Among the messages delivered during her 2022 State of the Union Address this week, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen announced the upcoming year as the European Year of Skills.

ERRIN welcomes this announcement, as skills are among the priority areas where potential new activities are currently under discussion in the ERRIN Management Board.

In the meantime, our Science and Education for Society Working Group (SEFS WG) continues to actively discuss the topic of skills from multiple angles, with a recent meeting concentrating on digital and green skills in tourism. When it comes to upcoming events, the DT4REGIONS project, in which ERRIN is a partner, is organising a session as part of the European Week of Regions and Cities on “Addressing the digital skills gap in European regions and cities on AI and big data, now for real”, with more details and registration link available here.

The network also remains engaged in the European Cultural Heritage Skills Alliance (CHARTER) project, seeking to create a lasting, comprehensive sectoral skills strategy to guarantee Europe has the necessary cultural heritage skills to support sustainable societies and economies, including transversal competencies such as digital/technological and green/blue economy skills. Interested stakeholders can join the CHARTER Community, aiming to gather inspiring organisations, associations and networks committed to professionalising the cultural heritage sector and ensuring that future generations of professionals have a prosperous and sustainable field of work. An invitation is also currently open to fill in the Cultural Heritage Sector Dynamics’ Survey, whose results will offer a picture of how stakeholders in cultural heritage engage and interact with each other, in order to map and analyse the dynamic networks that exist and those that can develop further.

More ERRIN activities in the field of skills are coming soon.