A 2-day conference on vocational training as an instrument to combat unemployment was held to discuss employment policy, vocational training, and decentralization in the context of the European Union's (EU's) accession strategy, current employment initiatives, and experiences of the EU's member states and regions. The conference included papers on the following six topics: (1) the EU's accession strategy; (2) the EU's employment policy and financial instruments developed to implement it; (3) the recent changes in responsibility for employment policy and vocational training in the region of Piedmont; (4) the role of local and regional authorities in employment creation; (5) the importance of human resources in planning education; and (6) the issues involved in regionalization in candidate countries. Workshops were held on the following four topics: (1) decentralization of employment policies at regional and local levels; (2) the role of local and regional authorities in linking education establishments to enterprises; (3) employment initiatives and instruments at the European level and lessons learned; and (4) interventions in favor of disadvantaged groups. The workshops were designed to accomplish the following three objectives: (1) to identify challenges faced by candidate countries; (2) to inform candidate countries about practices and achievements in EU member states; and (3) formulate recommendations regarding developing vocational education and training systems to meet new needs in candidate countries. (MN)