Latest news on the Blueprint projects Four Blueprint projects shared the latest news on their activities and efforts to match skills to sector's needs. In January 2018, the first five Blueprint Skills Alliances started their work in the following sectors: Automotive, Maritime technology, Space - geo information, Textile, clothing, leather and footwear and Tourism. The coordinators of four Blueprint projects have recently shared information about their activities in supporting an overall sectoral strategy and developing concrete actions to address short and medium term skills needs. The projects are the following: Skills 4 Smart TCLF 2030 EO4GEO MATES and DRIVES Background In order to address skills gaps that may prevent promising industries from growing, the Blueprint for Sectoral Cooperation on Skills was launched as part of the New Skills Agenda for Europe. The Blueprint is a framework for strategic cooperation in a given economic sector between key stakeholders such as: business, trade unions, research, education and training institutions, public authorities. The funding for the Blueprint comes from a number of funding streams, including from Erasmus+ and the COSME programme.