Supporting labour market developments: how to maintain employability, boost productivity and develop skills, especially in SMEs

Key points

The EESC:

• states that the transformation of the European labour market requires good understanding of what type of skills are needed for future labour market transformations, including in SMEs, in order to maintain sustainable employability, contribute to a high level of productivity and to reduce labour shortages;
• believes that skills development and effective implementation of the right and access to lifelong learning must be an integral part in broader economic growth strategies and recovery and resilience plans;
• underlines that adult learning is essential for upskilling adults and can generate a range of personal, societal, economic and social benefits;
• shares the view that "The EU needs a skills revolution to ensure people can thrive" and calls for the mobilisation of efforts and effective joint action by institutions, businesses, social partners and stakeholders under the Pact for Skills;
• highlights that the capacity to constantly update digital skills according to labour market changes and introduction of new technologies will undoubtedly be among the most important challenges in the future. In this respect, the EESC welcomes the wide scale investments envisaged in the National Recovery and resilience plans to support the increase in digital skills;
• believes that to be successful, the green transition will require people with the right skills and working places with the right working environment and green production systems. Social partners have a key role to ensure a just transition in a number of economic sectors;
• underlines that SMEs should be encouraged to work in networks that interact, to cooperate in sharing the costs for research into skill needs and pool their capacities to respond to the challenges of the twin transitions and skills development. Support for SMEs is needed to facilitate the development of their human capital training and development policy.