Start of field work in Skills2Capabilities

After some preparatory work in our Horizon Europe project, we use the summer months to kick-off field work in a work package analysing strategic policy documents on skills across selected European countries.

3s has taken on the role of coor­di­na­tor for the Skills2Capabilities project at the start of the year. The project aims to inve­sti­ga­te how skill systems throug­hout Europe can minimize skill mismatch and effec­tively adapt to changes in the labour markets. One of the key com­pon­ents of the project is Work Package 2, which is led by 3s and focuses on analysing skills policies, including strategic policy documents and specific skills deve­lo­p­ment instru­ments imple­men­ted as part of these strategies.

Strategic policy documents have gained signi­fi­can­ce as countries strive to address major chal­lenges like the green and digital tran­si­ti­on. These documents are often followed by the imple­men­ta­ti­on of large-scale skills deve­lo­p­ment pro­gram­mes. Despite the growing importance of strategic policy documents in policy-making, there is sur­pri­sin­gly little knowledge about their deve­lo­p­ment over time, their alignment with economic and broader social goals, and the extent to which their goals have been effec­tively imple­men­ted. To address this gap, the project is deve­lo­ping an ana­ly­ti­cal framework to examine these aspects of strategic policy documents.

Furthermore, it is important to note that the goals and approa­ches of these stra­te­gies and instru­ments can vary signi­fi­cant­ly. While many emphasize the economic benefits of acquiring skills for accessing well-paid jobs, there is also a broader per­spec­ti­ve that considers skills and learning as essential for social and personal deve­lo­p­ment, including demo­cra­tic par­ti­ci­pa­ti­on, social enga­ge­ment, and inclusion. The analysis conducted in Work Package 2 will explore the tensions and inter­ac­tions between these different ori­en­ta­ti­ons of skills policies. The same approach will be applied to analyse specific large-scale skills deve­lo­p­ment instru­ments, which will serve as illu­stra­ti­ve examples of the stra­te­gies observed on the ground.

Fieldwork for the work package will start gradually in the selected case study countries in summer and fall of 2023. 3s will col­la­bo­ra­te with research teams from various orga­ni­sa­ti­ons, including IPS-BAS (Bulgaria), BIBB (Germany), UNIPD (Italy), FAFO (Norway), and IER (United Kingdom), to conduct the fieldwork and gather relevant data for the analysis.