The Pact for Skills in the context of the European Year of Skills
Nicolas Schmit, European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights
Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for Internal Market.
We need skills investments in AI as with with an approx. 450 mill population we are not the biggest continent on the planet. The STEM needs far more women but shortages in the STEM workforce, means that reskilling & upskilling remain top priority. The VET shall work with companies to address the twin green and digital transition and the upcoming intergenerational gap. We need to include talents, who will live and work in Europe. The 2050 climate change target remains unchanged.
Pact for Skills: achievements so far
- 3.5 million people benefited from up- and re-skilling activities (1.5 million in 2023)
- €310 million was invested to up- and re-skilling activities (€151 million in 2023)
- 92,000 stakeholders joined forces in skills networks (71,000 in 2023) 48,000 training courses were updated or developed (32,500 in 2023)
- In 2023, 94% of members made progress towards at least one of the Pact principles.
- The Large-scale Skills Partnerships have collectively pledge to train over 25 million people by 2030.
- According to 81% of members surveyed in 2023, the Pact for Skills is valuable in supporting their overall up- & reskilling efforts.
The EU Pact For Skills
The Pact for Skills is one of the flagship actions of the European Skills Agenda. The Pact aims to support public and private organisations with upskilling and reskilling, so they can thrive through the green and digital transitions.
87% of the annual survey respondents consider the Pact to be valuable in supporting upskilling and reskilling opportunities for people of a working age.
Skills Intelligence and Acceleration
- AI certifications are produced in the U.S. We need to ‘europeanize” certifications.
- VET and industry shall work closely together.
- The EU is an old continent, last year 2M left the workforce and we are looking outside of our borders to close the gap.
- We cannot afford digital divides if we need to remain competitive.
- Is migration a solution for Europe?
Attracting and retaining skills and talents
- There is a mismatch between training and industry needs.
- The educational sector does not keep up with the evolution of the market.
- Industries don’t get the skilled workers they need cope with demand and meet customer needs.
- Micro-credentails help employers value specific competences
- Micro-credentials need to be modular and able to be stacked together and realize the individual journey of the holder.
Highlights
- We need the service sector to invest in HR, that nobody is left behind.
- Young people at the risk of exclusion / with fewer opportunities need to be allocated special attention.
- The ICT sector is so innovation-intense that universities have difficulty to follow the innovation pace of the R&D intensive sectors.
Skills after the ChatGPT
- Only 1/5th of ICT students are females and we need to rise to 20M higher skilled workers by 2050.
- Europe is behind the US in innovation, while 9/10 jobs need ICT skills.
