Cedefop newsletter

This is the message that Cedefop Executive Director Jürgen Siebel brought home during the annual exchange of views of decentralised European Union Agencies and the European Parliament's Committee on Employment and Social Affairs on 24 January.

As Mr Siebel noted, Cedefop has been reflecting on how best to leverage its evidence and expertise on skills and on vocational education and training (VET) as part of EYS2023 and has resolved to build on its established lines of work in order to take the VET, skills and employment perspective to the digital and green transitions and other transformations and to provide evidence-based insights that help countries, regions and social partners deal with the crisis that is becoming the new normal.

A change driver

'We see the Year of Skills as a change driver and believe it is a great opportunity to champion people and their skills as the critical link between EU and national policy aims and targets and making real and tangible progress towards them,' Mr Siebel added, underlining that for Cedefop the 'skills revolution' should be about building skills and making the best possible use them, expanding learning potential in jobs, closing skills gaps and shortages, alleviating skills mismatches, building up good continuing VET (CVET) and career support systems, and capitalising on promising mobility opportunities.

Presenting the Agency's work during 2022, among others Cedefop's Executive Director pointed out the Agency's continued success in terms of scientific research and policy advice production and outreach as well as stakeholder satisfaction.

Permaskilling' to tackle permacrisis

He also focused on Cedefop's work on workplace transformation, a trend that was accelerated in recent years due to the pandemic and its repercussions, pointing to the crucial importance of skills intelligence and bringing SkillsOVATE as an example of almost-real-time job and skills demand monitoring tool.

Mr Siebel also referred to the work Cedefop has been doing on the greening and digitalisation of the economy and what the European Green Deal entails and demands from the work of education and work, while demonstrating that young people are often disadvantaged despite their head start when it comes to the twin transitions.

'In 2022, we became quite familiar with what permacrisis means. We hope the European year of skills will help make a strong case for ‘permaskilling’. By linking different lines of work, surveys, expertise and insight and by using our evidence as a guide to a society where learning is really the new normal, I can assure you that Cedefop is fully committed to contributing towards that aim,' Mr Siebel concluded.

For a video of Jürgen Siebel's presentation, click here.

The two decentralised Agencies, both operating under the umbrella of the European Commission's Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, agreed to work together in order to maximise synergies, avoid any potential duplication of activities in the fields of similar interest and transfer good practices.

On 16 January at Cedefop's seat in Thessaloniki, Greece, the Executive Directors of Cedefop, Jürgen Siebel, and ELA, Cosmin Boiangiu, signed the MoU, which envisages a framework for regular exchange and cooperation.

Cedefop and ELA recognise that they have distinct but related mandates, tasks and objectives, in the fields of VET, skills, qualifications, and EU labour mobility and social security coordination respectively, and that, therefore, their structured cooperation would allow them to deliver greater added value to the EU, its Members States, social partners and the world of education and work.

'Deliver more to stakeholders'

Following the signing ceremony, Cedefop Executive Director Jürgen Siebel noted that 'this memorandum is important because it establishes specific processes and structures that will allow both of us to get the most out of our partnership and to deliver more to our stakeholders than the sum of our individual contributions, long term.'

ELA Executive Director Cosmin Boiangiu said that he was 'very happy to sign this memorandum of understanding with Cedefop. It is one of the oldest EU Agencies and closely related to the work field of ELA. This MoU is a first step to closer cooperation between the Agencies and complementing each other’s work. I look forward to engaging closely with each other and start transposing this MoU into practical cooperation activities.’

The ceremony was followed by a presentation to ELA of the highlights of Cedefop's recent activities, particularly in the areas of online job vacancies, apprentice mobility and integrating adult refugees in European VET and the labour market.

Cedefop is the European Union’s reference centre for VET, skills and qualifications.

ELA was established to help strengthen the fairness and trust in the internal market by assisting Member States and the European Commission to ensure that EU rules on labour mobility and social security coordination are fairly and effectively enforced and by making it easier for citizens and businesses to benefit fully of the internal market.

The event was entitled 'Up and ahead: skills for a more resilient EU workforce' and explored how people can be equipped with the skills they need to adapt to a rapidly changing labour market.

Asked why learning at work is an important complement to formal training, Mr Siebel noted that, as Cedefop’s European Company Survey suggests, smart and expansive policies on workplace learning that empower people pay off in terms of workers’ wellbeing and the corporate bottom line.

He also pointed out that Cedefop’s recent European skills and jobs survey (ESJS) shows that not all mismatch is about skills gaps or lacking skills:

'Although it has been less prominent in policy discussions, knowledge and skills underutilisation at work is also mismatch. There are substantial opportunities to expand skills utilisation at work – in other words: designing jobs in smarter ways and improving work organization, so that people are motivated and have the opportunities to use and expand their skills via learning.'

What drives CVET participation

'Upskilling people should go hand in hand with upgrading jobs and is a win-win situation,' Mr Siebel said, adding that the European Union’s comprehensive vocational education and training (VET) and skills policy framework is a real asset and a driver of progress in transformative times.

He listed four types of factors that can boost participation in continuing VET (CVET) and adult learning:

• The CVET opportunities – quality programmes, incentives, guidance, support. When Cedefop asked adults in 2019 what they think about the quality of the training in their country, only 11% perceived it as very good.
• The actual learning potential – how much ‘space’ there is to develop skills. The latest ESJS shows that 52% of EU+ adult workers need to develop their digital skills further to do their job better.
• Beliefs – whether people think learning and skills is important in general. Cedefop evidence (Opinion survey on VET) shows that adults of all ages and across occupations and qualifications recognise the need for learning.
• Awareness – whether people see their own skill development potential. Older employees, females and SME workers do not take part in adult learning and CVET because they don’t see their own skill development potential and lack incentives.

To watch a video of the discussion, please, click here.

The 13th Cedefop Brussels seminar, a virtual event held on 15 December, attracted some 70 participants, Brussels-based stakeholders from the permanent representations of Member States to the EU, the European Commission (EC), the European Parliament, European business and sector associations, trade unions and employee organisations.

The discussions were centred around Cedefop's recent research findings on policy instruments to support MSMEs to increase their training provision, presented by the Agency's experts Patrycja Lipinska and Ernesto Villalba. They concluded that a comprehensive policy package can provide both financial and structural policy approaches, thus addressing more than one barrier to training and innovation at once, while 3S's Günter Hefler laid out the results of a case study focusing on Spain's Basque region.

What MSMEs really need

Cedefop Executive Director Jürgen Siebel noted that MSMEs should be offered help to identify their current training needs and encouraged to expand the skills-in-use they offer at the workplace, while Martin Fatura, of the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, presented the EU Presidency's work on education and training, stressing the importance of MSMEs and also outlined its initiatives for assisting the educational needs of displaced people in Ukraine.

Julie Fionda, Deputy head of unit for ‘Skills Agenda’ at the European Commission (EC), Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion of the EC, spoke of the EC's priorities in the European Year of Skills 2023 that address specifically MSMEs: furthering individual learning accounts, extending the Pact for skills and improved reporting on skills as an investment.

Cedefop Deputy Director Mara Brugia chaired a panel discussion with European stakeholders on the role of the EU and social partners in promoting training in MSMEs, which allowed the seminar's participants to be briefed on the view of MSMEs themselves, the Confederation of European Business, European trade unions and the EC.

Ending the seminar Ms Brugia pledged that Cedefop will continue contributing to achieving the goals of the European Skills Agenda, the European Pillar of Social Rights and the European year of skills.

The month was organised by the Inter-Agency Career Guidance Working Group, which consists of Cedefop, the European Commission, the ETF, the International Labour Organization, OECD, UNESCO and the World Bank. Over 45 global and regional events and associated activities were registered during the month, organised by the regional focal points in partnership with national and regional guidance associations.

At the closing ceremony, representatives of the inter-agency group, international social partners, the International Association of Employers and the International Trade Union Confederation, career guidance professional associations and networks, including Euroguidance and the International Association for Educational and Vocational Guidance, discussed the project’s outcomes and proposed solutions.

This initiative stands as a notable example of successful inter-agency cooperation and offers a platform for career development professionals to share their experiences and visions as reflections for policy and strategy.

The month’s focus was timely in an era marked by calls for adaptability of workers, concrete gains on inclusiveness across policy areas, more resilient societies, and making just digital and green transitions for a brighter and sustainable future despite the continuous waves of crises.

Different solutions were forwarded on how career guidance can meet the challenges faced and how to better serve the needs of an increasingly diverse public for career guidance. All participants agreed on the need to set goals for professionalisation of services, tools and resources despite the different starting points, and that interventions should be context-resonant and evidence-informed.

Social partners underlined holistic approaches where the whole-person approach to skilling is gaining ground, even if the pathway and provisions are also important and boosting capacity of employers and human resource development in career development could make a difference.

Guidance experts also argued that clients’ individual aspirations need to be a key part of the solution, instead of focusing solely on the supply of services. This is why career guidance is critical to empower individual citizens. Certain concepts need revisiting, like career, career development and the world of work.

Career guidance providers won’t create sufficient impact working in isolation in such a critical juncture, where career development is often undervalued and where professionals tend to work alone. Policy can improve system cohesiveness, where career guidance works with other critical services.

As Cedefop Executive Director Jurgen Siebel commented: ‘Cedefop is committed to supporting policies designed to empower all individuals through lifelong guidance, validation of prior learning and financial support for training in a world of work difficult to predict.’

The Global Careers Month has served as an unprecedented initiative to open dialogue, particularly with the global community of practice on career development. Cedefop’s Cynthia Harrison said that the month was valuable in its timeliness coinciding with the incredible challenges facing societies today, but the ‘interconnectedness’ of stakeholders and issues was brought to the fore.                                       

A detailed event synthesis will be published in early 2023 with more information on the month’s activities and outcomes.