An EU Skills Commission is needed to bridge the skills gap, according to The Adecco Institute, a global think tank on the future of work.
In a white paper, the Institute reveals that there is a growing gap between young people's employability skills and understanding of the workplace and companies' needs. As older people leave the workforce, demand for qualified replacements is rising, but insufficiently skilled youngsters are being prepared by schools to fill the shortfall.

It says that quality education, training and development must be delivered to young people. To achieve this, it says there needs to be a variety of intermediate organisations, both public and private, working in partnership with existing educational institutions.

Adecco Institute chairman, and former German minister of economics and labour, Wolfgang Clement says: “With this study, we intend to draw attention to one of Europe's major labour market deficiencies, the appallingly high rate of youth unemployment.

“We believe that one of Europe's biggest challenges is to improve the integration opportunities for young people by building a reliable bridge between school and work. Today there seems to be a big separation between the two, rather than accessible paths that would link them."