Ladies and Gentlemen!

In today’s world, no nation can define itself or set its own objectives, without reference to its neighbouring societies and the international context in general. Modern society demands international interaction, not only concerning competition but also comparison and cooperation. Therefore, increased globalization has triggered the need for closer cooperation between countries and continents, for example in the field of education and training.

As you all know, Iceland has recently been hit by a severe economic crisis. The crisis has shown us how vital it is to enhance knowledge, to nurse our innovation, hone our skills and seek to make Iceland a knowledge-based society.

Iceland is among the countries in Europe which has been restructuring its education system during the last years. We have set a course for lifelong learning like most European countries.

Europe´s response to globalisation is embodied in the Lisbon strategy, which promotes a society and an economy founded on knowledge and innovation. Labour markets - and the skills people need – are evolving fast and future jobs require higher education levels and a different mix of skills and qualifications. With this in mind, the European Council invited the Commission to provide an assessment of skills needs in Europe up to 2020, to step up its efforts to forecast the needs of tomorrow and see how best they can be met. The assessment is titled ´New Skills for New Jobs‘ and sets the agenda for one of the core future priorities of the European Union where upgrading skills is not enough: Ensuring a better match between the supply of skills and labour market demand is just as necessary. Therefore it is so important to reform education and training systems accordingly and better coordinate employment and education policies.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Culture is hosting this seminar today to underline it´s belief in the importance of education being in tandem with the development of the labour market, so that the needs for new skills can be better met.

The main objective of this seminar is to analyse the New Skills for New Jobs Agenda and to contemplate concrete actions. Another objective is to bring different stakeholders involved in education and labour market affairs from 15 European countries together to share information, experiences and best practices.

Here in Iceland, we have for the last 15 years experienced a boom in participation in education, both within formal and non-formal education. But despite this boom the fact remains, that 30-40% of people in the labour market in Iceland have only completed matriculation examination. It is the intent of the government to react to this problem with a combined effort of the education sector and the social sector. It is necessary for workers to acquire key competences, to participate in lifelong learning and to develop new skills to be able to adapt to different tasks during their working lives. In March 2010, an important milestone was reached when the Icelandic Parliament passed a new legislation on adult education, which aims specifically at raising the skills level of people with little or no formal education and enhancing their possibilities for participate in a democratic society.

The Icelandic government is fully aware of the potentials of the informal and non formal education in Iceland. At the same time as we are finding ways to cut our losses - to pay our debts - the government is making its uttermost to endorse the development of the informal education institutions - fully aware that the only way for Iceland to rise from the recent crisis, is to create better opportunities, better possibilities and better environment for the knowledge-based society to flourish - and for formal and non-formal education, innovation and research, to bloom through lifelong learning.

This seminar is titled “Facilitating cooperation between different stakeholders on future skills upgrading and skills matching for jobs” and is a part of the activities of The New Skills Network, a three year initiative funded by the European Commission. The network is run by the Icelandic National Agency for European Union´s Lifelong Learning Programme, with 14 other European partner countries. The overall aim of the network is to help ensure that the Lifelong Learning Programme supports Member States and other countries that have access to the programme, in skills upgrading and skills matching. This will be done by mobilising existing Community policies and its funds in supporting projects that will help Europe close its current skills gap and ensure adequate upgrading of skills for Europe's continued growth and competitiveness.

It is a great pleasure for me to address this forum of The New Skills Network. On behalf of the government, and the educational sector in Iceland, I would like to welcome you all sincerely and I am convinced that in the next two days you will have stimulating discussions, - and take new steps in cooperation within the field of skills forecasting, skills matching and skills upgrading. It is also my sincere hope that this conference will not only serve as a common forum for our guests to exchange ideas and form partnerships for cooperation in the future – but that it will also serve as the first stepping stone on the path towards a common strategy in meeting the skills challenge.

Welcome to Iceland - welcome to this conference of skills for the future.