Green and digital skills and training needs for a just transition (CSA) -

Expected Outcome

• Reduce skills gaps that hold back the green and digital transitions, by developing and disseminating suitable skills development programmes and training modules, including to prepare future scale-up e.g. through ESF+ or the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT).
• Support collective action on skills development by companies and providers of education and training, and hence support deep-tech innovation; and contribut=e to the European Year of Skills 2023[1], to the large-scale skills partnerships in key industrial ecosystems under the Pact for skills[2], and to the flagship to skill, re-skill and up-skill talents in the deep tech fields outlined in the Commission’s new European Innovation Agenda[3].
• Support the training of advanced ICT-specialist skills or other key digital technologies’ skills that would contribute to industrial leadership and strategic autonomy and rely on advanced specialised know-how, and to reaching the digital decade targets[4].

Scope

In order to tackle climate and environmental-related challenges, Europe is committed to transform its economy, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030 and becoming climate neutral by 2050. Delivering on the green transition can have a positive effect on the total number of jobs in the EU with almost 1 million jobs being added with the right policies in place. However, in order for the transition to be successful and fair, existing and new workers need to be equipped with the right skills. In order to do that, they should have access to lifelong learning and dedicated up-skilling and reskilling programmes.

In a similar way, advanced digital skills require more than mastering coding or having a basis of computing sciences. With emerging technologies around quantum, AI, big data and other key technologies, the need for ICT specialist is increasing. For example, there were only 7.8 million ICT specialists in 2019 with a prior annual growth rate of 4.2%. If this trend continues, Europe will be far below the projected need of 20 million experts e.g. for key areas underlying its competiveness and enabling the green transition. More than 70% of businesses report a lack of staff with adequate skills as an obstacle to investments.

In light of these needs, the Commission has proposed to make 2023 the European Year of Skills.[5] The development and dissemination of innovative training programmes which equip the labour force with green and advanced digital skills has to be part of the solution. Proposals may focus on the skills needs of occupations in one or more specific industrial sectors. They should build on the existing Erasmus+ Blueprint Alliances for sectoral cooperation on skills[6] where available (introduced in the 2016 New Skills Agenda for Europe, and gradually rolled out for an increasing number of sectors), as well as on the existing large-scale skills partnerships in industrial eco-systems under the Pact for Skills[7] following the 2020 European Skills Agenda[8]. Where relevant, outcomes from this call should feed into the Deep Tech Talents Initiative, for instance through cooperation with the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) in designing a mechanism to monitor and report on deep tech skills that support the green and digital transition, the related education and training programmes and its dissemination in Europe [9].

Skills development should take into account the twin green and digital transition and support labour markets with the aim to increase EU growth potential, including by fostering deep-tech solutions.

Proposals should address at least two of the following aspects:

• Identify, along with relevant stakeholders, specific green or digital skills, defined as those needed to underpin the ongoing and upcoming digital and green transition of the economy to climate neutrality by 2050 and the 2030 digital decade targets, with a particular focus on those that are in shortage; this should take account of the work in the action on skills to support the twin transitions in the European Skills Agenda, in particular the taxonomy of green skills in ESCO[10];
• Devise, test and implement scalable (e.g. through ESF+ or EIT) skills development programmes and trainings to endow the labour force with the identified green or digital skills, with the aim to skill, re-skill and up-skill the workforce as stated in the European Skills Agenda and the new European Innovation Agenda;
• Where possible, such trainings should be designed with a particular focus on the needs of workers that are at risk of becoming redundant due to structural transformations related to the green or digital transition or whose task profiles are expected to change significantly, or currently unemployed people;
• Develop deep tech skills and training programmes in the fields critical for the green and digital transitions, such as circularity, raw and advanced materials, energy-intensive and manufacturing industries, clean-tech, and digital technologies;
• Support certification and recognition of the green and digital skills and competences, where possible within the relevant accreditation model such as the EIT Label.

Proposals should have a clear strategy for identifying the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed training. Proposals should also indicate the number of beneficiaries they expect to reach with the project outcomes: both during the initial project duration, and in a possible follow-up project/during scale-up. They should anticipate questions related to the scalability and dissemination of the resulting output, for instance by involving suitable stakeholders.

Where relevant, the proposals should build on and feed into the mechanism developed and applied by EIT[11] such as the Deep Tech Talent Initiative (DTTI), a pioneering programme that aim to skill one million people within European deep tech fields over the next three years. The important dimension of the EIT DTTI is to ensure that companies and industry representatives are part of the curricula development and that curricular elements are continuously updated in line with the changing labour market needs in the technology area.

Proposals should also explain how the activities support transferability, certification and recognition of the skills and competencies, following relevant industry standards or horizontal models, such as EIT Label for non-degree education and training.

Proposals should envisage collaboration and synergies with related projects such as Bridges 5.0.

All output material should be published with a ‘Creative Commons license’ to allow further use free of charge.

This topic requires the effective contribution of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) disciplines and the involvement of SSH experts, institutions as well as the inclusion of relevant SSH expertise, in order to produce meaningful and significant effects enhancing the societal impact of the related research activities.

Social innovation is recommended when the solution is at the socio-technical interface and requires social change, new social practices, social ownership or market uptake.

[1]State of the Union (europa.eu)

[2]Pact for Skills - Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion - European Commission (europa.eu)

[3]New European Innovation Agenda (europa.eu)

[4]https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/europe-fit-digital-age/europes-digital-decade-digital-targets-2030_en

[5]Commission kick-starts work on the European Year of Skills (europa.eu)

[6]https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1415&langId=en

[7]https://pact-for-skills.ec.europa.eu/index_en

[8]

[9]EIT TO SKILL ONE million tech INNOVATORS – Join the Pledge! | European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT) (europa.eu)

[10]https://ec.europa.eu/esco/portal/skill

[11]https://www.eitdeeptechtalent.eu

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