Policy Hub
On 6 April 2010 the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP) published a report which emphasises that skills to adapt and to shape the jobs of tomorrow are essential for Europe’s citizens and businesses to speed up economic recovery. Equally, adequate skills are needed to respond to long-term challenges to compete in the global market, sustain innovation in ageing societies and address climate change.
The report seeks to provide policy-makers, employers, skills providers, employment services and individual learners with better information to make more informed decisions. Europe is on its way to an economy where services and knowledge and skill-intensive occupations will prevail. But even in occupations that are decreasing, substantial employment opportunities will remain as older generations leave the labour market and need to be replaced.
It is evident from the forecast that Europe not only needs to step up investment in education and training, but also encourage employers to better use the skills and talents of their staff. The forecast suggests that aggregate demand and supply trends across countries are converging in the medium to longer term, but there is a need to dig deeper to grasp what is really going on. Changing skill needs, job polarisation and skill mismatch interact in complex ways and the forecasts in the report shed some light on these phenomena.
Skills supply and demand in Europe: medium-term forecast up to 2020 (PDF)