During our last workshop, which took place on the 23rd March 2021, Twenty-nine experts from 13 countries discussed their vision for upskilling in data-intense services. This was the fourth session of a series of activities that empirica, ISSIP and PwC Luxembourg have implemented as part of the eSkills2030 – Skills for Industry: Fostering New Services and Jobs Creation. The focus group was divided into three breakout sessions, focusing on industry, training, and workers’ perspectives, respectively. Experts discussed concrete instruments and stakeholder roles in tackling the digital skills transformations and presented existing inspiring use cases.
Throughout the session, participants interacted with the organising team to discuss their opinions concerning the pressing challenges that Europe must address to become a leading region in upskilling its workforce to respond to industry’s demands. According to the participants, these challenges include solid upskilling schemes, entrepreneurship opportunities that exploit advanced technologies, and the availability of a diverse set of skills that promotes multidisciplinarity.
In a second poll, we asked participants to rate four factors that might elevate the European labour force’s human capital considering business demand and international trends on a scale from 0 to 10 for two dimensions: Impact and Availability (awareness). The poll resulted in a graphical relation between these dimensions for each factor. The following images show the average value and its distribution, according to the individual ranking.
The distribution across the different options showed a greater dispersion for the first three factors. The use of concrete public-private upskilling projects was more evenly distributed across participants, suggesting a higher impact and more willingness among relevant stakeholders.
eSkills2030 is a service contract for DG GROW at the European Commission.