There are two megatrends that will affect (and already are affecting) the European labor market in the next decade: on one hand, the double transition, ecological and digital, requiring new and increasingly advanced skills at a quite fast pace; on the other hand, an aging population in need of care appropriate to longer, non-hospitalized lives, and professionals trained to provide it. But if the unemployment curve (with a few exceptions in Mediterranean Europe) is steadily declining, there is another problem that is instead gaining in urgency: skills poverty, or lack of expertise.

Dedicated to the issue – which manifests itself both as a shortage of skilled professionals in the labor market and as difficulty or disparity in access to training – is a new report commissioned by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), and requested in particular by the Civil Society Organizations' Group. The title is a programming intent, and it is also the form in which the EESC intends to pose the concern to the European Commission: How to eradicate skills poverty among the most vulnerable? We talked about it with the president of the EESC's Civil Society Organizations' Group, Seamus Boland.

According to Eurostat data, the unemployment share in the European Union as of March 2024 stood just above an average of 6 percent. What does this data tell us about the current European labor market?

The current trend shows a decrease in the unemployment rate. However, there is also a growing skills shortage throughout Europe, partly related to the financial recession between the mid-2010s and 2020s, a period when not much training was done. Nowadays, luckily for young people, unemployment is decreasing, but unfortunately, there has been an apparent lack of skills that would be needed. In short, even if they find jobs, young people are often not trained for the tasks required. So we are now discovering that we have a major problem with both the supply of skills in the labor market and the accessibility of training.

To this end, the report commissioned by the EESC introduces the relatively new concept of “skills poverty”. What exactly is the definition?

Like I said, it means that there is not enough expertise to meet employment requirements. So “poverty” in terms of qualifications and skills available in the labor market, but also in the sense that, for various reasons, young people have not had equal access to training. This is particularly true in the countries most affected by the economic recession, but in general, it is an all-European situation where we have not been able to provide sufficient vocational training to meet demand. Then there is a third cause, which has actually always existed in some particularly poor areas: school dropout at a young age, due to social problems and the particular vulnerability of certain groups.

Which factors most influence the demand for new skills in today's labor market?

It is a time of great change in our lives. The transition to a green economy and an exit from fossil fuels requires a whole new set of skills, and we are simply not keeping up. Governments and the European Union are not funding the change as quickly as we need to. And furthermore, with artificial intelligence entering the workforce, we now face a tremendous shift in the digital skills required. Even qualifications from just five years ago must now be completely and rapidly updated. So, unfortunately, unless private companies (as is the case with some in the digital sector) provide the training, traditional skills, whether in plumbing, construction, transportation or utilities, need to be updated to match the green and digital transition. And this is where we are really losing our way.

The report also highlights a shortage of skills in healthcare and the so-called silver economy…

The silver economy is obviously a growing sector because the aging population is increasing, and this requires a completely new approach to healthcare. In the near future, much of this care will take place directly in people's homes, either because they will be in better health or because we do not have enough residential facilities for the elderly at present. To give one example, there is a growing demand for qualifications in occupational therapy, since as people age, although in better health, they may have problems with arthritis or other physical problems that affect their daily lives, and they need to re-train their daily living skills and also redesign their homes to fit their new situation.

You mentioned earlier the inequality in access to training. What are the drivers behind this “inequality” of skills in European society?

Inequality stems from the economic possibility of accessing or not accessing new training. Some sectors, such as digital, are excellent at supporting people who need to be re-trained or acquire entirely new skills. In contrast, the health sector and many others have to rely on the public service to provide the necessary training. And it is in this area that the greatest skills shortage seems to occur. In other words: the investment needed to raise the skill level is decreasing. This is the biggest problem.

So, there's a big problem of affordability. In some cases, however, doesn't the disparity also originate from a lack of basic knowledge in certain areas, such as digital literacy?

As a matter of fact, there are still difficulties with basic literacy and math, language skills and social skills. In order for anyone to re-train or even acquire new skills of any kind, they need those basic skills. And here you have to look at elementary education. If a young adult gets to 15 or 16 years of age with a lack of literacy and numeracy, then training becomes quite difficult, to put it mildly. In my former career, I was an education officer, especially for young people who came from difficult backgrounds. And in those situations we always had to redesign the courses and, often, bring the training into the local communities.

Therefore, action needs to be taken at different levels – corporate, institutional, community…

Yes, it is a very complex issue, affecting the whole system. A few years ago I was involved in another study on the level of access to early education, for children under five, which showed that childhood learning is also crucial. So even talking about vocational skills, you have to talk about access to childhood education, because there's a whole range of learning problems, such as dyslexia, that can only be solved at a young age. But, if you don't overcome those early difficulties, you will face even bigger problems. And I'm afraid many young people find themselves in this situation.

Returning to adult education, how do you address the challenges of re-skilling and up-skilling?

It is all a matter of assessment and access. If an adult worker has a specific skill that is no longer useful or in demand, he will either lose his job or re-train. But to achieve that, first you have to complete an assessment of their skill level, and also of their ability and mode of learning, since people learn in different ways and at different rates. You cannot simply throw a new skill to be acquired on the plate and hope that everything will go well. You have to make a proper assessment, figure out if the new skill level is accessible for that person, and take the necessary steps to get there. In short, well-designed re-training.

But how can this need for re-training be communicated to people? Many Europeans today fear the green and digital transition because they are afraid of losing their jobs or losing authority in their field. How then to get the message across that this could be an opportunity rather than a tragedy?

My favorite answer is that we need to make sure that every company, every agency, every employer introduces a culture of re-training and lifelong learning. This means that adults, from the moment they enter a job position, know that they will have various opportunities to re-train and access new skills. This is a good habit, and it also makes things easier in case they lose their jobs. If this is not the case, then the state must step in, providing the necessary assistance and training infrastructure.

One last question: what is the role of the EESC in this great challenge?

Our job is to make sure that the various civil society organizations involved in training, especially in vulnerable communities, get the support they require. They often work on a voluntary basis, in situations of scarce funding, but usually these organizations are the first to identify people who need help. The EESC is an advisory body to the European Commission and Council. So our task – and the reason we have written this report – is to get the message to the European Council, and in particular to DG Employment, to be able to overcome this situation of skills poverty and ensure that everyone, young and old, has the right to vocational training and re-training.

This article is also available in Italian / Questo articolo è disponibile anche in italiano

Images: Seamus Boland