On 1st of July 2020, the Commission put forward an ambitious agenda focusing on skills and vocational education and training (VET) including also a Communication on a European Skills Agenda for sustainable competitiveness, social fairness and resilience that puts forward 12 EU actions aimed at supporting partnerships for skills, up and reskilling for jobs and empowering people to keep on learning throughout their lives (find here the Factsheet on the European Skills Agenda)
The Commission proposal for a Council Recommendation on VET for sustainable competitiveness, social fairness and resilience provides the “recipe” to make sure that VET equips young people and adults with the skills to support both the recovery and the green and digital transitions, while ensuring inclusiveness. The importance of up- and re-skilling the workforce is an important element of this proposal and the Skills Agenda as a whole.
The Commission, together with Member States, will work on new priorities for the European Agenda for Adult Learning to complement the renewed European cooperation framework in education and training and to support the achievement of UN SDGs.
Finally, the Skills Agenda sets ambitious objectives for adult learning by 2025:
- 120 million adults in the EU should participate in learning every year;
- 14 million adults with low qualifications in the EU should participate in learning every year;
- 2 million jobseekers or one in five should have a recent learning experience;
- 230 million adults should have at least basic digital skills, which covers 70% of the adult population in the EU.