The European Commission announced on Wednesday, 15 July, that it had selected six pilot projects in the context of the European Skills Guarantee, which was launched in March 2025 under the Union of Skills and designed to support workers threatened with unemployment (see EUROPE 13761/27).
A press release explains that these projects, which will receive up to €14.5 million in support, will help nearly 1,000 European workers who are threatened with unemployment in the automotive sector by offering them on-the-job training and new jobs. The call for proposals was launched back in November.
The projects will be implemented by partners in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia.
The supported projects bring together training bodies, public authorities, and employers so as to identify skills that are needed, to better adapt personalised training to suit labour market needs, and to facilitate professional transitions.
This call for pilot projects is being managed by the European Social Fund Agency (ESFA) and will be implemented in collaboration with the European Competence Centre for Social Innovation under the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+).
High-Level Board. On 15 July, Executive Vice-President for Social Rights and Skills, Quality Jobs and Preparedness Roxana Mînzatu also received the initial conclusions of the European Skills High-Level Board, which is chaired by former Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson.
“Skills are the people component of competitiveness, and skills can only come to life in people. Skills cannot exist without people. People have to use their skills, and employers have to use the skills that their employees have. So, this is also part of how to develop skills and also how to use the skills,” the former commissioner summarised.
In addition, the High-Level Board has not only been discussing the “big skills shortages in many sectors but also [been] looking into demography. So, we can see that this skills shortage will not go away without big initiatives because we have an ageing society.”
Ylva Johansson went on to state that the number of working-age people is falling at a rate of one million per year, adding, “We see no change [in terms] of more young people coming into the labour market. So, that means that one of the huge parts that we need to address is the upskilling and reskilling of the workforce.”
The group also recommends tackling the “big gap between the world of work and the world of education.” The first recommendation thus focuses on creating high-impact regional and sectoral skills ecosystems called ‘Skills Partnerships for Adult Reskilling’. These ecosystems would bring together companies, training bodies, and regional authorities in order to enable adults to acquire [skills] and reskill more quickly and as closely as possible to places of employment.
Composed of representatives from businesses, social partners, and educational and training establishments, the board was created in May 2026 to advise the European Commission on current and future skills-related challenges and opportunities.
The selected projects: https://aeur.eu/f/mw2 and the conclusions: https://aeur.eu/f/mw3 (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)