Towards a European Pact for Skills

Submitted by Tedora Aibu on 13 July 2020

Summary of the European Alliance Against Coronavirus Daily Webinar on 10 July 2020. 

Which measures will be included in the Pact for Skills which will be launched in Berlin in November 2020?

André Richier from DG GROW presented to the European Alliance Against Coronavirus the three main pillars of the Pact: (i) digital transformation and support for skills of all types, (ii) upskilling and reskilling of people of working age, (iii) supporting and encourage companies to apprenticeship. The roadmap to the launch of the Pact for Skills can be divided in four big steps: consultation on the charter, stakeholder consultation, roundtables that will run from September to October 2020 to join and engage ecosystems and sectoral social partner, and the launch of the Pact for Skills and Joint Declaration.

One of the building blocks are “large scale partnerships” to attract investments and involve major players. Furthermore, it is necessary to include social partners to facilitate the dialogue concerning individual learning, access to training and identifying the upskilling needs. Partnerships can be developed at both national, regional and local level, involving workers, public authorities and social partners to join together and cooperate for a sectoral or regional upskilling.

Looking at past activities, the European Alliance Apprenticeships has generated 900,000 opportunities since 2013 and mobilized new partnership possibilities for SME's. Now is time to renew the Alliance by structuring it around new emerging issues. Moreover, the European Commission developed a specific multi-stakeholder partnership on digital skills and jobs coalition, including more than 500+members and 24 national coalitions. The Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition offered digital training to millions of people. Related to the Covid-19 emergency, the coalition launched a new Call for Pledges to recruit new workforces with digital skills.

One main question of the following discussion was about the role clusters could play in the skills agenda. Since clusters are made up largely of SMEs, they are important to cover the whole value chain. They could be engaged both on a large scale as well as at national, regional, and local level. André encourages the group to explore the possibilities of collaborations with potential partners.

A recording of the session is available here 

These are the complete minutes of the meeting: 

20200710 ECA dailyminutes_v3.pdf

This is the presentation from the meeting: 

Pact for Skills - Overview 10-07-2020.pdf

Find information on the previous meetings hereinformation on the upcoming agenda here.  

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