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Author(s): NICOLAE, S[imona] This Publication has to be referred as: Nicolae, S. (2009). The Efficiency of the Educational and Professional Training System in Romania (2009). 0077-0079, Annals of DAAAM for 2009 & Proceedings of the 20th International DAAAM Symposium, ISBN 978-3-901509-70-4, ISSN 1726-9679, pp 039, Editor B[ranko] Katalinic, Published by DAAAM International, Vienna, Austria 2009

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Annals of DAAAM for 2009 & Proceedings of the 20th International DAAAM Symposium, Volume 20, No. 1, ISSN 1726-9679 ISBN 978-3-901509-70-4, Editor B. Katalinic, Published by DAAAM International, Vienna, Austria, EU, 2009 Make Harmony Between Technology and Nature, and Your Mind will Fly Free as a Bird Annals of DAAAM International

THE EFFICIENCY OF THE EDUCATIONAL AND PROFESSIONAL TRAINING SYSTEM IN ROMANIA

NICOLAE, S[imona]
Abstract: In a world constrained by its own way towards knowledge-based society, education and continuous professional training are the only means to improve the adaptability of human resources to a continuous changing labour market and, also, to an economy that, even if it hasnt boundaries, raises important challenges. The enrolment rate of school age population, the abandon rate, the results obtained at the national and international evaluation, employment and unemployment rate for the young people aged 15 24 years and, also, the continuous professional training strategies are the main indicators that emphasize if the human resources in Romania is efficiently capitalized or, contrary, is wasted. Key words: human resources, base education, continuous professional training, lifelong learning development. The only age group that marked a rise in the enrolment rate was the population aged 15-18 years. The level of awareness of the importance of education and the difficulties encountered in insertion into the labour market are the main reasons underlying the decision of children in this age to continue their studies. The Abandon Rate During 2000-2007, the abandon rate, both over the primary and secondary education, and at each of the two cycles, has a continuous upward trend. Therefore, during this period, the indicator has increased from 3 times in class I-VIII, almost 3 times in the primary education (class I-IV) and 4 times in the secondary education (class V-VIII). The school abandon is just one component of the losses (repeat, migration, etc.) recorded by the Romanian education system. Thus, during the 2000-2007 the school losses recorded for each cohort of school children entering a level of education until the graduation of this level represented approximately 1015%, which represent over 25% during primary and secondary education. All these school children become unusable human resources both, in the short term and long term. International evaluation PISA OECD In OECD-PISA evaluation in 2006, Romania was ranked 47 out of the 57 participating countries, with an average of 418 points. The average score of the European countries was 500 points. Also, it is found that the school children in Romania have scores lower than those obtained in 2001 (when Romania was ranked 34 of the 43 participating countries) in all areas of the evaluation. The concern of the Ministry of Education to monitor the progress of preparing the Romanian school children is creditable, but as long as the education does not become a priority area based on a coherent development strategy, human resources will be dissipated and under no circumstances will not be able to transmit their value to the goods and services in whose production are involved. But reaching this target is under the political decision and only the future will decide if well have an efficient educational system or not. National Evaluation The results from national evaluation describe the same downward trend in the development of quality human resources generated by the Romanian educational system. The rate of participation in the Capacity Exam/ National Tests (for Class VIII graduate) consistently decreases between the school year 2000-2001 and 2005-2006. In 2006-2007 the rate of promotion in these evaluation assessments has increased slightly, from 59.6% to 62.7% but it is still extremely small. (EDU, 2008)

1. INTRODUCTION
The paper has three parts: The first part will approach the main efficiency indicators of the Romanian educational system with respect to the base education: the enrolment rate of school age population, the abandon rate and the results obtained by the school age population at the national and international evaluation. All these indicators will be calculated for the age group population that not involves acquiring the specific competences required on the labour market. The second part of the paper is referring to the efficiency of the professional training courses comprised in the high school education, vocational education and tertiary (higher) education as main suppliers of the initial professional training. The third part will present the national framework and the involvement of the Romanian firms in the fields of continuous professional training. All three parts come to continue the author researches in this domain and, also, wants to become an alarm signal for all those who are responsible for the quality of human resources in Romania.

2. BASE EDUCATION IN ROMANIA

Evaluating the base education in Romania well stop at four indicators for measuring the efficiency of the educational services provided by this part of educational system: The enrolment rate of school age population Data provided by the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (NISES) shows that despite the upward trend overall, the enrolment rate by ages differs greatly. Thus, starting with the school year 2003-2004 the enrolment rate for the population aged 7-10 years, have been fallen continuous reaching 96% in the school year 2007-2008. (RSY, 2008) The decreased interest to study at this age has serious consequences in the long term as long as in this period is forming the ability of social relationship of the future adult and the basic skills to handle his life: writing, reading, counted. The growing cost of living (even in a free education) and the decrease of education importance in the social life are considered major causes of this

3. INITIAL PROFESSIONAL TRAINING

According to the European Centre for Development of Vocational Training by 2015 approximately 30% of jobs will require higher education and nearly 50% at least secondary education (CEDEFOP, 2008). Thus, the efficiency of the initial professional training is being highlighted by 2 indicators: Employment rate of young people aged 15-24 years by level of education

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Although the employed population has increased, the number of young people aged 15-24 years who are employed have decreased. Thus, the employment rate fell from 35.7% in 2000 to 22.7% in 2007. The most significant decrease in the same period, it is notable for vocational education (-12.3 percentage points) and secondary education (-14.4 percentage points). For the higher education graduates we notice the existence of the same downward trend. During the period 2000-2007 the employment rate has a decrease of 8.2 percentage points that reveals the same ineffective supply offered by Romanian universities. This situation requires a reconsideration of the study programs in accordance with the labour market needs. Unemployment rate of young people aged 15-24 years by level of education Although it can be noticed a decrease in the rate of youth unemployment in 2007 compared with the previous year, the insertion of young people in the labour market remain an important challenge for Romania, the more so as, there is a difference of 3 percentage points between the average EU countries and Romania. Moreover, the share of unemployed with higher education in total unemployed has increased from 21.10% in 2003 to 29.4% in 2007, as, in the third quarter of 2008 to reach 44.42 %. (RSY, 2008) This data show clearly a disconnection between the supply of training at university level and labour market needs those who have offered continuous training to their employees rose to 40.3%, registering an important leap from 1999 when only 11.0% of companies had implemented such programs for their employees. Regarding the allocation of financial resources and programming, the public sector outruns substantially the private sector. The lowest weights for both indicators have recorded firms in the local private ownership (17.3% and 24.0% respectively). By forms of ownership, the emphasis was on the planned period of training, experience or training at work place in the private sector, where there was a participation rate of 37%, while the public sector focus has been on training by conferences, seminars, cultural fairs which benefited from a participation rate of only 5.8%. (NISES, 2006). This shows a greater awareness of the importance of providing continuous professional training on the part of the private sector (despite its lower participation in financial terms) given by the immediate and direct correlation between quality / efficiency of labour and the profitability of the firms activity. In the public sector, low rates of participation in continuous professional training can be explained by factors such as: the lack of immediate correlation between the quality / efficiency of labour and the profitability of the institution, the allocation of financial resources only on paper without the real intention to spend them on training activities, employing staff on criteria other than those related to performance etc.

4. CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL TRAINING

We'll stop at two aspects of continuous professional training, both of them aiming the supply of this kind of training: National framework for Continuous Professional Training: According to the main target of European Employment Strategy, the average rate of participation in lifelong learning should be at least 12.5% of the working age adult population (age group 24-64 years). In this respect, the National Strategy for continuous professional training on short and medium term (2005-2010), aims to develop a structured system of continuing training, transparent and flexible, with an adequate level of funding and a strong involvement of social partners. According to the studies initiated by the Ministry of Labour, Social Solidarity and Family, the main competencies associated with changes in the work are: working with computer and information technology, solving problems, human resources management and communication, knowledge of languages. (Prciog & al., 2006). But, the analysis of competencies and professional skills of employees show that there is a low level of awareness of these skills in particular for the staff with high school and post high school education. This does not apply to staff with higher education. Achieving the objectives contained in the National Strategy is still hit by a mentality which, in approximately twenty years since Romania has gone to the market economy, has been under the influence of different constraints that has stopped it to evolve in a positive direction: on the one hand, the inertia generated by the old economic system has promoted inefficient attitudes and behaviours too long after 1990 and, as a consequence, the freedom gained "without instructions for use" often has led to irrational behaviour. (Nicolae, 2004); on the other hand, since 2000, human resources have began to learn from their mistakes and, to a certain extent, things have started to move in a good direction. But very slowly! In the absence of a real national strategy which it should be not only a text on a piece of paper and which should truly emphasize the human resource, life experience and post-fact conclusions could not be an enough powerful motor to effectively change the mentality. The Involvement of Romanian firms in supporting the continuing professional training of their employees. Compared to the total number of firms that have represented the reference population of statistical research, the number of

5. CONCLUSION
The paper has intended to present the state of quality of the human resources in Romania. Why have I choose this subject? Because I consider that education and training in all its forms give freedom to human resources, increase opportunities for obtaining success in life and the last but not least, is a prerequisite for progress and power of any economy. In the absence of abundant material resources, the efforts directed towards efficient and competent human resources management should not take into account the costs and the achievement of immediate effects, at least not now! The article is addressed to all those who have the power to change something in Romania and to transform this country into a powerful competitor in the global economy. Also, it is necessary that this analysis to be continued in order to emphasize the weak points of the Romanian national strategy in education.

6. REFERENCES
Nicolae, S. (2004). The Professional Training in Romania. Working Society versus Learning Society, Editura Printech, ISBN 973-718-021-6, Bucharest, Romania Prciog, S.; Ciuc, V.; Blaga, E.; Abraham, D.; Burcea, M.; Crn, C.; Matei, A.; Mocanu, C.; Snduleasa, B.; Stoica, C. & Zamfir, A. (2006). Evolution of occupations on Romanian labour market in 2010 perspective, Available from http://www.mmuncii.ro/pub/imagemanager/images/file/Ra poarte-Studii/230407studie.pdf, accessed: 2009.02.08 *** (2008) http://www.cedefop.europa.eu, European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training, (CEDEFOP), accessed 2009.03.01 *** (2005) National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (NISES), Characteristics of Professional Training in the Romanian Firms in 2005, ISSN 1843-4649 *** (2008) National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (NISES), Romanian Statistical Yearbook (RSY), 2008 *** (2008) http://www.edu.ro/index.php/articles/10913, Ministry of Education, Research, Innovation, accessed 2009.04.01