The Wider View: the Skills Agenda for Europe

​​​​We might all be restricted to 5km from home but that doesn’t mean that you can’t keep abreast of what’s new across Europe. Here’s a whistle-stop, virtual tour of the Skills Agenda for Europe, that might help support you in your work...​

​Pact for Skills 

The Pact for Skills is the first flagship action of the European Skills Agenda and it aims to mobilise and incentivise private and public stakeholders to take concrete action for the upskilling and reskilling of people of working age, and, when relevant, pool efforts in the partnerships. This is why Commissioners Schmit and Breton launched in November 2020 a Pact for Skills — a shared engagement and approach to skills development. 

All stakeholders interested in joining the Pact are asked to sign up to a Charter. The aim of the Charter is to ensure a common understanding of key principles underlying upskilling and reskilling activities.

A European Approach to Micro-Credentials

Work on a European Approach to Micro-Credentials is announced in the European Skills Agenda, published on 1 July 2020 as well as in the September 2020 Communication on achieving the European Education Area by 2025 and the Digital Education Action Plan. 

A Micro-Credentials Consultation Group focussing on the field of higher education with experts from various backgrounds, expertise and countries proposed:

• a common working definition for micro-credentials valid for all education and training sectors 
• building blocks and constitutive elements of micro-credentials 
• a suggested roadmap of actions at European and national level ​to develop and implement a European approach to micro-credentials. 

The group, composed of practitioners working in national authorities, quality assurance agencies, higher education institutions and other relevant stakeholders from higher education, presented its outcomes to Commissioner Gabriel on 14 December. You can find their report and its executive summary on the new Micro-credentials Webpage. 

By the end of 2021, the Commission aims at submitting a proposal for a Council Recommendation on micro-credentials for lifelong learning and employability. A European approach to micro-credentials is included in the Commission Work Programme 2021 under the headline ambition “Promoting our European way of life”.

Initiative on Individual Learning Accounts 

As announced in the European Skills Agenda 2020, the Commission will assess how a possible European initiative on individual learning accounts can help close existing gaps in the access to training and empower adults to successfully manage labour market transitions or keep up with changing skill requirements in their jobs, fuelled by the digital and green transitions.