Briefing Paper 105 – The European Year of Skills Through Social Justice Lenses

The European Year of Skills (EYS) was officially launched by the European Commission on May 9th of this year. Aimed at addressing labour shortages and mismatches in skills, the EYS is intended to showcase existing initiatives in skills development across Europe. The Commission wants the EYS to bring together national and European authorities, trade unions, chambers of commerce, public and private employment services, and education and training providers to work together on skills development. 

This briefing analyses the European Year of Skills from the perspective of a socially just green transition, examining whether the goals and initiatives of the EYS are compliant with the European Pillar of Social Rights. It concludes that, considering the importance of skills in determining people’s personal development and socio-economic inclusion, the EYS must place social justice at the very heart of its activities. 

Download the briefing paper on the right side of this page! 

This paper has been published in the framework of the project ”Realising a Social Europe For All and With All” with the financial support of the European Union, through the EaSI strand of the ESF+ programme. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission.