30 April 2024

Strategic approa­ches to skills development

Working Paper No. 2 of Skills2Capabilities has been published recently containing a collection of country case studies on national strategic documents with relation to skills policies.

Education and skills are central for both economic per­for­mance and societal well-being. This insight has been incre­a­sing­ly addressed by policy-makers on national and European level. In order to address these over­ar­ching chal­lenges, an incre­a­sing share of countries have used strategic policy documents in the area of skills policy. However, the overall goals and ori­en­ta­ti­on of different stra­te­gies and their proposed actions can vary sub­stan­ti­al­ly. Policy-making in indu­stria­li­sed economies has long focused on the benefits of acquiring skills for realizing pro­s­pec­ti­ve economic returns via access to well-paid jobs, but the importance of skills for a wider range of social and human/personal deve­lo­p­ment aspects has in part also been taken up by policy-making.

The tensions between such different ori­en­ta­ti­ons and approa­ches will be analysed as part of Work Package 2 of the Skills2Capabilities project under the lead of 3s. In a first deli­vera­ble of Work Package 2, we provide a review of the lite­ra­tu­re, present our ana­ly­ti­cal framework for analysing skills stra­te­gies as well as our empirical approach, and present our analysis of strategic policy documents on skills at the hand of six country case studies, capturing the strategic document’s main foci, their com­pre­hen­si­ve­ness and the extent of their implementation.

The Working Paper can be down­loa­ded here.

Link to the Skill2Capabilities project website.


Contact: Daniel Unterweger

Client: Horizon Europe

5 Dec

Digital Skills in Focus

Training provision and training providers in the area of digital skills in Austria. A study conducted by 3s offers an overview of the Austrian CVET market related to digital skills. 

3 Dec

Grant for funding CVET of employees in Salzburg

3s carried out an evaluation of the Salzburg training grant in 2024. The final report on the study has just been published.

29 Nov

Skills Mag 2040

In an innovative Erasmus+ project, we are focussing on the future of CVET using new methods. The result, a magazine full of fictional stories, stimulates debate.

19 Nov

Advancing voca­tio­nal education and training: Focus on excel­lence and inclusion

Cedefop recently hosted two events on the future of VET in Europe and preparing European VET systems for upcoming challenges.

5 Dec

Digital Skills in Focus

Training provision and training providers in the area of digital skills in Austria. A study conducted by 3s offers an overview of the Austrian CVET market related to digital skills. 

3 Dec

Grant for funding CVET of employees in Salzburg

3s carried out an evaluation of the Salzburg training grant in 2024. The final report on the study has just been published.

29 Nov

Skills Mag 2040

In an innovative Erasmus+ project, we are focussing on the future of CVET using new methods. The result, a magazine full of fictional stories, stimulates debate.

5 Dec

Digital Skills in Focus

Training provision and training providers in the area of digital skills in Austria. A study conducted by 3s offers an overview of the Austrian CVET market related to digital skills. 

3 Dec

Grant for funding CVET of employees in Salzburg

3s carried out an evaluation of the Salzburg training grant in 2024. The final report on the study has just been published.

5 Dec

Digital Skills in Focus

Training provision and training providers in the area of digital skills in Austria. A study conducted by 3s offers an overview of the Austrian CVET market related to digital skills. 

3 Dec

Grant for funding CVET of employees in Salzburg

3s carried out an evaluation of the Salzburg training grant in 2024. The final report on the study has just been published.

>all news