On 19 January the European Alliance for Apprenticeships (EAfA) organised the live discussion ‘Pact for Skills: Mobilising all partners to invest in skills’.

© European Commission

The Pact for Skills, launched in November 2020, promotes joint action to maximise the impact of investing in upskilling and reskilling. EAfA’s recent live discussion aimed to explore the potential and benefits of the Pact, and its implications for companies, workers, public authorities, social partners, cross-industry and sectoral organisations, and training providers.

The discussion was chaired by Alison Crabb, Head of Unit for Skills and Qualifications at the Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (DG EMPL). Other speakers included:

• Jakub Stolfa, Programme Manager and academic staff member at VSB, Technical University of Ostrava;
• Olga Sbutega, Head of People Sustainability Planning and Portfolio Management at Enel;
• Giorgos Giorgakis, Founder and Managing Director of Eurosuccess;
• Margarida Segard, EVBB Vice President and Director at ISQ;
• Zdenek Karasek, Deputy Governor of the Moravian–Silesian Region for RESTART and Coal Regions in Transition Programmes.

During the event, the speakers shared concrete initiatives involving upskilling and reskilling. They also identified specific challenges and how the Pact for Skills can help to address them. This was followed by a lively question-and-answer session with the audience.

Rounding up the event, Alison Crabb invited speakers to join the EAfA LinkedIn group and encouraged them to check out EAfA’s Knowledge Sharing page for training modules on apprenticeships. The Commission also called for all EAfA partners, whether they are in the public or private sector, at national, regional or local level, to join the Pact with an upskilling or reskilling initiative.

See the ‘Related documents’ section below to download the full report of the discussion. You can also watch the event recording.