Cedefop: Powering the European digital transition

Event Date(s): 09/12/2022 – 14/12/2022

City: Virtual

Participation: Open event

What can we learn from Cedefop’s second European skills and jobs survey?

2023 will be the European Year of Skills. Understanding how technological change and digitalisation, particularly new intelligent automation or Industry 4.0 technologies (e.g. advanced robotics, artificial intelligence, 3D printing), is reshaping the worlds of work and learning is key for translating skills policy ambitions into achievements. Cedefop’s European skills and jobs survey (ESJS) already showed in its first wave that about 14% of EU jobs were likely to be fully automated, with such automation risks disproportionally affecting low-skilled people in routine jobs that offer little, if any, vocational training. The COVID-19 pandemic, which accelerated the proliferation of digital working and learning, has accentuated these trends.

Digitalisation has become a game changer, and its role in shaping the future of work, skills and learning now tops EU and national policy agendas. Scientifically sound data and analysis are crucial for evidence-based policy-making to accompany and shape change brought about by digital technology, the challenges linked to the pandemic and the ongoing green transition.

Fielded in summer 2021 in all EU27 Member States and Norway/Iceland (EU+), Cedefop’s second European skills and jobs survey (ESJS2) collected information from a representative sample of about 46 000 adult workers on how digitalisation affects them, their skills match with their jobs and their readiness to invest in continuous vocational training to adapt to technological change.

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Conference aims

The main aim of the conference is to discuss with the European policy and expert community, social partners and a wider group of stakeholders and participants the main findings of Cedefop’s second ESJS focused on digitalisation and skill mismatches in Europe. With the European Year of Skills coming up and a focus on digitalisation, digital skills, skills use, skills formation and skill mismatches, Cedefop aims to stimulate evidence-informed debates on how to shape a human digital transition in Europe. As part of the conference, Cedefop will aim to involve expert and other participants in reflecting on the implications of the findings for up- and re-skilling, vocational education and training (VET) and skills policies.

At the conference, Cedefop will:

launch the new Cedefop ESJS2 indicator online web tool;

collect feedback from participants on the ESJS2 findings they consider most relevant from a policy perspective;

reflect, jointly with social partners and stakeholders, on the implications of digitalisation for changing skill needs and VET policies;

present findings from research and analyses exploring the implications of digitalisation for skill mismatch;

showcase good practices of VET and skills policies aimed at digital skills development and/or skills matching.