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As the work on the Union of Skills Strategy is intensifying ahead of its launch on 5 March 2025, two political groups were set up within the European Parliament and the European Commission, respectively, to support the internal decision-making, coordination and implementation processes.
On 19 December 2024, the European Parliament Intergroup on the Future of Education and Skills for a Competitive Europe was officially established, bringing together Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) across different committees. Nearly 100 MEPs declared their support for the intergroup, which is co-chaired by EP Vice-President Victor Negrescu (S&D), MEP Eleonora Meleti (EPP), CULT Chair Nela Riehl, and MEP Brigitte van den Berg (Renew). As outlined in the concept note, the Intergroup aims to transform the momentum established by the Union of Skills announcement into concrete actions, contributing to the quality, equity and inclusiveness of education and training systems across Europe by addressing issues such as upskilling and reskilling for the twin transitions, growing scarcity of education professionals and trainers; declining basic competences of learners, and skills shortages in various sectors.
On 9 January 2025, President Ursula von der Leyen announced the establishment of fourteen new working groups in the European Commission, including the Project Group on Skills, Jobs and Social Rights. Chaired by Roxana Mînzatu, Executive Vice-President for Social Rights and Skills, Quality Jobs, and Preparedness, this group will support the development of and build on the strategic framework for a Union of Skills, with a focus on education, skills portability, lifelong learning, learning mobility and recognition.
As part of the ongoing work on the initiative, the Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture (DG EAC) organised a series of stakeholder consultations. The first consultation event, held on 13 January 2025, brought together key actors in the school education sector. This consultation was followed by two other stakeholder meetings with experts from the vocational education and training community, as well as with higher education stakeholders.
The topic of skills has been trending more globally, following the publication of the World Economic Forum The Future of Jobs Report 2025. Offering the perspectives of more than 1000 leading employers, the report emphasised key factors that will be shaping the global labour market by 2030 (e.g., technological advancements, economic instability, geoeconomic fragmentation, demographic changes). It also highlighted skills that are mostly valued by employers and that will rise in importance in the next five years, such as analytical thinking, resilience, flexibility and agility, along with leadership and social influence, as well as technology-related skills, creative thinking, curiosity and lifelong learning.
Higher education institutions are crucial players helping learners develop these critical skills sets.