European year of skills: How to upskill and reskill workers to meet labour market needs

With complex jobs requiring higher skills, and labour market demand changing faster than education patterns, upskilling and reskilling have become crucial to meeting the needs of the labour market.

The skills gap in Europe has been a growing concern for years, as the economy and job market continue to shift towards more technologically advanced industries. According to the 2022 Digital Economy and Society Index, only 54% of Europeans aged between 16 -74 have at least basic digital skills.

The European Year of Skills 2023 aims to address these gaps through partnerships between public employment services and private providers, as well as by encouraging companies to invest in their own employees through upskilling and reskilling programmes.

By working together, policymakers, educators, and businesses can create a more inclusive and resilient workforce that is ready to face the challenges of the digital age.

Here’s how it could play out and some advice from EIT Digital experts.

As the types of skills needed in the labour market change rapidly, individuals must engage in lifelong learning to remain employable and to achieve fulfilling and rewarding careers.

The entire European public education system, from primary schools up to universities, needs to urgently modernize the largely outdated digital education programmes. The public offering must reform its curricula both at the primary and secondary level, and at university level, by making them more responsive to the changing technologies and labour market needs.

This requires organisational and governance reforms to open the systems to partnerships with civil society. As well as tangible investments in connectivity and new training for both teachers and professors.

The EU relies on public employment services (PES) to sketch the roadmap for more effective and inclusive investment in training and upskilling.  The reach of national PES and their capacity depends on the countries they operate in but also on their structure and authority on the national level. However, public employment services (PES) are far from being the only actors that can address this challenge.

To improve the quality of services by PES and, with this, the dialogue around effectiveness and inclusiveness within training, partnerships with private providers are vital.

The scattered private digital education initiatives should move to a complementary, broader, and better coordinated overall offering of digital skills initiatives.

Policymakers play a vital role in promoting more effective and inclusive investment in training and upskilling.

"Policymakers have a responsibility to ensure that education and training systems are designed to meet the needs of the labour market," notes Kamenica. "This includes providing adequate funding for training and upskilling initiatives, developing policies that support lifelong learning, and collaborating with the private sector to ensure that training programmes meet the needs of industry."