Statistics Office: Czechs underestimate importance of lifelong learning

"The most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010": That's what the European Union aspires to become in its ambitious Lisbon strategy launched four years ago. The Czech Republic signed up to the scheme even before joining the EU, and Czech politicians often speak about the country's transformation into a knowledge economy.

Statistics Office: Czechs underestimate importance of lifelong learning

Stanislav Drapal, photo: Herbert Brynda

The Czech Republic is still seriously lagging behind other EU members in the number of people with a university degree. Among the 25 member states, only four have a lower percentage of university graduates.

Generally speaking young Czechs have come to realise the importance of education to their future, but figures released by the Czech Statistics Office suggest that the general mentality in the Czech Republic is that once you have finished at school or college, your education is over. There is little awareness of the need for lifelong education and training. Stanislav Drapal is the Vice President of the Czech Statistics Office.

Czech Statistics Office conference, photo: Herbert Brynda

"I am afraid that there is the influence of history. Older people aren't interested so much in gaining higher education. Young people under 30-35 have new experience not only from the Czech Republic but also from all EU countries and from abroad for example, from their work experience from the United States. I think that is a very good experience and a very good interest for creation of new experiences not only in education."

According to the Statistics Office only 11 percent of people of productive age took part in some kind of non-school education in 2003 - such as language and computer courses. Twenty-one percent of the productive population said they had been involved is some self-improvement activities. Stanislav Drapal says that this contributes to creating an unemployable middle-aged underclass.

"If you look at the structure of the unemployment rate in our country, there is a problem with older people because a higher age and a lower education are a weakness for manpower. For example just now, we have practically 40 percent of all unemployed with unemployment longer than one year. And this is almost completely a group of people older than 45-50 years and with a very low level of education."

Photo: European Commission

There is little tradition of retraining in the Czech Republic, where during the decades of communist rule, people were used to the idea of a job for life. In the current competitive labour market adaptability has become essential. Some experts, like Stanislav Drapal, also believe that the social welfare system fails to motivate people to improve their skills. But the spokeswoman for the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs Katerina Berankova insists that change is on the way.

"Job centres offer retraining courses to people who cannot find employment in their profession. In October this year a new employment law will come into force which is meant to motivate people to actively seek employment. Under that law people who refuse to cooperate with the job centre and are unwilling to try to retrain or increase their level of education, will not be regarded as unemployed. Those are people who just trying to milk the system. The new law will motivate people to try and retrain for a profession for which there is demand on the labour market."