Key Competences for Lifelong Learning

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The Key Competences for Lifelong Learning – A European Framework is an  annex of  a Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council of  December 2006 on key competences for lifelong learning that was published  in the Official Journal of the European Union on the same month.

The Recommendation is one of the outcomes of the joint work of the  European Commission and the Member States within the Education and Training Work Programme, the over-arching  framework for policy cooperation in the area of education and training, and is based on commonly agreed objectives, indicators and benchmarks, peerlearning and dissemination of best practice.

Lifelong learning has become a necessity for all citizens. We need to develop our skills and competences  throughout our lives, not only for our personal fulfilment and our ability to actively engage with the society in which we live, but for our ability to be  successful in a constantly changing world of work.  

The knowledge, skills and aptitudes of the European  workforce are a major factor in the EU’s innovation, productivity and competitiveness. Growing  internationalisation, the rapid pace of change, and  the continuous roll-out of new technologies mean  that Europeans must not only keep their specific  job-related skills up-to-date, but also possess the  generic competences that will enable them to adapt  to change. People’s competences also contribute to  their motivation and job satisfaction in the workplace, thereby affecting the quality of their work.  The ways in which we access information and services continue to change. We need new competences to master a whole new digital world, not only by acquiring technical skills, but also by gaining a deeper understanding of the opportunities, challenges and even ethical questions posed by new technologies.  

In this climate of rapid change, there is increasing  concern about our social cohesion. There is a risk  that many Europeans feel left behind and marginalised by globalisation and the digital revolution.  The resulting threat of alienation implies a need to  nurture democratic citizenship; it requires people to  be informed and concerned about their society and active in it. The knowledge, skills and aptitudes that everyone needs must change as a result.

It is against this back-drop that the Council and the European Parliament adopted, at the end of 2006, a European Framework for Key Competences for Lifelong Learning. The Framework identifies and defines, for the first time at the European level, the key competences that citizens require for their personal fulfilment, social inclusion, active citizenship and employability in our knowledge-based society. The Member States’ initial education and training systems should support the development of these competences for all young people, and their adult education and training provision should give real opportunities to all adults to learn and maintain these skills and competences.

These ompetences are defined as a combination of knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the context. Key competences are those which all individuals need for personal fulfilment and development, active citizenship, social inclusion and employment.

The Reference Framework sets out eight key competences:  

1) Communication in the mother tongue;
2) Communication in foreign languages;
3) Mathematical competence and basic competences in science and technology;
4) Digital competence;
5) Learning to learn;
6) Social and civic competences;
7) Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship;
8) Cultural awareness and expression.

The key competences are all considered equally important, because each of them can contribute to a successful life in a knowledge society. Many of the competences overlap and interlock: aspects essential to one domain will support competence in another. Competence in the fundamental basic skills of language, literacy, numeracy and in information and communication technologies (ICT) is an essential foundation for learning, and learning to learn supports all learning activities.

Source: Key Competences for Lifelong Learning - European Reference Framework

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