The Pact for Skills at stake! EARLALL Skills and Labour Market Working Group meeting

28/04/2022

A meeting of EARLALL Skills and Labour Market Working Group was organised on 26 April 2022. The meeting was chaired and introduced by the Working Group Leader: Maria Pascual, Head of the International Projects Unit for VET, Department of Education of the government of Catalonia and Noelia Cantero, EARLALL Director.

During the first part of the meeting, Mr M. Fernández, Directorate General for Employment, European Commission, presented the latest development and priorities of the Pact for Skills, focusing on the regional participation in the pact. The Pact for Skills has a strong focus on industrial ecosystems and from 2022 on regions too. Partnerships are based on clusters and territorial skills strategies where different stakeholders (industries, education and VET providers, VET centers, social partners but also regional and local authorities) are committed to re and up skill the workforce. Mr. Fernández presented the support of the European Commission provided within the Pact. At EU level, the Pact for Skills is composed of three main hubs:

The networking hub, to help finding partners and organize meetings
The Knowledge hub, with different activities on EU policies and instruments and best practices
The Guidance and resources hub which provides guidance with access to information on EU funding and facilitation of exchange between the Pact members and national/regional authorities

Mr Fernández showed the added value that taking part in the Pact has for the regions, and highlighted the participation of some of EARLALL members: Catalonia (Department of VET), Vestland County Council and Region Västra Götaland.

During the second part of the meeting, Maria Pascual presented the projects in which the working group is involved: the Stride for stride project, which aims at exchanging best practices to foster regional skills intelligence strategies in Europe, and the DAMAS project, which aims at testing virtual mobilities in the automotive sector. Project proposals for the future were also presented and discussed among the members.

Then, she reminded about some important European events coming up such as:

11 May: EAfA webinar on Higher Apprenticeships and Higher VET
16 – 20 May: European Vocational Skills Week
- You can participate in an event or link your event to the Week – either during the Week itself or any time before or after

And also about some important EARLALL events:

12 May: EARLALL Webinar on Microcredentials
2 June: Movetia Entepreneurship Summit
15 – 17 June: World Federation of Colleges and Polytechnics Congress 2022
July: IqCampus 2022, promoted by Catalonia

New proposal ideas were also shared (gender issues, support to apprenticeships, quality, etc) and participants were reminded about the that EARLALL members can join.

Participants agree to hold another meeting before the summer break. Further information will follow.