Out of the 23 measures proposed, only one concrete proposal can potentially address workers in the industrial sectors, namely the Skills Guarantee for Workers. This might be a result of the strategy’s failure to recognise the shortages that have been plaguing Europe’s industry for years or even decades, as the text only mentions the construction, transport, health and care sectors (we have documented the shortages in industry in several documents here: 1, 2 and 3)

Nevertheless, we hope that this omission will be corrected and are looking forward to the Skills Guarantee which is announced, to ensure that workers in sectors undergoing restructuring or at risk of unemployment, have the opportunity to further develop their careers in other sectors and/or companies. The text mentions that this should be done by promoting workers’ upskilling and reskilling, in line with relevant national, regional and/or sectoral transition strategies, as the Skills Guarantee will support their employment prospects and job security. We hope that the Skills Guarantee will include sufficient new funding to reach these goals, as underlined in the trade unions’ calls for a SURE 2.0 instrument.

Isabelle Barthès continued: “To tackle the challenges that industry is facing, we cannot only focus on skills, but focus also on the need to invest in new jobs, in anticipation of skills needs, and upskilling and reskilling plans. The Union of Skills proposes a Skills Intelligence Observatory with the involvement of the social partners in the European High-Level Board. While this is a first step, it is far from enough to meet the anticipation efforts needed. What workers need is a Just Transition Framework.”

“Regional and territorial governance is essential to successfully manage the transition through the mobilisation of all the stakeholders (companies, schools, training and VET providers, public employment services and social partners). But a Just Transition needs to happen on the ground in companies”, explained Isabelle Barthès. “We need hard legislation to ensure a training right for all workers, to provide them with access to cost-free training during working hours, so that they feel empowered to make the most of the transformation. Life-long learning is not happening on the ground, and we therefore need this to be right. Companies need to invest in their workers. We need social conditionality, as mentioned in the Clean Industrial Deal, to ensure that public money comes with strings attached in terms of training and apprenticeship rights, in addition to collective bargaining rights.”

The current skills shortages and lack of attractiveness of some sectors are rooted in the poor quality of some jobs. We regret that the strategy fails to recognise this. We have already documented that bad working conditions and low-paid jobs are most severe in sectors and companies that pay less or have unsocial working hours. This argument appeared in previous Commission recommendations, but it has now been forgotten.

The Skills Portability Initiative is a step in the right direction, but it does not go far enough, as it only focuses on the recognition of skills and qualifications between Member States and it does not include the national sectoral level. It is a priority to facilitate the recognition and validation of skills between companies and sectors, and to ensure effective career guidance, in order to promote smooth job-to-job transitions for workers in industrial sectors undergoing the twin transition.

We recognise the efforts to deliver on the skills needed by industry for the twin transition and the Clean Industrial Deal, but we are skeptical of the EU Skills Academies’ approach. We, therefore, welcome the review of the initial ones, before launching any new initiatives. We stress the urgency to involve the sectoral social partners in these initiatives, including in the review of the already existing ones.

We remain critical of the European Commission’s approach to bridge skills shortages through third country migration while failing to ensure their equal treatment on the labour market. The strategy rightly recognises the risks that third country migrant workers face regarding unfair, unhealthy and unsafe working conditions, yet it proposes no concrete solution, pushing instead for the launch of the EU Talent Pool IT platform. We have already documented the reality that third country migrant workers are facing, which in some cases even led to labour crime. Temporary agencies and intermediaries in multiple levels of subcontracting are the main reason for the exploitation of migrant workers and, unfortunately, the EU Talent Pool does not exclude temporary agencies.