Shaping Learning and Skills for Europe

Facts and findings

• Productivity growth in the EU has been trending downwards for decades and remained well below 1% in recent years.
• The disparity in the prevalence of low-wage work between the EU and OECD countries has been increasing over the last decade.
• By strategically investing in high-skill development, the EU can foster a virtuous cycle of increased productivity, higher wages, and greater economic equality.
• Almost 50% of adults may need upskilling or reskilling; but the CVET and skills development infrastructure is insufficient in many Member States.
• EU private investment in AI is 40–50% lower than the US, widening the innovation and productivity gap.
• Cedefop forecasts that by 2035 fewer than 10% of workers will be low-qualified, creating the conditions for a demand for highly skilled workers 21% higher than in 2025.
• Participation in upper secondary IVET is stable around 50%, with about 65% of recent VET graduates experienced work-based learning, and over 70% of IVET programmes now provide access to tertiary education.
• Adult learning participation remains below EU targets, with employer-sponsored training concentrated among highly skilled workers.

Key Messages 

• To make the technology, demography, and green transitions work for everyone, Europe needs to embed lifelong and lifewide learning into all systems and remove the barriers that prevent people from getting ahead in work and life.
• Inclusive VET and skills development (VET-S) systems proactively reach all learners, especially those facing multiple vulnerabilities, through outreach, guidance, and community-based ecosystems.
• Skills, learning and employability are multidimensional. Next generation skills intelligence needs to capture the challenges and opportunities surrounding skills issues comprehensively and facilitate the design of targeted solutions.
• Learning outcomes, flexible and modular learning opportunities are essential to building interconnected and seamless learning systems and support.
• Quality assurance needs to encompass new learning formats and providers, building trust through transparency, robust assessment, and shared responsibility.
• Innovation in VET-S systems integrate work-based, digital, and experiential learning, creating responsive, dynamic and inclusive learning ecosystems.
• Innovative VET-S systems gradually move beyond academic-vocational divides, with permeability between pathways and attractive societal narratives around vocational learning.
• Skills policy must be strategically embedded across all EU policy domains, aligned with new institutional initiatives and major strategic reports.
• Cedefop’s research and leadership in skills intelligence supports evidence-based policymaking and implementation and underpins the VET-S transformation.
• Support to Member States via an EU skills intelligence infrastructure is needed to roll out next generation skills intelligence

Policy Pointers

• Ensure universal access to learning opportunities, through tailored guidance, modular offers, and coordinated support systems.
• Develop inclusive and proactive outreach strategies, combining digital tools with local partnerships to engage underrepresented learners.
• Establish learning outcomes driven quality assurance standards, ensuring consistency across formal and non-formal providers and credential types.
• Support innovation in skills development, with stackable credentials, blended and immersive learning, and strong provider-industry collaboration.
• Promote parity of esteem, with more closely connected or integrated pathways and digital communication strategies to shift societal perceptions.
• Use policy momentum from the Union of Skills, the Draghi and Letta reports, and the new Commission mandate under EVP Minzatu, to accelerate progress.
   

EU Policy Context
The Herning Declaration and the Union of Skills initiative frame a new era for EU skills policy—one that sees learning as a dynamic, lifelong endeavour critical to social resilience, green and digital transitions, and inclusive competitiveness. Through its emphasis on accessibility, inclusion, quality, innovation, and attractiveness, the EU is advancing a future-focused model of VET and skills development (VET-S) that meets the needs of today’s and tomorrow’s learners and labour markets.
The Draghi report on competitiveness and the Letta report on the single market reaffirm the strategic role of skills policy in enabling Europe’s economic transformation. Both reports call for enhanced investment in adult learning, digital literacy, and the integration of VET and skills policy into industrial and competitiveness strategies.
The new European Commission, under the leadership of Executive Vice-President for People, Skills and Preparedness, Roxana Mînzatu, has placed lifelong learning, skills matching, and labour market inclusion at the heart of its policy mandate. The policy momentum creates an unprecedented opportunity to embed VET-S policies and principles into mainstream EU governance.