- 2023Design
- 2024Design
- 2025Implementation
Background
The labour market is constantly evolving due to new technologies, digitisation, automation, robotics, and changing work arrangements. Demographic trends, combined with high labour market demands, necessitate policy adjustments and other measures to address labour shortages across various areas, including migration, education, and lifelong learning (LLL) policies.
To support data-driven policymaking and improve the alignment between labour market supply and demand, Slovenia has been working on medium- and long-term forecasting through the Skills Forecasting Platform 2021–23 project. The initiative has now entered a new phase (2023–28) and has been renamed the Labour Market Platform.
Objectives
The Labour Market Platform is one of the strategically significant operations within the European Cohesion Policy Programme (EKP) in the period 2021–27, which is co-financed by the Republic of Slovenia and the European Union from the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+). Its primary objective is to establish a labour market and competence forecasting platform that effectively connects employers, jobseekers, and public employment service advisers. Additionally, it aims to provide decision-makers with relevant data to design systemic measures that mitigate labour market mismatches.
More specifically, the main objectives of the project are:
- to forecast occupational and competence needs in the short, medium, and long term;
- to identify occupational and competence gaps by comparing forecasts with real-time labour market mismatches;
- to recommend the integration of relevant competences into existing and potential new education or training programmes, aligning them with labour market needs.
Description
According to the project plan, a fully functional online labour market platform is set to be developed in three phases. Initially, a prototype and the first working version will provide users with labour market needs forecast data. The next phase will introduce data on labour market trends and the alignment between supply and demand. By 2028, the platform is expected to offer comprehensive insights into occupational and skills gaps, proposals for mapping competences in education programmes, and other key aspects of labour market trends.
The basic building blocks of the project activities will be:
- the use of modern technologies and methodologies;
- the development of interactive labour market displays for different stakeholders;
- the continuous updating and refinement of labour market forecasting methodologies;
- local cooperation and regional validation of forecasts;
- the networking of key labour market institutions.
In 2023, special focus was on developing methodology for medium and long-term forecasting of labour market needs and preparing a medium- and long-term forecast of the most in-demand professions and competences. The first medium and long-term labour market needs forecast was released in 2023.
Promotion of the results was carried out through events and social media. A call was issued to ministries, chambers, trade unions, and other institutions involved in labour market-related matters to participate in the consultation group. The invitees responded and appointed their representatives, forming a group that includes: the Ministry of Cohesion and Regional Development, the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Economy, Tourism and Sport, the Ministry of the Interior, the Public Scholarship, Development, Disability and Maintenance Fund of the Republic of Slovenia, the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia, the Institute of Macroeconomic Analysis and development of the Republic of Slovenia, the Ministry for Digital Transformation, the Ministry for a Solidarity-based Future, the Ministry of Public Administration, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia, the Chamber of Craft and small business of Slovenia, the Ministry of Health, the National Expert Group for Lifelong Career Orientation and the Confederation of Trade Unions of Slovenia Pergam.
The first meeting of the group was held in September 2024.
Two public calls were published, one for the development of IT solutions for the Labour market platform and the other for the development of software solutions for cohort-based calculations of labour market demand related to replacement employment.
In addition, the first prototype of the platform which included information on jobs and human resources, was developed and tested.
The web-based platform has been launched, offering a modern visualization of labour market supply and demand. It enables users to monitor current data on job vacancies and available workforce in both graphical and tabular formats. Users can filter, compare, and export data for further use.
The Ministry of Labour also updated the methodology for forecasting labour market needs with an objective of supporting and monitoring the green and digital transitions. Furthermore, a new medium- and long-term forecast of labour market needs was produced, entitled 'Analysis of labour market conditions and the results of medium- and long-term labour market needs forecasts up to 2039'. The forecast reveals that current labour market trends reflect the economic cycle and adverse demographic developments, resulting in low unemployment, labour shortages, and growing reliance on foreign workers, while the number of Slovenian nationals entering the labour market remains below the number retiring. In the medium term (2025–2029), new jobs will continue to be created, but between 2030 and 2039 most openings will be for replacement needs, with increasing dependence on foreign labour due to a shrinking working-age population. Demand will exceed supply – particularly for highly educated professionals such as teachers and doctors – while shortages and skills mismatches are expected to intensify, limiting economic growth, service quality, and competitiveness.
Bodies responsible
- Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities (MDDSZ)
- Employment Service of Slovenia (ZRSZ)
Target groups
Education professionals
- Teachers
- School leaders
- Adult educators
- Guidance practitioners
Entities providing VET
- Companies
- VET providers (all kinds)
Other stakeholders
- Social partners (employer organisations and trade unions)
- National, regional and local authorities
Thematic categories
Governance of VET and lifelong learning
This thematic category looks at existing legal frameworks providing for strategic, operational – including quality assurance – and financing arrangements for VET and lifelong learning (LLL). It examines how VET and LLL-related policies are placed in broad national socioeconomic contexts and coordinate with other strategies and policies, such as economic, social and employment, growth and innovation, recovery and resilience.
This thematic category covers partnerships and collaboration networks of VET stakeholders – especially the social partners – to shape and implement VET in a country, including looking at how their roles and responsibilities for VET at national, regional and local levels are shared and distributed, ensuring an appropriate degree of autonomy for VET providers to adapt their offer.
The thematic category also includes efforts to create national, regional and sectoral skills intelligence systems (skills anticipation and graduate tracking) and using skills intelligence for making decisions about VET and LLL on quality, inclusiveness and flexibility.
High-quality and timely skills intelligence is a powerful policy tool, helping improve economic competitiveness and fostering social progress and equality through the provision of targeted skills training to all citizens (Cedefop, 2020). Skills intelligence is the outcome of an expert-driven process of identifying, analysing, synthesising and presenting quantitative and/or qualitative skills and labour market information. Skills intelligence draws on data from multiple sources, such as graduate tracking systems, skills anticipation mechanisms, including at sectoral and regional levels. Actions related to establishing and developing such systems fall under this thematic sub-category.
European priorities in VET
VET Recommendation
- VET agile in adapting to labour market challenges
Osnabrück Declaration
- Resilience and excellence through quality, inclusive and flexible VET
Subsystem
Further reading
Country
Type of development
Cedefop, & ReferNet. (2026). The Labour Market Platform: Slovenia. In Cedefop, & ReferNet. (2026). Timeline of VET policies in Europe (2025 update) [Online tool].
https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/lv/tools/timeline-vet-policies-europe/search/48401