Cedefop newsletter

This major event, entitled 'Mind the gaps', focused on skills and learning in a changing world of work and attracted more than 130 participants while over 200 more followed it online – they included researchers and experts, policymakers and stakeholders.

One of the conference's highlights was the speech by European Commission Vice President for Promoting our European Way of Life Margaritis Schinas, who emphasised that skills mismatches and shortages were becoming endemic in the EU. This – he added – posed a serious challenge, and Europe was now urgently required not just to 'mind the gaps' in our job markets, but also to 'fill the gaps'.

Cedefop Executive Director Jürgen Siebel noted that the green and digital transitions were more and more about inclusion, adding:

'We see that digital skills needs are growing fastest in low-skilled jobs. The green transition means additional employment, not just for university graduates but at all skills levels. Squaring the combination of the twin transitions and population ageing means that we need to do more with less people.'

An optimal way to do just that, Cedefop Deputy Director Mara Brugia pointed out, was through vocational education and training (VET):

'We see VET as capturing many ways of learning that supports people of any age and at different stages of learning, work, and life. It helps people acquire the skills they need to succeed in the labour market and in society, helps businesses thrive and strengthens the skills DNA of communities.'

Oliver Röpke, President of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), stressed the importance of social dialogue in well-functioning skills ecosystems.

'Social dialogue – he said – is what it takes to shape well-functioning continuing VET (CVET) and adult learning systems, to expand their reach and to give more people opportunities to benefit from them.'

The conference included four panel discussions that brought together the views on skills-related needs and policies of the EU, national governments, employee and employers organisations. These discussions covered:

• Skills gaps in the context of a just and inclusive twin transition, between what we aspire and what we manage to implement, and how to fill those gaps.
• The attractiveness of VET for young people preparing for a labour market that undergoes continuous transformations, where jobs that exist now may become obsolete or suffer radical changes in the future
• The gap between training policies - training provision and needs – how to deliver skills and competences that facilitate labour market transitions, enhance learning and career development of individuals
• What lies ahead, beyond the European Year of Skills, and the need to move to a decade focusing on skills through outside-the-box thinking and a shift from an academic to a vocational drift

Watch the whole conference

The event, part of Cedefop’s European Year of Skills programme of activities, was attended by 100 policy officials and practitioners, social partners, representatives of civil society institutions and experts who discussed best practice in designing policies that can tackle the problem of skills mismatch, based on the solid skills forecast and foresight research available.

Presenting Cedefop’s research, the Agency’s expert Konstantinos Pouliakas focused on what type of policies EU countries deploy in order to mitigate skill mismatch in their labour markets.

He noted that Cedefop’s second European skills and jobs survey evidence shows that, in addition to widespread concerns about labour shortages, about one third of the European workforce are overqualified for their job and a half of adult workers do not effectively use their skills at work, with negative implications for their wages and job satisfaction.

But even though we know much about the magnitude and consequences of skill mismatches, much less is known about what skill mismatch policies are actually implemented in EU countries on the ground, Mr Pouliakas said while introducing Cedefop’s revamped ‘Matching skills’ online tool.

This is a dedicated database containing information from over 100 skills-matching initiatives from the 27 EU Member States, built around all main initiatives used in EU countries to anticipate skill needs and some of the key VET programmes that use skills intelligence in their design.

Skill shortages and job changes may be exacerbated in the future.

Analysing the database, Mr Pouliakas highlighted some of the main lessons learnt:

• There is a greater blending of VET and employment policies.
• Skill ‘deficiencies’ constitute the main priority of EU skill mismatch policies, despite evidence of high skills underutilisation.
• Policies aimed at mitigating skill mismatches also tend to focus on the upskilling and reskilling of individuals’ soft and career management skills.
• There is still little focus on obtaining wider social inclusion and sustainability goals.

A key insight – he underlined – is that the skills anticipation policy landscape has become increasingly diversified, relying not only on national ministries and public employment agencies but also on the wider support of social partners and research organisations.

Reflecting on the main insights of the ‘Matching skills’ online tool, Professor Terence Warwick of the University of Warwick noted that while technological change tends to be incremental, there is lots of evidence that skill shortages and job changes may be exacerbated in the future.

He noticed the need for producing innovative labour market and skills intelligence that effectively communicates data to a variety of target users using a wide arsenal of methods. Cedefop’s comprehensive skills governance framework constitutes an archetype for countries wishing to build sound skills anticipation and matching systems, he said.

The event also included a panel discussion that showcased three initiatives included in Cedefop’s matching skills webtool. Panelists explained how they work and what drives their success and agreed that sharing knowledge about what works in practice and what not will help sectors, regions and communities translate EU and national skills policy ambitions into ground level skilling action.

The meeting was hosted by the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union in Seville on 25 and 26 October.

Mr Siebel presented the latest VET-related developments and laid out Cedefop’s view of policy priorities as they emerge during the European Year of Skills, focusing on:

• Flexible, inclusive, age-neutral and learner-centred VET is the only way forward.

Triggered by European cooperation and priority setting, countries are adapting and modernising their VET programmes and curricula.

The aim is to empower people to improve their skills and to engage in work, learning, and society. Programmes using the learning outcomes approach or new assessment methods are expanding. All this shows a clear shift towards more individualised, locally adapted, inclusive and flexible VET.

Cedefop has put the spotlight on microcredentials, outlining the opportunities – flexibility and transferability – and the challenges – quality assurance and trust.

• By way of better skills utilisation, companies, in particular MSMEs, can play a more active role in skills ecosystems.

We need to encourage and support companies, including MSMEs, to adopt a people-centred organisational culture and approaches that improve skills development and utilisation. Wherever not yet the case, workplaces must become loci of lifelong learning! This would improve company bottom lines and – ultimately – improve their contribution to skills ecosystems.

• User-centred skills intelligence helps translate trends and policy aims into actionable learning and matching opportunities.

Traditional skills intelligence on its own is no longer sufficient to map labour market and skills trends comprehensively and reliably, and for a non-expert audience.

We need next generation skills intelligence to understand and interpret labour market trends and emerging skills needs.

Cedefop has invested in piloting and rolling out real-time labour market intelligence, expanded its skills foresight capacity and developed innovative pan-European surveys.
 

This was the main message Cedefop Executive Director Jürgen Siebel conveyed to European Union and national policymakers and social partners during a high-level conference in Barcelona on 19 and 20 October.

The event, ‘Active labour market policies – pillar of the European Year of Skills', was organised by the Spanish Presidency of the European Council and culminated in the signing of tripartite statement acknowledging that training is a shared interest and a common endeavour involving governments, employers and trade unions and committing to implementing effective skills policies.

Addressing the conference, Nicolas Schmit, European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, noted that skills intelligence, such as produced by Cedefop, was an important tool that we rely on to tackle labour shortages and added:

‘Member States have allocated around €65 billion of EU funds to invest in skills programmes. This is an unprecedented amount, and each euro has to be put to good use’.

During a panel discussion, drawing on Cedefop’s extensive research on skills and the labour market, Mr Siebel underlined among others:

• The broad outlook for the period until 2035 is that we will have additional employment and much more skills intensive jobs.
• The digital and green transitions are about innovation – inventing and implementing digital technology and greentech – but it is just as much about putting skills and upskilling and reskilling front, left, right and centre stage.
• To make sure the transitions are just and inclusive we ought to ensure training for the large number of trainable people. But it is not solely about supplying more skills; we must tackle skill mismatch and tap into opportunities to expand skills utilisation at work.
• We also need to upgrade jobs by designing jobs in smarter ways, by improving work organisation and by giving more people opportunities to use and expand their skills. Investing in skills and jobs go together.
• Recent digital skills dynamics are strongest in low skilled jobs, and that sends a clear message to policymakers and policy implementers.
• The green transition is often powered by the digital one, hence investing in digital skills and jobs also powers the green transition.

Mr Siebel also presented Cedefop’s view of, and priorities for, the European Year of Skills and analysed the steps towards Europe's skill revolution that will allow for a fair and inclusive green and digital transition.
 

This is the main conclusion from recent Cedefop research, which indicates that some occupations will play a more central part in the green transition.

According to the Agency’s sectoral skill foresights, these include frontline green jobs (e.g., construction and energy professionals), greentech specialists (e.g. agronomists and hydrogen specialists), green managers (e.g., strategic waste manager and logistics manager), digital specialists (e.g., ICT professionals and e-commerce specialists) and “green hearts and minds” (e.g. HR professionals and sustainability trainers).

Among these, Cedefop’s research also illustrated occupations that may be small in terms of employment shares, but crucial in making the green transition happen – the so called “thyroid occupations”.

These are high- and middle-skilled occupations that invent, design, and conceptualise green transition solutions (such as engineers, process designers, and scientists – research and development) and implement it (such as managers, lawyers, renewable energy technicians, and communication specialists).

To understand the trends in their employment and skill needs, Cedefop analysed five such occupations:

The preliminary analysis suggests that will be higher demand for these occupations, but different and/or upgraded skills will be required.

Besides job-specific technical skills, these also include soft and transversal skills, such as problem solving, communication and attention to detail, adaptability and flexibility. For example, green urban planners should not only understand biodiversity elements, but also master marketing, negotiation, and outreach skills.

The European Green Deal does not only affect occupations and skills needed in specific sectors, but it also necessitates changing business models.

Companies, particularly in sectors affected by the green transition (such as agriculture and waste management), need to adapt their human resource management, to establish workers’ up- and reskilling opportunities etc., in order to absorb the frictions caused by the transition.

Cedefop ran four case studies on selected companies committed to adapt to the circular economy in the following sectors:

The analysis illustrates:

• The importance of investing in innovation.
• The changes in skill profiles demanded, as more people work in offices compared to production plants.
• The need to provide tailored training to employees.

In their effort to respond more efficiently to changing demands, these companies have a valuable ally in the local learning ecosystem, such as universities, that enables workers to acquire new skills and adjust to new production models.

Different occupations are important across the selected companies; however, it is people with thorough and up-to-date knowledge of laws and regulations relating to ‘greennovation’ and changes in business models that seem to play a key role across businesses and sectors.

The full output of Cedefop’s analysis of thyroid occupations and its related company case studies will be published soon and will provide valuable insights that would allow VET systems and workers to plan ahead with specific action.

Among others, the Board discussed the Single Programming Document laying out the work of the Agency in 2024-26 and the ambitious plan for Cedefop to become carbon-neutral, while it has also made two appointments.

It has decided to extend the mandate of Jürgen Siebel as Cedefop's Executive Director for five more years and elected Mario Patuzzi as Board Chairperson.

Before joining Cedefop in September 2019, Mr Siebel, an economist who studied in Germany and Austria, had served for 20 years in various leading operational and strategic HR roles in the private sector.

During the first day of its deliberations, the Board also decided that Mr Patuzzi, who had been serving as Deputy Chairperson representing the Employees Group would succeed Nadine Nerguisian, who represents the Governments' Group, as the new Chairperson of the Management Board.

Mr Patuzzi is Head of Unit, Basic Issues of Vocational Education at the DGB - German Confederation of Trade Unions, while Ms Nerguisian is an officer of the Directorate for European and International Relations and Cooperation General Secretariat, of the Ministry of National Education, Higher Education and Research of France.

Cedefop operates through a two-level governance structure:

• The Management Board is responsible, among others, for adopting the budget, approving the programming document and laying down the strategic priorities.
• The Executive Director is responsible for the overall management of Cedefop in accordance with the strategic direction set by the Management Board, including day-to-day administration as well as financial and human resources management.

Along with Eurofound and the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA), Cedefop is a tripartite Agency, as its Management Board comprises representatives of European Union Member States, social partners (national employers' and employees' organisations) and the European Commission.

This tripartite nature is a highly valuable expression of a comprehensive approach based on the social dialogue between the social partners and Union and national authorities.