Covid 19 brought substantial changes to the labour market. Teleworking and platform economy have reshaped the way we understand work and adds new challenges to match employers’ needs and workers’ skills and professional desires. Nowadays, working conditions and well-being at work become all the more important in the light of generalized trends such as the “big quit” or labour shortages. On the one hand, SMEs and strategic sectors such as transportation, healthcare or hospitality find it difficult to recruit new workers and have issues retaining skilled and experienced workers. On the other hand, senior and young populations have it harder to access the labour market, either because of lack of digital skills training or experience in the sector.

To address those challenges reskilling and upskilling are essential factors both to match employers’ and workers’ needs as well as keeping up to the digital transition. Indeed, digital transition offers plenty of new opportunities but also significant challenges on user friendly technologies, digital literacy or new technologies trainings, for example.

In the European Year of Skills, companies, policymakers and public administrations will reflect on the opportunities of investing in skilling and the benefits for workers to gain theorical and practical knowledge.

To address these questions, we will welcome:

• Irene Bellomo, Member of the European Year of Skills taskforce, European Commission (DG EMPL)
• Brikena Xhomaqi, Director, Lifelong Learning Platform

• Agnes Roman, Advisor, Vocational Education and Training, ETUC