Commission launches EU Skills Panorama to tackle skills mismatches

Brussels, 10-12-2012 — /europawire.eu/ — The European Commission today officially launched the EU Skills Panorama, a website presenting quantitative and qualitative information on short- and medium-term skills needs, skills supply and skills mismatches. The Panorama, drawing on data and forecasts compiled at EU and Member State level, will highlight the fastest growing occupations as well as the top ‘bottleneck’ occupations with high numbers of unfilled vacancies. Currently, there are around 2 million job vacancies across the EU despite high levels of unemployment. The website contains detailed information sector by sector, profession by profession and country by country.

Androulla Vassiliou, the European Commissioner responsible for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, said: “Improved skills and qualifications are key to boosting Europe’s productivity and competitiveness. The EU Skills Panorama will provide a single access point to the most up-to-date European and national information sources. It will also help us to improve the response of education and training systems to changing skill trends and to ensure people are equipped for those areas where job demand is set to increase.”

Laszlo Andor, European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion commented: “The EU Skills Panorama is the first European tool to give access with just a click to relevant information about trends in skills requirements in all EU countries. This online information tool presents comprehensive information on skills mismatches and will ultimately help to direct jobseekers to the most demanded occupations throughout Europe”.

The Skills Panorama shows that the occupations with the most unfilled vacancies in the EU today are those of finance and sales professionals. Other shortages most frequently reported concern biologists, pharmacologists, medical doctors and related professionals, nurses, ICT computing professionals and engineers. The website indicates that the strongest mismatch between skills and labour market needs exists in Lithuania, Bulgaria, Belgium, Hungary and Ireland, whereas in Portugal, Denmark and the Netherlands the situation is much better.

The EU Skills Panorama will be regularly updated with the latest data.

Background

Better matching between labour supply and labour demand is one of the key strategies outlined in the Commission’s April 2012 Employment Package (IP/12/380MEMO/12/252). This can be achieved inter alia through better forecasting of skills needs, allowing the relevant authorities and stakeholders to adapt education and training curricula and young people to make more informed education and career choices.

The Panorama is part of the follow-up to the Commission’s recently published ‘Rethinking Education’ strategy which encourages Member States to take immediate action to ensure that young people develop the skills and competences needed by the labour market and to achieve their targets for growth and jobs (IP/12/1233).

Existing information on skills tends to be scattered across countries, and is difficult to find and compare. In its Europe 2020 flagship Agenda for New Skills and Jobs (MEMO/10/602) the Commission therefore decided to develop the EU Skills Panorama as a tool to improve the monitoring of skills needs and reduce mismatches.

The European Vacancy and Recruitment Report (EVRR), also published today, is one of the main information sources of the EU Skills Panorama. This biennial report, released for the first time, features recent developments in terms of contractual arrangements, sector and occupation demand and skills requirements.

The Panorama also includes:

  • Analytical highlights focusing on occupational trends as well as on specific sectors or on transversal skills. They analyse trends in the top growth occupations, and on the top ‘in demand’ occupations. They also present forecasts at sector level and specific skill needs and mismatches.
  • An inventory of existing information sources at national, European or international level. This allows users to have easy access to previously dispersed information.

This first version of the Panorama is mainly intended for policy-makers, researchers, intermediary services and practitioners. It allows for in-depth analysis and the development of evidence-based policy in the areas of training and education planning, as well as the development of targeted measures to tackle labour market mismatches. The Panorama will be developed further to meet the needs of jobseekers, workers and students so that they can make more informed career choices.

The EU Skills Panorama is supported by the Network of National Observatories on Skills Needs and Mismatches, the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop) and the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound).

The Panorama complements other EU tools such as the European Vacancy Monitor, employer surveys and the European Sector Skills Councils. It completes practical information such as the Europass CV which is used by more than 10 million Europeans. The Skills Panorama will be further developed and updated with the support of Member States and various partner organisations.

Erasmus for All, the Commission’s proposed €19 billion programme for education, training, youth and sport, aims to double the number of individuals receiving grants for skills-enhancing study, training and volunteering opportunities abroad, to 5 million people in 2014-2020. More than two-thirds of the programme’s budget would support individual learning mobility of this kind, with the remainder allocated to projects focused on cooperation for innovation, policy reform and sharing good practices.

For more information

EU Skills Panorama

European Vacancy and Recruitment Report

European Commission:Education and training

Androulla Vassiliou’s website

Follow Androulla Vassiliou on Twitter @VassiliouEU

László Andor’s website

Follow László Andor on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/LaszloAndorEU

Subscribe to the European Commission’s free e-mail newsletter on employment, social affairs and inclusion: http://ec.europa.eu/social/e-newsletter

Contacts :

Dennis Abbott (+32 2 295 92 58); Twitter: @DennisAbbott

Dina Avraam (+32 2 295 96 67)

Jonathan Todd (+32 2 299 41 07)

Nadège Defrère (+32 2 296 45 44)

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