| Under the context of accelerated industrial structural adjustment and gradually paving to knowledge economy, discussing how to promote employment, the main function of China's vocational education and training policy, is the starting point of this article. There is no ready-made road for China, but the EU has undergone and has been undergoing the future trend China will face, so this article chooses the EU as the researching object. It will serve for the future development of China's vocational education and training system through studying EU's successful experience in this respect.Specifically, this article dwells on the vocational education and training policies of European Union—a supranational political and economic entity. It refers to the vocational education and training policies that designed for achieving the Lisbon Goals after March 2000, promulgated in the Copenhagen Process in which the EU and member states launched a special cooperation in the field of vocational education and training. It aims to disclose the successful experience and wisdom that EU's vocational education and training policies implicate in how to handle the structural unemployment and prompt the economic structural transformation, through the study of policy problem, makeup, rationale and mechanism inside the EU's vocational education and training policies.The article bases on the presumption that promoting employment, not merely educating people, is the main function of vocational education and training. From this point, it processes with the thread of policy problem→policy makeup→policy rationale→policy trait→policy comment→policy reference. And it consists of eight chapters. Besides chapter one, it follows:The part of policy problem, including chapter two and three, studies the economic and social background of the EU in the end of 20th century and the characteristics and reasons of structural unemployment. The study shows that consistent industrial structural adjustment, the economic pattern transforming to knowledge economy, and the serious aging problem are the main economic and social background of EU in the end of 20th century. Although the employment situation in EU has been gradually improved, the long-term unemployment is still prominent. The skill gap between labor supply and market demand and the insufficient occupational and geographical mobility are the main reasons. For its unique trait of market-oriented, the vocational education and training policy is regarded as an effective way to promote employment and highly valued by the EU and member state governments.The part of policy makeup, chapter four, dwells on the process and contents of the EU's vocational education and training policies. In order to fulfill the Lisbon Goals, the EU and member states launched a new around of cooperation under the Copenhagen Process, and promulgated a number of common policies, including,,,, and etc.The part of policy rationale, chapter five, probes the ways that grantee the policy objectives attained. The study shows that the main objective of EU's vocational education and training policies is mainly to facilitate the transnational mobility of labor workers, for the constriction of principles of subsidiary and excluding any harmonization of the laws and regulations of the member states. The policy rationale, the inherent logic of EU's vocational education and training policy system, is to redefine the components and the applying conditions for vocational qualification. Under this EU-styled definition, the qualification application becomes more flexible and more personal and the application process becomes "mobile" with the transnational mobility of labor workers. Consequently, the structural unemployment will be slacked and the mobility obstacles resulted from the non-transparency and incomparability between different systems of vocational education and training will be dismissed as long as the policy objective fulfilled.The part of policy trait, chapter six, analyzes the mechanism hidden in the EU's vocational education and training policy system, from the aspect of EU-member states'relationships. The study shows that in order to fulfill the Lisbon Goals, the EU intends to affect member states by such logic as from adapting common policies to all around reform of vocational education and training systems. And the Copenhagen Process as well as EU's vocational education and training policies comprise such mechanism that could assure the logic, which refers to constrictions on member states from three dimensions of target, process and outcome.The part of policy comment, chapter seven, discusses the characteristics, shortcomings and future development of EU's vocational education and training policies. The study shows that although EU's vocational education and training policies are quite advanced, the factors such as lack of power, member states' reluctance and so on undermine the effect. So the EU's vocational education and training policies need to be polished and strengthen the cooperation with member states.The part of policy reference, chapter eight, analyzes what the EU's vocational education and training policies mean to China from the aspect of industrial structural adjustment. The study shows that the accelerated industrial structural adjustment process China undergoing now is ultimately paving to knowledge economy. During this process, structural unemployment may be more serious, and the demand for vocational education and training will be tremendous. After many years'development, China's vocational education and training system has some conditions to adapt to the economic transformation. For there are many prominent difference of vocational education and training policy system between China and the EU, such as policy problems, policy objectives, policy power, economic development level and institutional conditions, we should base ourselves on China's practice, and improve the related policies both from the vocational education and training system itself and vocational qualification system.
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