Today, with the support of the Commission, social economy organisations, impact investors, microfinance providers, ethical and cooperative banks, vocational education and training providers, as well as regions, set up a large-scale partnership for skills development in the Proximity and Social Economy industrial ecosystem.

The sector represents more than 6% of the EU's working population. The partnership aims to improve the level of key skills including digital skills, social entrepreneurship skills and capacity-building skills.

The initiative pledges to mobilise public and private capital to enable the upskilling and reskilling of 5% of the workforce and entrepreneurs of the sector each year to tackle the green and digital transitions in the social economy.

This new partnership comes just months after the Commission presented its Social Economy Action Plan which aims to increase the sector's visibility and create the right conditions for social economy organisations to start up and scale up.

Background

The partnership is part of the Pact for Skills, one of the flagship initiatives under the European Skills Agenda. The skills partnership also complements other important initiatives to strengthen the social economy ecosystem, including the creation of a transition pathway to support the ecosystem's green and digital transition as well as its resilience, in line with the objectives set out in the EU's Updated Industrial Strategy.