Welcome to the Pact for Skills newsletter!
In this edition, we are bringing you the latest from the Pact community, including details of the upcoming 2027 online Pact for Skills networking event and the next joint Pact for Skills–European Alliance for Apprenticeships (EAfA) Knowledge Exchange Event on cross-border cooperation.
You will also find insights from the recent BUSUnited webinar on women in construction, details on how the Skills Portability Initiative is improving recognition of skills qualifications, and news of three new Regional Skills Partnerships in the textiles, clothing, leather and footwear sector.
Join members for a day of peer learning, cross-sector exchange and networking
Pact for Skills and EAfA members are warmly invited to join a joint online networking event in February 2027.
The webinar will bring together Pact for Skills and EAfA members to discuss current challenges and opportunities related to upskilling and reskilling.
Participants will have the chance to discover replicable good practices and success stories, exchange experiences on shared skills challenges and explore useful tools and resources.
The event will also explore synergies between the Pact for Skills and EAfA communities, showing how the two initiatives can work together to tackle Europe’s skills challenges.
During the event, our AI-driven matchmaking feature will help participants to identify members with common interests and arrange one-to-one meetings, supporting new connections and fostering opportunities for future collaboration.
Don’t miss this opportunity to exchange experiences, connect with members of both communities and explore how cooperation can strengthen skills development and apprenticeships!
Save the date for the networking event in February 2027!
Take our survey and help shape future Knowledge Exchange Events and Cooperation Fora
The Pact-EAfA Support Services have prepared a short survey to gather Pact for Skills members’ inputs on upcoming Knowledge Exchange Events and the brand-new Cooperation Fora ! Through this survey, we would like to gather your views on key issues and discussion topics that would be most useful to you and your work for us to cover during these events.
The survey will be open until 30 November and should take no longer than 15 minutes to complete. We look forward to hearing your views to make these events as relevant to your needs as possible!
Skills Portability Initiative: Making skills and qualifications easier to use across EU borders
Workers’ skills do not stop at national borders, but recognition of their qualifications often does.
That’s why – as part of the Fair Labour Mobility package – DG EMPL has launched the new Skills Portability Initiative, making it easier for workers, employers and public authorities to understand and recognise qualifications gained in another EU country.
A major focus of the initiative is making skills more portable through digitalisation. The new EU Digital Identity Wallet for qualifications links national qualification databases for easy comparisons across Europe.
Meanwhile, new digital workflows, clearer deadlines and fewer requirements for translations and copies of qualifications make recognition procedures for regulated professions simpler and faster.
For the first time, common rules will also cover non-EU nationals and EU citizens with qualifications gained outside the EU. The changes aim to make it easier for people to put their skills to work wherever they are needed, and for businesses to recruit talent across borders with greater confidence.
New knowledge webinar: Improving cooperation across borders through better labour mobility and skills portability
Keen to learn more about the new Skills Portability Initiative?
Then join the next Knowledge Exchange Event on 17 November at 11:00–12:30 CET!
This event will bring together Pact for Skills and EAfA members to explore how cross-border cooperation can make skills and qualifications easier to use across borders.
The webinar will examine barriers to skills portability and highlight practical ways to improve the transparency, comparability and recognition of qualifications across countries and regions.
You will have the opportunity to learn more about the new Skills Portability Initiative and the role of Interreg, alongside good practices showing how stakeholders are already tackling these challenges to open opportunities for workers while helping employers find the talent they need.
The event will combine expert insights with peer exchange, including good-practice presentations, moderated Q&As and an interactive participant feedback session.
Three new textiles Regional Skills Partnerships join the Pact for Skills
We are expanding the reach of the Pact for Skills with three new Regional Skills Partnerships under the Textiles, Clothing, Leather and Footwear (TCLF) Skills Alliance, bringing together stakeholders to strengthen skills, attract talent and support more sustainable and competitive industries.
The Regional Skills Partnership for the Footwear Sector in the Southwest region of Germany will foster a modern and attractive skills ecosystem and help future talent develop the skills the industry needs for long-term competitiveness, by improving career pathways for young people and creating new training opportunities.
The Regional Skills Partnership for the TCLF sectors in Central Portugal will bring together partners to strengthen the workforce with future-focused skills, attract young people and promote sustainable practices. It will also improve cooperation between education, industry and regional stakeholders while improving the TCLF sector’s public image.
The TCLF Regional Skills Partnership for Flanders, Belgium, will provide training for current and future employees, helping textile workers develop practical knowledge-retention tools and support learning networks and activities focused on topics including circularity.
Together, the three partnerships show how regional cooperation can translate shared skills ambitions into action tailored to local TCLF industries and workforces.
More women, more skills: how employing women can help widen the construction talent pool of the construction sector
Employing and retaining more women could be key to helping Europe’s construction industry tackle its skills and labour shortages.
This was one of the main messages from a BUSUnited webinar in September on “CoP 7 European Synergies” which gathered organisations from across Europe together to examine what needs to change to keep the construction sector growing.
Participants highlighted that recent changes in construction methods, including new technologies like 3D construction printing and emerging virtual site designer roles, have widened opportunities for women.
However, retaining women employed in construction remains a challenge, due to stereotypes and a lack of representation. The discussion also highlighted the need for the construction sector to adapt working environments and practices to better support and retain women.
But there are signs of progress, like in Denmark where the number of female students entering construction-related vocational education and training programmes has almost tripled over the past six years.
