Review of the Event: Labour Shortages and Skill Mismatches

“How bad will it get? What can be done?” were the key questions of an international expert discussion on labour shortages and skill mismatches with a keynote by Ken Mayhew organised by 3s.

The event was part of the kick-off phase of the HORIZON Europe project Skills2Capabilities, which is coor­di­na­ted by 3s (Jörg Markowitsch) and aims to explore how skill systems across Europe can reduce the level of skill mismatch and better respond to deve­lo­p­ments in their labour markets. The 2.4 million Euros granted project will try to incor­po­ra­te the so-called human capa­bi­li­ty approach to find answers on pressing questions regarding skill mismatch on European labour markets, ranging from how to enable and support the deve­lo­p­ment of future-proof skills in indi­vi­du­als to how companies should design and adjust work­places to better meet demands.

In his keynote, Ken Mayhew, Emeritus Professor of Education and Economic Performance at the University of Oxford, stressed that when looking at indi­ca­tors, skill forecasts and vacancy rates skill mismatch is a problem on European labour markets and that it will get worse – but panic is not the answer, as policy can react to the changing world of work. Job markets have been and will keep on changing fun­da­men­tal­ly with new job profiles being created, old job profiles being altered and some jobs com­ple­te­ly dis­ap­pearing, but the main question is: Who will take respon­si­bi­li­ty and action? The state, the employer or the individual?

He pointed out that policy makers and stake­hol­ders should not focus on pre­dic­ting the future of work, but take action and create it them­sel­ves. In his view, the problem with fore­ca­sting labour market changes is that indi­ca­tors and figures are often (mis)used in the debate to stress an argument in one direction or the other without making it clear what is actually measured.   Moreover, Ken Mayhew’s advice to employers is to not rely too much on state-funding and take matters into their own hands by training their workforce wherever possible.

The expert dis­cus­sion then served as a joint reflec­tion on the keynote’s input and the general topic by a diverse panel of Austrian stake­hol­ders and inter­na­tio­nal rese­ar­chers. Focus was the direct exchange of expe­ri­en­ces, practices and ideas between stake­hol­ders facing the immediate problems of skill mis­mat­ches and rese­ar­chers trying to make sense of the phe­no­me­non. Discussants were Ursula Bazant, Head of Education & Training at ÖBB Infrastruktur AG, Petya Ilieva-Trichkova, Associate Professor at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IPS-BAS), Manuela Vollmann, Founder of the social profit orga­ni­sa­ti­on ABZ* Austria, Terence Hogarth, Professor at the University of Warwick and lead rese­ar­cher at the Warwick Institute of Employment Research (IER), and Johannes Schweighofer, Head of the Unit for International Labour Market Policy and Research at the Austrian Ministry for Labour and Economy. The dis­cus­sion was moderated by Didier Fouarge, Professor at Maastricht University and Director of the Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA).

From an employer’s per­spec­ti­ve that already had to take action due to labour shortages and skill mismatch and an orga­ni­sa­ti­on that serves as the mediator between employers and workforce, first hand insights into the problems that have been arising for companies and indi­vi­du­als as well as the methods and solutions that are already in place were given. Concerning research on the matter, it was stressed that some of the biggest problems regarding fore­ca­sting and informing stake­hol­ders, lie in the defi­ni­ti­on of concepts such as “skills” and “com­pe­ten­ci­es”. The issue is overly complex, and even if it was possible to predict skill demands precisely – on national, regional and sectoral level – there are many clear cut fields of action to start to support the change coming: support the acqui­si­ti­on of trans­ver­sal skills, reach out to adult learners and design moti­vat­ing learning arran­ge­ments, train the trainers, streng­then exchange and coope­ra­ti­on between companies, training providers and experts, ack­now­ledge the value of learning in the workplace and the impact of job design to let indi­vi­du­als’ capa­bi­li­ties be put into practice.

We would like to thank all par­ti­ci­pan­ts for taking part in this lively event and are hoping to continue fostering the exchange of ideas between stake­hol­ders and rese­ar­chers on labour shortages and skill mismatch within the Skills2Capabilities project.