During the week of 20–24 March, several meetings with Directors-General for schools, vocational education and training and higher education were held in Stockholm as part of the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the EU. Skills supply, green transition, recognition and quality issues, as well as support to Ukraine were among the agenda items.

Further to this, the Swedish Presidency hosted a seminar on 23  March, focusing on skills required for the green transition to support a competitive Europe. The event gathered 150 participants involved in various aspects of education, adult learning, life-long learning from all over Europe, discussing the challenges and possibilities of green transition and how education can contribute to this objective and increase EU’s competitiveness through the green transition.

These events highlight the significant role higher education, along with adult education and vocational education and training play in providing the EU workforce with the knowledge and skills needed for the green transition. These efforts contribute to the new Presidency’s plans to tackle the skills required by labour market and the European Education Area agenda, following the Conclusions on Skills and Competences for the Green Transition, adopted by the Council of the EU  on 7 March.

The recording of the ‘Skills for the green transition – for a competitive Europe’ seminar can be accessed here.