Education and Employment in the European Union

Education, employment policy, and pensions are inextricably linked and critical to any sort of business or economic revival, let alone success, and all three are addressed in Education and Employment in the European Union. In the first part of this meticulously researched and highly informative book, Dimitris Chorafas argues that European educational standards, from primary schools through to universities, leave much to be desired. The author then turns to employment. Already affected by problems with education, employment is fettered by structural issues, ranging from inflexible labour laws to heavy social costs. Here, the author suggests what might be done to get employment moving again in difficult economic times. Employment and pensions work in synergy. In the final part, Chorafas examines the implications of and future for pension provision, taking a polyvalent approach which embraces state pensions, company pensions and the workings of pension funds - as well as healthcare issues and the longevity risk. The evidenced analysis of the three interlinked policy areas in this book identifies the issues and the relationships between them. The findings and suggestions will be important to business practitioners, business educators, government authorities, policy makers, consultancies and others either within or wishing to learn lessons from the European Union.

Professor Dr Dimitris N. Chorafas is an academic and consultant. He is a member of the New York Academy of Sciences and visiting faculty to the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL). He has been a Fulbright Scholar and has taught in 10 universities around the world. During his career, Dr Chorafas has been a consultant to the board of UBS, Bank of Scotland, Commerzbank, Istituto Bancario Italiano, Credito Commerciale, Banca Provinciale Lombarda, First Austrian Bank, Italcementi, AEG-Telefunken, Osram, GE Bull, and a number of other companies. Over 8,000 executives around the world have attended his seminar programme. In 1992, in conjunction with the Swiss Academies of Sciences, he established his Foundation which grants awards to the best PhD students at 25 universities worldwide. Dr Chorafas has authored 160 books on engineering, mathematics, banking and finance, his most recent being 'Globalization's Limits' and 'The Business of Europe is Politics' (both Gower, 2009) his forthcoming book 'Energy, Environment, Natural Resources and Business Competitiveness', completing the collection, will be available in 2011.

I: The European Union's Educational Challenge; 1: Education in the European Union; 2: Back to Basics: What it Means to Educate People; 3: A Sense of Leadership in Education; 4: The Devil's Advocate in University Business; II: Innovation: The Synergy of Education and Employment; 5: Research, Development and Innovation; 6: The EU Research and Development Challenge; III: Employment is an Opportunity, Not a Right; 7: Employment Means Different Things to Different People; 8: Wages, Salaries and the Destruction of the EU'S Middle Class; 9: Ambitious Plans Run into Reality; 10: The Continuing Search for Miracle Solutions; IV: Pensions and the Social Safety Net; 11: The Principle of Social Insurance; 12: Demographic Changes and Longevity Risk