Greece: social partners are enhancing their role in skills anticipation/foresight

The project Interventions of social partners for skills and occupations exploration anticipation/foresight started in 2018 under a consortium of social partners: the General Confederation of Greek Workers (GSEE) and the Hellenic Confederations of Professionals, Craftsmen and Merchants (GSEVEE), of Commerce and Entrepreneurship (ESEE), and of the Greek Tourism (SETE). The Small Enterprises’ Institute of the Hellenic Confederations of Professionals, Craftsmen and Merchants (IME GSEVEE) coordinated the project.

Main objectives and results

The project’s main objectives were to create a multifunctional and complementary mechanism to support the Greek labour market needs diagnosis mechanism, by providing timely and specialised information on:

• specific professions;
• broader cross-occupational skills (e.g. skills needed for the digital transformation) or sectors (e.g. agri-food); and
• social and soft skills.

The project developed methodological tools for skills exploration, analysis, mapping, and monitoring of a mixture of skills related to general education, to job-specific professional competences, and to soft skills, as well as for the development of policies relevant to skills.

The coordinated actions of the social partners during the project resulted in the development of 12 studies mapping the mixture of skills related to general education, to job-specific professional competences and to soft skills, especially in sections of economic activity relevant to hospitality and commerce. Quantitative studies for skills forecasts were also developed, methodologies for skills mapping were introduced, and documents outlining skills policies were created.

Indicative studies include:

• digital transformation in small businesses in the clothing industry:  skill needs anticipation and foresight;
• skills policies in Greece: impact assessment of the skills governance system. The main objective of the study was to present a methodology for the evaluation of skills policies and the assessment of their impact (including the tools and the guide which was used for the development of the specific methodology);
• skills policies in Greece: the perspective of representative employers' organisations: the Hellenic Confederations of Professionals, Craftsmen and Merchants (GSEVEE), of Commerce and Entrepreneurship (ESEE), and of the Greek Tourism (SETE);
• studies on the necessary mixture of skills related to general education, to job-specific professional competences and to soft skills in job posts relevant to  customer service in the tourism sector, data analyst, chef, and web designer;
• skills anticipation/foresight studies in fashion, agrifood and food processing, and e-commerce.

The results of the project are intended to be used as guiding principles for policy-making, employer and employee unions, and contribute to the labour market needs diagnosis mechanism under the responsibility of the labour ministry. They also support State policy-making in national employment policies, as well as improvement in designing vocational education and CVET training programmes.

Read more

• Interventions of social partners for the diagnosis of skills needs – project web page
• Scientific conference: presentation of the project results –information web page  
• Interventions of social partners for the diagnosis of skill needs – executive summary