Skills for the future: managing transition

The European Training Foundation (ETF) is organising a conference in Turin on 21-22 November 2018, entitled Skills for the future: managing transition to explore how developing and transition countries can respond to the challenges of current global trends from a skills perspective.

How do global forces interact with local realities and how does this affect the need for skills? How should governments, businesses, social partners, civil society, research institutions, communities and education and training providers work together to manage change? What skills policies work in different contexts?

Indeed, the fourth industrial revolution is upon us. Driven by new technologies that blend the physical, digital and biological worlds, it is transforming industries, economies and societies around the world. Other global trends such as shifting demographics, migration and climate change are intensifying this process. Old jobs are changing, relocating or disappearing, while new ones are emerging. As work becomes increasingly automated, jobs become polarised and non-routine cognitive and social skills become vital assets. The fast pace of change leads to a growing mismatch between the skills workers have and those employers need.

Societies need people with new skillsets flexible enough to cope with the demands of a constantly changing economic environment. This challenges societies worldwide to rethink how they equip and re-equip people with the knowledge and skills they need for life and work in the world of tomorrow. Different national and regional contexts require different solutions and alternative pathways. Their impact and how they are managed varies from place to place.

Participants of the Skills for the future: ma naging transition conference will identify ways to develop forward-looking training and labour policies in their countries, and will have the opportunity to share their views and work together to identify how the EU can support this transition through the work of the ETF.

More on the conference website: www.skills4future.eu