The Commission is promising to work with member states on finding ways to ensure that there are enough people with the right education and skills to fill the jobs that will be created in the coming years.
Achieving a better match between the supply of skilled workers and the demands of employers is unavoidable as the EU cannot afford an unemployment rate of close to 10%, said the Commission when yesterday (23 November) it published a set of proposals for strengthening the EU labour market.
The 'Agenda for New Skills and Jobs' is the latest in a series of seven so-called 'flagship initiatives' to be developed by the Commission in the framework of the 'Europe 2020' strategy, which was adopted by EU leaders in June 2010.
"We need to equip people with the right skills for the jobs on the market today and in the future," said László Andor, EU commissioner responsible for employment, social policy and inclusion, presenting the proposals to the European Parliament in Strasbourg. "We know that even now some employers are struggling to fill vacancies because they cannot find people with the right skills."
EU officials anticipate that in the coming years there could be serious shortages of skilled workers in certain sectors like ICT (information and communication technologies) and health care.
Crisis is 'no excuse' not to act
Andor accepts that the current context is especially difficult as a result of the financial and economic crises, with a total of 23 million unemployed workers in the EU, representing 10% of the working age population.
"Yes, the crisis has wiped out millions of jobs. Yes we face increasing international competition. But that is no excuse to shy away from taking action," said Andor in Strasbourg. "On the contrary, it is a call to act and shape our future. Creating more and better jobs is in our hands."
The commissioner said that the 'Agenda for New Skills and Jobs' would make an important contribution towards helping the EU achieve its target, which was agreed as part of the 'Europe 2020' strategy, to increase the employment rate from around 69% to 75% of the working-age population during the next decade.
"We need to allow the workforce to generate new ideas and set up new businesses. We need to ensure that the younger generation can benefit from the social model we have developed. We need for all employees better job quality and working conditions," Andor said acknowledging that employment remains mainly a national competence.
The 'Agenda for New Skills and Jobs' sets out actions in four areas: the functioning of the labour market, skills, job quality and working conditions and job creation. The agenda proposes 13 specific actions at EU level to be carried out in partnership with governments, social partners and civil society.
Matching skills and opportunities
Education and training are seen as vital means to improve skill levels, not only for young people but also for workers of all ages who find themselves out of a job. This links in with the concept of 'lifelong learning' that the EU has been promoting since 2001, through programmes such as Leonardo da Vinci, which supports cross-border cooperation and exchanges in the area of vocational education and training.
Europe is facing an acute lack of highly educated and qualified workers in the fields of science, technology and engineering, which threatens to undermine the future economic competitiveness of the EU. The Commission anticipates that the ICT sector will witness a significant shortage of skilled workers in the next five years, with perhaps as many as 700,000 job vacancies remaining unfilled.
One of the actions that the Commission is planning to develop in this area is a new online tool called the 'EU skills panorama', to be launched in 2012. This will provide up-to-date information for jobseekers, workers, employers and public institutions, for example on which countries are experiencing shortages of workers in specific areas or occupations.
The Commission has identified specific sectors where it expects millions of new jobs to be created in the coming years, creating demand for workers that have particular skills and knowledge. These include 'green jobs' in areas related to clean and energy-efficient technologies, as well as 'white jobs' in the fields of health and social care.
