Increased transparency with the Europass
Doing an internship in Europe, pursuing studies or training in another countries, facilitating the free circulation of workers and the professional development of everyone; the opportunities offered by European education and training programs also involve major stumbling blocks. A person’s experience and apprenticeships are often neither listed, nor valued, or else presented in documents that are obscure, incomplete, or incomprehensible beyond sectoral or national borders. Thanks to the Europass for more transparency.
Europass, which aims to serves the needs of European citizens above all, represents a definitive step forward in its transparency. The Europass Portfolio comprises five documents that are standardized in content and form (Word or HTML format), and readily understandable across the European Union:
- Curriculum vitae
- Language portfolio
- Mobility
- Diploma supplement
- Certificate supplement
The documents are complementary and each provides different opportunities for describing a person’s professional or language skills, European experience, course of study, training and more.
Europass is adopted by 36 countries in Europe
The main advantage of the Europass is obviously its function as an official European Union document, recognized by 31 countries in Europe. It underscores all of a person’s skills, whether validated by a diploma or acquired through personal or professional experience, e.g. union involvement, association obligations, or active participation in local life.
Recruiters, teachers and continuing education trainees, all recognize its many benefits. The portfolio allows contractors to understand their future employees’ diplomas and qualifications and students to present their language skills, as well as people changing careers to communicate their experience with a training organization, and job seekers to better showcase their skills to find new jobs.
With the Europass Portfolio, Europeans now have simple documents that will, throughout their lives, serve as a record of their personal knowledge and experiences, in order for this wealth to be appreciated.
A universal CV
A big chunk of the problem with electronic job applications stems from the disparity in the format and contents of CVs. Each person has a different story to tell, and a different way of telling it.
In addition, it is difficult to compare computerized items of information (e.g. studies, career path) when these items are not provided in the same formats and are not even organized the same way. For example, some people have “Education” as a CV heading, others have “Studies,” while yet others differentiate between initial and continuous education.
The data in a CV is nevertheless no more than the fields in a database. The European Europass CV can be considered a universal CV.