Europe’s greatest asset is its people. Investing in people and their skills is an investment in Europe’s sustainability and innovation capacity, particularly in these challenging times. And it pays off: €1 invested in up- and re-skilling returns at least €2 in revenues or savings.
Everyone, young and old, should have access to training to acquire skills for jobs that allow them to thrive in an increasingly green and digital economy. This is urgent. More than half of adults currently do not have basic digital skills, and few adults attend training to improve their skills or learn new ones.
This needs to change: nine in ten jobs require digital skills. We need more young people, especially girls and women to enrol in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. More generally, the need for adults to train for the necessary digital skills is pressing, as hundreds of thousands of job vacancies are due to the lack of the right skills.
To fulfil the European Commission’s vision presented in the new Skills Agenda, all relevant actors need to join forces to scale up cooperation. The Skills Agenda sets ambitious targets for upskilling and reskilling over the next 5 years.
Its 12 actions focus on skills for jobs and life by partnering with Member States, businesses and social partners, and making use of all possible financing opportunities. A number of initiatives offer exciting opportunities to make lifelong education and learning a reality for all.
A European Pact for Skills will mobilise education and training partners, as well as companies, to provide more and better opportunities and unlock investment for skilling, especially in strategic sectors such as health, construction, automotive and transport, and tourism.
The Pact will facilitate large-scale public-private partnerships with a focus on those industrial ecosystems crucial for our recovery and which support the green and digital transitions. The Commission is also working with EU Member States to make vocational education and training – already preparing half of young people for their first jobs – more modern, attractive, flexible and fit for the digital age. Apprenticeships, in particular, can help as a stepping-stone to work for young people.
It can form a highly skilled talent pool for companies. We must make all efforts to sustain the availability of apprenticeships despite current circumstances. The apprentices we train now will be the skilled workers of a few years’ time. New centres of vocational excellence in Europe will support people, in particular the young, in initial training, upskilling and reskilling.
At the same time, 27% of the Erasmus+ programme budget is devoted to mobility for vocational training and entrepreneurship. A flagship initiative for European universities will build networks between academia and businesses to provide specialised training and empowering Europeans to cooperate across languages, borders and disciplines.
41 alliances, involving 280 universities from the 27 Member States and beyond, will pool knowledge, resources, develop interdisciplinary, skillsfocused curricula and promote research and innovation with the support of €287 million from the Erasmus+ and Horizon Europe programmes (2021-2027).
To support lifelong learning, we will explore whether and how individual training accounts could empower people to actively seek and engage in upskilling and reskilling, similar to what’s already happening in some Member States. Equally, shorter and more targeted courses 2 in a fast-moving labour market are becoming increasingly widespread and convenient. Those new skills should be recognised.
We will create European standards on the quality and transparency of so-called ‘micro-credentials’ to ensure that what is recognised in one Member State is understood and recognised in another. We estimate that an additional €48 billion in private and public funding are needed in the EU each year for an appropriate investment in the skills of our people. Ensuring adequate resources requires continued political engagement and support. Europe’s skills base is a major driving force for our competitiveness and is creating an inclusive and sustainable society.
By joining forces, we can help Europeans emerge from the current crisis stronger and better equipped to face future challenges.
Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, and Nicolas Schmit, European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights