John Grumbar of head-hunting firm Egon Zehnder International said cultural adaptability, creativity and problem-solving are among the skills most valued by employers.

"I would advise young people to try to travel and get experience outside their immediate communities," said Grumbar, who chaired a judging panel for a competition to devise ways of making education more appealing to teenagers.

He also encouraged students to develop team skills and to use their social networks, stressing that "who you know is almost as important as what you know".

The event, organised by Junior Achievement-Young Enterprise (JA-YE) Europe as part of the European Year of Creativity and Innovation (EYCI), brought 100 school students from 25 countries to Brussels this week (24-25 November) to participate in the competition. Schools from the EU, Israel, Macedonia, Mali, Norway, Russia, Serbia and Turkey took part.

Participants had to suggest an innovative product or service for the education sector, with the help of staff from the European Commission, Accenture and CSR Europe.

The winning entry, 'Faceschool', piggybacks on existing social networking site Facebook, and allows students to discuss their work with their teachers and classmates. Teachers can post educational material on the website.

Other proposals included a scheme to encourage school dropouts to return to education, the introduction of a 'creative thinking' class to school curricula, and an Erasmus-style programme for schools.

EU moves on student mobility

The EU executive wants all young people to have the chance to spend part of their education in another member state by 2020, and the Commission is currently running a public consultation on its green paper on promoting mobility for school students. The consultation closes on 15 December.

A pilot mobility programme, called Comenius Individual Pupil Mobility, will begin in 2010 in 13 European countries. Secondary-school students will spend between three and ten months living with a host family and attending a school in another member state.

Such programmes are fraught with technical challenges, such as securing insurance cover and vetting host families, but the scheme could be expanded if the 2010-2011 pilot is successful.

European Commission President José Manuel Barroso has also pledged to establish a 'Youth on the Move' initiative to support mobility and reduce the cycle of deprivation that results from high dropout rates.

Maroš Šefčovič, EU commissioner for education, training, culture and youth, said the "post-Berlin generation" of Europe is used to travelling and picking up new languages. "This is the first generation to truly benefit from Europe. They don't feel any barriers," he said.

He said he was heartened to see students show such creativity, particularly in light of slow progress across Europe in tackling low literacy levels. He also expressed concern about the ongoing challenge of addressing dropout rates, adding that combining technology with education could boost retention levels.

Reflecting on the EYCI, Šefčovič said the special year had helped raise the profile of creativity and innovation and he was pleased to see these priorities reflected in the draft 'EU 2020' document published this week (24 November).

The document is due to be presented to the European Council in March, along with the European Innovation Act which is currently being drafted. Discussing mobility, Šefčovič said interest in the Erasmus scheme continues to be strong, although he noted that member states need to do more to encourage lower socio-economic groups to participate in the programme. Support would be needed from leaders at EU, national and local level, as well as from schools and the private sector, he added.