Pledge 3 – Gothenburg

On 11 December, Gothenburg became the 3rd city after Madrid and Stuttgart to sign a pledge to the EU Pillar of Social Rights. Deputy Mayor Marina Johansson and the Vice-Chair of the Political Committee on Social Welfare, Kristina Bergman Alme signed a strong commitment to principle 1 ‘education, training and lifelong learning’.

Gothenburg pledges to give a good start in life to all children and lifelong learning at all ages to ensure everyone can achieve their full potential in education, work and well-being regardless of their socio-economic or other background. This commitment fits the city’s vision to achieve equal living conditions based on education.

Gothenburg commits to:

• Invest in parenting support and early reading for a good language development for all children by giving a ‘Book Start’ to 80% of families living in deprived areas of the city by 2019 and 100% of families by 2021
  prevent school dropout by investing in tailored learning pathways for young people.
• Invest in adult education by supporting ‘second chance’ programmes.
• Work with employers to offer people in difficulty of finding a job, especially migrants, programmes that combine language skills and technical training with work experience in a company.
• Work with employers to adapt the requirements into reasonable conditions to enter the labour markets
  invest in validation of learning and professional skills.
• Support the creation of (new) social enterprises and cooperatives.

Deputy Mayor Marina Johansson said: ”A stronger social Europe is a more equal Europe where everyone has the right to inclusive education throughout their life cycle to be empowered to participate fully in society. In Gothenburg, we invest our efforts to create equality through our initiative Equal Gothenburg with lifelong learning for all people. In our city, equality means leaving no one behind and providing support to people who need it the most and building a city of well-being for all people”.