EUROPEAN COMMISSION
Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities DG
Employment, Lisbon Strategy, International Affairs
CONCEPT PAPER
Spanish Presidency Conference 'New Skills for New Jobs for a more competitive
Europe'
Barcelona, 8-9 April 2010
Skills anticipation and upgrading, and a better matching of skills and jobs are key to the
success of the EU2020 strategy to "help us come out stronger from the crisis and turn the EU
into a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy delivering high levels of employment,
productivity and social cohesion".
'New Skills for New Jobs' are therefore essential, not only for inclusive growth but also for
the EU's ambition to develop an economy based on knowledge and innovation, and to
promote a more resource efficient, greener and more competitive economy.
Objectives of the conference
The overall objective of the conference is to discuss concrete ways to advance a
comprehensive skills and jobs agenda (as proposed with the 'New Skills for New Jobs'
initiative) in the framework of the EU 2020 Strategy, focusing both on skills upgrading in line
with future skills needs, and better matching of skills and jobs.
'Concrete', because there seems to be agreement in general on the challenges that the EU is
facing, and the important role a suitably skilled workforce and well-functioning labour markets
play in addressing them. How to make this a reality is a less obvious endeavour which is why
the focus should be on concrete tools and instruments and their implementation.
'Comprehensive' should be understood in two ways: First, the interaction of different policy
areas, mainly employment and education and training policy, and second, the interaction of
different policy levels (EU and Member States, regional and local, as well as international)
and stakeholders, mainly the social partners and companies.
The opening session and Session 1 will set the tone by spelling out what the challenges are,
taking into account the crisis as well as the underlying drivers for our economies and
societies.
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Session 2 will explore approaches and examples that can deliver a comprehensive and
concrete skills and jobs agenda, including from the international level, higher education and
the private sector.
Session 3 will seek to develop ways forward at both the EU and Member State level to
deliver a skills and jobs agenda, as well as how in the future the two levels can be linked
even more strongly.
The final panel discussion brings together the current and future EU Presidencies, Members
of the European Parliament, the social partners and the Commission to discuss how best
'New Skills for New Jobs' can contribute to the EU 2020 Strategy.
Session 1 – An open discussion on the skills and jobs of the future
According to Cedefop's latest forecast on skills demand and supply, the economic crisis has
had a dramatic impact on the European labour market. Employment growth is likely to
recover only gradually over the next decade. There will however still be a significant number
of job openings, be it through new jobs, or those, the large majority, that will have to be filled
because people retire of change jobs. In total there may be as many as 80 million job
openings overall up to 2020.
The precise volume and nature of the jobs of the future - and of the skills they will require –
will depend on long-term structural factors such as technological change, globalisation or
demographic trends but also on the extent and pace of the recovery from the current
economic downturn. None of these challenges can be seen solely from an EU-level
perspective: the strong global interdependence of our societies and economies is particularly
obvious in the quest for talent; the focus of the G20 meeting in late April on 'global training
strategies' is therefore most appropriate.
On the supply side, while further progress is needed, we expect a clear continuous trend
towards skills upgrading in the next decade. Especially women will be more highly-qualified
than ever before, increasingly better than men. Several key questions arise from this
scenario:
1. Can we already identify some of the long-term effects of the crisis on jobs and skills –
and how these may affect economic restructuring? What skills will tomorrow's jobs
require, and are we on the right track for our future workforce to acquire them?
2. What will it mean for our societies and economies that women are increasingly wellqualified?
3. How will ageing impact both demand and supply for skills, i.e. which and how many
'white jobs' will be created, who will fill these and all other available jobs and what will
be their skills profiles?
4. In addition to the 'white jobs', where do we expect the main sources of job creation in
Europe to be (services to business, 'green jobs')? How can we foster the creation of
high-quality, high-skilled jobs to meet our citizens' aspirations and make the most of
their potential?
5. In terms of skills, what is Europe good at, and where will it stand in the global quest
for talent? Where should our priorities for lifelong learning policies lie? How can
Europe be sufficiently attractive to retain and attract talent?
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Session 2 – New Skills for New Jobs: finding what works
Skills make a difference, but to act on this is sometimes not immediately obvious to every
individual, employer or employee, or public authority or the social partners. The right
incentives are therefore needed to help people of all ages to see skills development as a
valuable, and rewarding, part of life and to enable them to develop their skills and their
careers in accordance with labour market needs. At the same time it is important to support
employers to maximize the skills of their employees so that they can sustain and grow their
business, and create jobs.
Developing meaningful partnerships at international, European, national, regional and local
levels will help us work towards fulfilling our vision and drive forward real, positive and
sustained change in Europe's skills performance.
The following questions can steer the debate:
1. What incentives for individuals and employers to invest in and better use skills, and
how and through whom to make them available?
2. With the right incentives many individual stakeholders understand the importance of
and are mobilising efforts to up-skill and better match skills and jobs. However what is
clear is that in isolation they can achieve very little impact. What steps are in place to
ensure joined-up working for maximum outcomes and impact for all?
3. What are the best means/tools to help companies engage with education and training
providers? What is the role of intermediaries in this process? And what support can
be provided to employers to enable their employees to best use their skills?
4. What are the lessons learnt from these examples of good practice and how will these
examples and methods adapt to the fast changing environments?
5. What is the scope of the transferability of these examples between different levels of
governance?
Session 3 – EU and national policy initiatives in response to future challenges
EU Member States have taken and are taking action in the fields of skills anticipation,
upgrading and matching as has been made evident on a number of occasions, not least in
the EMCO contribution to the conference. Many Member States have skills anticipation
systems, be it on a general level, or focusing on specific economic sectors. Often this is
linked to a growing awareness to more strongly align education and training systems with
actual labour market needs. At the same time given our challenges, and the consequences
of the economic crisis, more needs to be done to both create and fulfil the ambition of a
smart, sustainable and inclusive economy delivering high levels of employment, productivity
and social cohesion. Therefore there is still potential to do more and to do better for a
comprehensive and concrete skills and jobs agenda.
1. How can the EU further support Member States and regions to implement the NSNJ
agenda?
2. Which additional steps are necessary at EU level to better anticipate and match skills
and jobs?
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3. How can current EU-level and national anticipation efforts be combined, and what
should they focus on (short-, medium-, long-term perspective)? What role can the
sectoral level play in this? Can national and EU systems interact more strongly to
provide an EU-wide overview on skills shortages/surpluses?
4. How can the EU support stakeholders in the development of a common skills
language through ESCO (and the EU vacancy monitor)?
5. How can Member States further advance the responsiveness of education and
training systems to labour market needs, and how can the EU help in this?
Final panel discussion: New Skills for New Jobs in the EU 2020 strategy
On 3 March the Commission has presented its proposals for the Europe 2020 Strategy to
overcome the crisis and prepare the EU for the next decade. The strategy identifies three key
areas for action at EU and national level: smart growth (fostering knowledge, innovation,
education and digital society), sustainable growth (making our production more resource
efficient while boosting our competitiveness) and inclusive growth (raising participation in the
labour market, the acquisition of skills and the fight against poverty). Success in these areas
requires ownership at the top political level and mobilisation of all actors across Europe. It
also requires dialogue with our global partners.
Skills are an integral part of a smarter, more sustainable and inclusive Europe. Better skilled
people are more likely to be employable, contribute to innovation and creative solutions to
our key challenges and increasing the employment rate helps to reduce poverty
A smarter EUROPE 2020 will entail promoting knowledge partnerships and strengthening
the links between education, business research and innovation, as part of the "Innovation
Union"; by exploring ways of promoting entrepreneurship through mobility programmes for
young professionals and promoting recognition of non-formal and informal learning as part of
the "youth on the move" initiative; and up-skilling to ensure citizens have the right mix of skills
to meet the needs of a digital society forms part of the "Digital Agenda for Europe".
A more sustainable EUROPE 2020 can only become a reality if companies adjust their
production processes and products to the low-carbon economy. To do so companies, in
particular SMEs will need support. Equally essential is more entrepreneurship, and the
restructuring of sectors towards future orientated activities including through redeployment of
skills to emerging high growth sectors and markets as part of the "resource efficient Europe"
and "industrial policy for the globalisation era" initiatives.
A more inclusive EUROPE 2020 will mean investing in skills and helping people to manage
change in order to build a cohesive society. This will be done through giving a strong
impetus to the strategic framework for cooperation in education and training involving all
stakeholders, implementing lifelong learning principles including flexible learning pathways
and reinforcing the attractiveness of vocational education and training; ensuring that
competences required to engage in further learning and the labour market are acquired and
recognised and developing partnerships between the worlds of education/training and work
and social partners as part of "an agenda for new skills a jobs". Designing and implementing
programmes to promote social innovation for the most vulnerable by providing
education/training and employment opportunities for deprived communities will also
contribute to an inclusive Europe as part of the "European platform against poverty" initiative.
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Putting skills at the heart of recovery and growth strategies has also been endorsed at
international level at the leaders' statement of the G20 Pittsburgh summit in 2009. Its charter
for sustainable economic activity commits to putting quality jobs at the heart of recovery with
a focus, in part, on skills development and inclusive labour markets. It is therefore essential
to study the effects of globalisation on skills demand and measures taken by global partners
to ensure lessons learnt are shared.
Questions:
1. How can all stakeholders unite within the EUROPE 2020 strategy to deliver on the
challenges for skills and jobs?
2. Policy dialogue and exchange of experiences with our global partners in the
framework of the G20 will also help meet these challenges. How can NSNJ provide a
useful contribution to the efforts of international partners to develop a global training
strategy?
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