Croatia needs two million employees to have a sustainable pension system but that is not the goal for one but for ten or more years, yet now is the time to start changes that will result in people learning for employable jobs and not for the Employment Service, as is the case now, Labour and Pension Minister Mirando Mrsic said on Tuesday.
He was speaking at the closing conference of "Regional Network of Local Learning Institutions", a project financed by the European Union aimed at increasing the competitiveness of adults on the labour market through free training and specialisation in new programmes.
Mrsic said only 2-3 per cent of the population took part in a learning activity, adding that life-long learning was one of the measures expected to balance offer and demand on the labour market.
Croatia has 340,000 jobless and many unemployable careers, he said, adding that it was necessary to strengthen the work of councils that would develop human potential and analyse market demands.
Deputy Science and Education Minister Marija Lugaric said the ministry was working on a new strategy for the education of adults, adding that Croatia had 467 institutions for that purpose and that upon joining the EU next year it could count on considerable funds for retraining.
The EUR 5 million-worth "Regional Network of Local Learning Institutions" project has resulted in 20 contracts with 58 institutions on grants for the education of 2,850 adults to make them more employable.
An advisor at the EU Delegation to Croatia, Luigi Barile, said it would be interesting to see how the results of the project would be implemented and how much Croatia would be able to adapt to the labour market changes, reduce unemployment and increase the social inclusion of the jobless.
