EU Commission aims to tackle the EU's skilled labour shortage

To remain competitive, the European Union needs a skilled workforce. A shortage of this is therefore a problem, and the Commission and the European Parliament have recently renewed efforts to tackle it.

"Four in five businesses struggle to find the workers that they need with the right skill set. There are more than 40 occupations with EU wide shortages, especially in important sectors like construction, trades, transport and some healthcare professions", Roxana Mînzatu, European Commission Vice-President responsible for social rights, skills and quality employment, told the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

This shortage of skilled labour is due to problems of supply and demand and a mismatch between the qualifications of workers and the needs of employers, as Ilias Livanos, an expert on skills and the labour market at the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop), told Euronews:

"There could be pressures because of the demand. And clearly for the ICT professions, given that they keep developing so rapidly, we don't really know what the demand will be in 5 or 10 years. So how we can prepare for this specific knowledge ? And clearly the systems, education systems are not prepared for this."

42 occupations in short supply

This shortage is likely to get worse because of demographic factors and the digital and ecological transitions.

"Firstly, demographics. The EU is going to lose 1 million workers every year until 2050," Peter Bosch, senior research associate at the Egmont Institute, told Euronews.

"Secondly, there is a rapid change in the type of skills that will be needed because of robotisation, because of artificial intelligence, because of what is happening in different sectors," he explained, adding:

"The third reason is Europe's economic recovery, with many Member States and the European Union making large amounts of money available."

The European rearmament plan proposed by the European Commission, which contains a €800 billion budget, and the massive investment plan in defence and infrastructure presented by the likely future German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will require recruitment in many sectors, according to Peter Bosch.

The education system, but also companies, have important roles to play here, as, after all: "The skill system has no single owner".

While the formal education system has an important part to play in developing skills, continuing training is also "the responsibility of individuals and employers," according to Livanos.

Skills Union in the making

The EU's new roadmap has set the course: On 5 March, the European executive launched a new initiative - the Skills Union - to boost training and therefore European competitiveness.

This approach is based on four pillars. It recommends investing in education and training, promoting professional retraining, encouraging the mobility of students and workers, and making the EU more attractive to foreign workers.

In concrete terms, the Commission wants to launch "skills guarantees", for example, to "help companies hire or train people at risk of losing their jobs", Roxana Mînzatu expained.

Another flagship project called "Choose Europe" aims to attract skilled workers from third countries to the EU.

The European executive also wants to support visas for foreign students, strengthen the skills pact to support the upgrading and retraining of workers, and make the 'Erasmus+' exchange programme more accessible.

But the EU is not the only one in the race, warns Peter Bosch.

"The European Union is going to need people, but so will China and India and Arab countries, and Arab countries are offering huge salaries for people to come to work in their countries," says the researcher. The European Union is waking up, but it needs to do so very quickly.