NEETs group is unfortunately made up of young unemployed.; also, in Romania, among the young people integrated on the labor market (NEETs), there are young people, children, adolescents, who dropped out of school too early, young people who are part of the category of people with disabilities, respectively young people who come from vulnerable backgrounds; of the young NEETs, some are those who do not choose to be in this category (those mentioned above, chronic diseases, poverty, etc.), but in the category of NEETs there are also young people who choose not to work, do not want to integrate on the labor market; In conclusion, it can be said that young NEETs are an inhomogeneous category, which makes it difficult to intervene at the stratum of public policies in the absence of specific profiles, related to each sectary. For this grouping, a series of actions must be considered, both at the level of Romania and at the level of the European Union. Thus, there is a comparative advantage in order to find solutions in terms of integrating young people who fail to pursue or complete a form of education, those who do not work or those who are not in personal and professional development programs. The paper is made up of three chapters and presents both approaches to the literature and the analysis of the evolution of NEETs in the European Union and in Romania. The first chapter focuses on theoretical concepts about what "NEETs" mean, as well as the literature. The second chapter captures the analysis of the situation of young NEETS in the European Union, and the third part focuses on young NEETs in Romania, measures implemented so far, but also a series of proposals. At the same time, the paper will end with the area of proposals for the strategy to reduce the NEETs rate in Romania and conclusions.

Today we need more than basic skills to use a computer. Due also to the current pandemic situation we have a lot of on-line activities - starting from school, work, training, shopping, paying the bills, exercising, watching a movie and many others. Fortunately, the Internet is offering us the possibility to stay safe. That is why we need to obtain digital skills - information, communication, problem-solving, and software skills. For that, besides the infrastructure, we need specialists that will be able in the end to also teach the large population to properly use a computer. We have analyzed in this paper six indicators referring to individuals' level of digital skills, the ways to obtaining ICT skills, the number of employed ICT specialists, the education attainment level of those specialists, and their age. We did that with the help of the data from the Eurostat database. We selected for the graphical analysis 5 countries with different national cultures and different companies cultures, as identified with Hofstede's Model: Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Germany, Finland, and we also use the composite index EU-27 for the remaining 27 countries in the European Union. Unfortunately, for the moment, the ICT specialists are representing only a maximum of 7% of the employed persons. For sure this percent will become higher because society needs to adapt to the new realities, the new and dangerous crises. The discrepancies between the urban and the rural population, and of course, between the rich and the poor will be more accentuated.

This report compiles comparable tax revenue statistics over the period 1990-2019 for 27 Latin American and Caribbean economies. Based on the OECD Revenue Statistics database, it applies the OECD methodology to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to enable comparison of tax levels and tax structures on a consistent basis, both among the economies of the region and with other economies. This publication is jointly undertaken by the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, the OECD Development Centre, the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations (CIAT), the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The 2021 edition is produced with the support of the EU Regional Facility for Development in Transition for Latin America and the Caribbean, which results from joint work led by the European Union, the OECD and its Development Centre, and ECLAC.