This record of proceedings of the conference 'Integration of all Young People into Society through Education and Training', which was organised by the European Commission on 7 and 8 May 1998, gives an overview of both its contents and the participants. Volume I presents the actual texts of the different contributions, which fall into three main categories: The "political' part contains the contributions on the policy challenge posed by the problem of social exclusion in general and the social exclusion of school dropouts in particular. The papers presented provide a well-balanced range of viewpoints from the European Commission, the Social and Economic Committee, the Committee of the Regions, as well as those of a 'case study' Member State (Germany in this instance). The 'analytical' part looks at three studies conducted under the Socrates programme. The three experts who addressed the conference highlighted the educational, social and statistical significance of school failure and gave a comprehensive overview of both prevention and remedial strategies, illustrating 'good practice' with examples from within and from outside the formal education systems. Finally, the workshops allowed participants to focus their discussions on six main issues common to all projects: pedagogic innovation, the role of new technologies, the problem of validation and certification of skills, the requisite qualifications for teachers involved in second-chance initiatives, the involvement of employers in these schemes and, last but not least, the importance of local partnerships. The third part of Volume I thus includes six sub-chapters, corresponding to the themes of the workshops, in which the texts of the different contributions, as well as the workshop conclusions, are presented. Volume II is a collection of short analytical presentations of the different conference contributions. These are concise rather then exhaustive, but nonetheless give the reader an idea of the wide range of tentative action being taken in the EU in the endeavour to stem social exclusion. The European Commission indeed made painstaking efforts to ensure that the group of conference participants be as representative as possible of European practice in this field. The national ministries of education and/or social affairs, as well as the European education network Eurydice, were involved for this purpose - and the three experts mentioned above succeeded, under the Socrates studies programme (Action 3.3.1), in identifying worthwhile examples of good practice in this broad and multidimensional policy field. Full particulars of contact persons are provided should any reader wish to seek further information or, indeed, to propose joint projects at European level. In the European Union between 10 to 20 % of young people leave the education system without any qualifications at all, while 45.5 % of young people aged from 15 to 24 have only low-level qualifications; at best having completed lower secondary school education. With no qualifications or basic skills, their career prospects are bleak. The White Paper on growth, competitiveness and employment stressed that developing education and training is one of the prerequisites for a new model of economic growth that will create jobs. Education and training also lay the foundation for citizenship and social cohesion. On the basis of this analysis, the White Paper 'Teaching and Learning - Towards the Learning Society', adopted by the European Commission in 1995, emphasised the importance, in building this European Union of knowledge, of paying particular attention to those sections of the population experiencing the greatest difficulties, i.e. young people in particular. The Treaty of Amsterdam gave the European Union new powers in the area of employment. The main conclusion of the ensuing 'Luxembourg' process was that addressing the problem of school dropout rates and under-achievement at school should be one of the guidelines for employment policy. All the Member States have incorporated this issue in their national employment plans.
