Towards a Union of Skills: what can regions expect?

Science & Education for Society WG Meeting: Towards a Union of Skills: what can regions expect?

After concluding the Year of Skills in April 2024, the European Commission published in March 2025 the Union of Skills communication as one of the new initiatives for its first 100 days. This initiative aims to address Europe’s needs for a radical change in ambition and action for all skill levels and for all types of training and education. With the Union of Skills, the EU will step up and reorient skills funding in the EU budget to ensure that it is better aligned with labour markets and more focused on sectors crucial for the twin transition.   

 

This meeting, kindly hosted by the Welsh Higher Education Brussels - Welsh Government, will inform the membership about the key objectives of the Union of Skills, being: 1) Build skills for quality jobs and lives through a strong educational foundation, with an inclusive lifelong learning approach, 2) Upskill and reskill an agile workforce mastering the digital and clean transition, notably those with lower and middle skills, 3) Circulate skills with the free movement of people across the EU, unlocking the single market’s full potential and 4) Attract, develop and retain talent. 

 

Additionally, the event aims to provide insights into the regional dimension of skills, and ERRIN members will bring regional learnings to the discussion. The meeting will provide a unique opportunity to open the dialogue with the head of cabinet of Executive Vice-President Mînzatu on regional skills needs and offers members an opportunity to raise challenges and questions. 

 

We will be offering a welcoming coffee at 09:30. We encourage you to arrive early and take this opportunity for informal networking. The programme will start at 10:00. Please find the agenda attached.

Registration

You can register through the blue Register button at the right side of this page. Please note you need to be logged in to register. Members who want to bring questions or issues forward during the exchange, can contact Astrid Hannes astrid.hannes@errin.eu. 

In 2025, ERRIN will address different perspectives on skills in the activities and workstreams of the Culture and Creativity Cluster: 

ERRIN's Working Groups have closely monitoring the topic of skills in the past years. You can learn more about the work conducted here: