This March edition of our Learning Connects newsletter looks in depth into some of the key initiatives shaping the European Union's commitment to equip people with the skills needed to navigate the green transition, both at home and around the world.

On 20 March, 2024, the EU's Tripartite Social Summit convened, uniting EU institutions and European social partners to discuss: "An economically and socially strong Europe to play its role in the world." The spotlight fell on pressing issues such as skills and labour shortages, which is also addressed by an action plan presented by the European Commission on the same day and aimed at confronting these deficits. Central to this plan is the recognition of the role played by social dialogue and engagement with partners. We share that focus at the ETF which, throughout the last 30 years, has been proactively engaging with social partners from EU neighbouring countries through dialogue and networks.

On the following days – 21 and 22 March – the Pact for Skills Forum took centre stage in Brussels, putting the spotlight on the skills needed to move towards greener societies and economies. Under the guidance of European Commissioners Thierry Breton and Nicolas Schmit, the forum encouraged the drawing up of strategies to develop, attract, and retain a skilled workforce within the EU, with a particular focus on the green transition.

In a leading-by-example finale, this edition of the newsletter examines the ETF's own journey towards a greener future, featuring an interview with Renata Vallome, our greening coordinator. In a thought-provoking interview, Vallome explains the challenges faced by the ETF in moving towards sustainability as an organisation. What emerges as an imperative is encouraging people to change their behaviour so that sustainability can be embedded in all aspects of the ETF's work so that everyone can "walk the walk!".

Riel Miller, a pioneering figure in futures studies, is a globally acclaimed expert who combines innovative project initiation, design, and management with profound insights into shaping the future. He guides us towards the skills of the future.

ETF Green Skills Award celebrates outstanding initiatives and projects from around the world, which drive sustainable development through innovation and skills, and contribute to creating circular and carbon-neutral economies and societies. The 2024 edition of the Green Skills Award was launched on 31 January, with the deadline for applying ending tonight, 29 February at 23:59 CET.  

What will happen next? In March–April, all the projects submitted will be evaluated by the ETF's jury. The 10 finalists should be publicly announced on 30 April 2024. In May, you will have a chance to cast your vote for the public's winner (with two more winners being selected by an international jury). The three winners will be publicly announced in June.  

Learn more here>

Roundtable event on the mobility transition pathway - European Commission (europa.eu)

On 15 February 2024, the ETF hosted an online event focused on skills for a green future. The event was the latest in a series of thematic online sessions organised by the global green vocational education and training (VET) partnership GRETA (Greening Responses to Excellence through Thematic Actions), which supports the greening of VET as a response to the green and digital transitions. The sessions aimed to present and share good practices, and attracted a lot of interest from around the world: the latest event was attended by 170 participants from 60 countries, including Pakistan, Vietnam and China. Key takeaways included an awareness of the dynamics of skills ecosystems as they relate to the green transition, insights into the practices of centres of vocational excellence (CoVEs), and an update on recent developments in the ETF's Network for Excellence (ENE) and its green sub-initiative GRETA. 

Global network 

Launched in 2020, ENE leverages strategic development partnerships to support CoVEs in achieving excellence in delivering relevant and high-quality skills. Currently boasting some 300 members from 40 countries across the world, the network is still growing. At the event, ENE Thematic Coordinator José Manuel Galvin Arribas highlighted the network's continuing commitment to playing a role as a truly global partner, working towards high-class VET systems and vocational excellence. Three years after instituting CoVEs as models of good practice, ENE is now also focusing on policy learning:

"We are providing policy advice to partner countries and conducting policy research, including into the green transition," said Arribas. 

Skills ecosystems 

As ENE green arm, GRETA is a crucial part of that process. It supports green skills development by fostering capacity building and peer learning, with a special focus on the construction and renewable energy sectors in 2024. The initiative's Lead Expert Susanne M. Nielsen presented the online event's key theme by putting the focus firmly on skills ecosystems: collaborative networks of stakeholders, working together at local or regional level to enhance workforce development and skills. Today, those ecosystems are crucial to providing the evolving palette of skills required by workers and employers.

"Before, VET systems provided more or less the same skills, with demand being analysed by experts every few years," said Nielsen. "But today, skills are changing rapidly. Innovation is calling for different specialisations, and there is an international dimension too. As a result, we need to include new stakeholders in the ecosystems." 

Adapting in real time 

Adrijana Hodak, Head of the Intercompany Training Centre at the Solski Centre – a CoVE in Nova Gorica, Slovenia – explained that those new stakeholders include individual researchers, 21st century experts, NGOs, start-ups and entrepreneurs, and research institutions. Today, CoVEs are facing two key challenges. One of them is the inertia resulting from too many green policies, with no clear priorities established between them. The other is the slow response times of skills ecosystems, and a lack of clarity in the division of roles within them. Adaptive skills ecosystems provide a solution.

"A skills ecosystem that is constantly adapting to the needs of the economy, society, and the environment is an important enabler," said Hodak. "It avoids employers and trainees having to wait too long for the right skills." 

Partnership for green construction 

In Georgia, the Construct2 Construction College provides an example of just that. Flanked by the Head of Lifelong Learning from Moldova's Centre for Vocational Excellence in Construction, Construct2's Director Tamar Zakarashvili described how the college was established as a public-private partnership between the Georgian Ministry of Education and Science and the country's biggest construction company BK Construction, in response to the company's difficulties in recruiting skilled workers. The partnership aims to address the skills gap in the construction industry, and also contributes to promoting sustainable construction practices. From 2020, BK Construction was among the first industry players to adopt green practices, making a complete shift towards using aerated concrete bricks.

"Construct2 plays a crucial role in shaping a workforce that is capable of driving sustainable and forward-thinking practices in the construction sector," said Zakarashvili. "The public sector knows all about transmitting skills, and the private sector supplies up-to-date feedback on what the industry needs. So our programmes are continuously being updated."  

New skills, new partners 

"Curricula will have to change fast," said Zoran Apostolovski, Head of Networking and Cooperation at the Regional Vocational and Education Training Centre 'Kiro Burnaz' Kumanovo in North Macedonia. "The green transition is underway, and it is a great opportunity for VET providers. It requires new skills, so we need to find ways to adjust and react quickly." 

For that reason, North Macedonia has established four regional green innovation committees. Following the EU's Smart Specialisation Strategy, each committee member represents the stakeholders of the priority industries defined for each region, and helps to define their skills needs.

"Involving different stakeholders is an important way of providing better insight," said Mila Velkovska, a project assistant and researcher at the National Centre for Development of Innovation and Entrepreneurial Learning. 

Greening VET: a whole institutional approach  

Addressing colleagues who included Valentina Kuzma from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia, Velkovska underlined that adaptive skills ecosystems are not the only factor at work in delivering green skills. "The motivation of teachers and college principals is crucial," she said. And indeed, that is a key aspect of GRETA’s whole institutional approach to greening VET. This approach includes five interlinked elements: teachers' professional development, management and strategy, greening curricula and training, stakeholders and cooperation, and funding mechanisms.

Right now, GRETA is gearing up for a joint conference with the Danube Region in Vienna in April – with a focus on CoVEs and greening the construction and renewable energy sectors. The conference will underline the power of policy learning, and provide a forum for sharing inspiring practices. Make sure to save the date in your diary!

To find out more: ETF webpage Going green: GRETA, PowerPoint presentation GRETA – Empowering a just transition, and report GRETA – Greening of vocational education and training: Processes, practices and policies. 

Ia Imerlishvili is a woman on a mission. Having grown up in what she describes as one of the beautiful cities, Telavi, in Georgia’s eastern province of Kakheti, after moving to Tbilisi she was disturbed by the lack of care shown to communal areas of the apartment block she and her family live in.

“Living in a shared building is different from the life I had in Telavi,” she says. “Whether it is the entrance or the roof, it is common property here. That is why it is important to be involved, united and to care for our environment.” 

Distressed by what she saw as a lack of a joint approach over issues that included the care and cleanliness of communal areas, she resolved to take action. 

“There were various cases – a water pipe bursting, problems with night lighting and delays in [repairs] for the entrance hall and stairs. I saw that we did not have a joint approach to these and other issues – for example, the same residents took care of cleaning the common areas.” 

Having grown up with environmentally aware parents – her mother teaches biology in a public school and, through an “Eco Club”, takes care of raising environmental awareness among schoolchildren, – Ia resolved to address the lack of a waste management system in her nine-storey apartment block. 

“A few years ago, I took an Environmental Manager certification course. Although I did not continue my career in this profession, I constantly try to use the knowledge I acquired in my daily and professional activities,” Ia says. 

In her apartment block, she started with small steps, separating plastic and other recyclable waste at home – mainly paper – before being joined by a neighbour, Nona.

“We used to take the waste we collected to be recycled, driving there in my car.” 

But it was what she did next that brought her project to the attention of the European Training Foundation’s Green Skills Award 2023: she discovered that a recycling company was offering private and state entities a service to collect and recycle polyethylene waste – plastic bottles and packaging. When she contacted the company, managers there were surprised to be hearing from the resident of an apartment block, but agreed to allocate waste collection boxes for her group of 27 flats and their families. 

“Every week this company comes and takes the waste me and my neighbours collect to be recycled for secondary use,” Ia says. 

Now it is approaching a year since the plastic waste collection boxes were first delivered, and Ia estimates that with 10 kilograms of waste bottles and plastic collected each week, she and her neighbours have saved around 500 kilograms of non-biodegradable waste from ending up in a landfill in a year. 

“I posted the announcements in our communal areas, and also the meaning of this project. I asked the neighbours to unite in a common cause.  And although not all of them had a similar experience, 27 families are already sorting their waste.” 

Although her project was not among the top 10 finalists in the 2023 Green Skills Award, it demonstrates how meaningful green and environmental projects can be launched from the simplest of actions. Ia now has plans to widen the scope of her initiative, noting that residents of neighbouring entrances in her apartment block have started bringing their recyclable waste to the boxes too. 

“I think it's time to put boxes in their entrances too,” Ia says. “I really want to do a small event for our neighbours, where I will introduce the results of the first year and set new goals together. This will give motivation to others and we will unite in doing very good work.” 

Ia is also planning to lobby local authorities to present the results of her community’s actions and to see if they bring influence to spread the idea and practice.  

Most of the waste is PET bottles, household waste, shampoo, disposable containers, egg containers. And that is from just a couple of dozen families living in flats with one common entrance in an apartment block in Georgia’s most populous city. 

“Waste separation reduces the landfill problem, employs people and creates jobs. Recyclable waste should not end up in a landfill. Recycling is a raw material for production and it also reduces production costs at the same time,” Ia concludes.

Sofija Daceva remembers precisely the moment she had her “eureka” moment: “I love wine very much,” she says, “and I love ice-cream very much. In the summer of 2016 I was sitting at home eating ice-cream and suddenly thought: ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if this ice-cream had wine in it!’”

Born and brought up in Skopje, North Macedonia, the 28-year-old Daceva was, at the time, studying economics at Hult International Business School in London. After graduation she went to Warwick University for an MA in innovation and entrepreneurship, where she kept trying out her wine ice-cream recipes on campus.

“I was popular as the alcoholic ice-cream girl,” she jokes. “I didn’t sell it, but asked people to offer donations and we saw that they were prepared to pay for it.”

She was offered jobs as a risk assessor in the financial sector, but decided to pursue her dream instead. She returned to Skopje and began experimenting with recipes. “My parents really didn’t get it,” she says, “they were like ‘we didn’t send you to study economics in London so that you could come back here to sell ice-cream out of the back of a van.’”

One of the steepest challenges was the freezing point of wine, which is between -13 and -18 degrees Celsius depending on the alcohol content. Water obviously freezes at zero and that discrepancy meant consistency was a problem. Daceva, however, refused to give up on her dream. “We worked with private laboratories in North Macedonia, Türkiye and the UK and developed a technological process that raised the freezing point of wine.” That, she says, was the major breakthrough and she has applied for a patent to protect the intellectual property of the innovation.

The Macedonian Fund of Innovation gave her a €30,000 grant and she started ordering machinery from China. The wine ice-cream (called “Wice”) went through many iterations and subtle changes: she was using Macedonian wines – Merlot, Riesling and Chardonnay – and blending them with various fruits and flavours. It helped that Daceva’s childhood sweetheart, now husband, is a molecular biologist: “He’s very good at what he does, he gives me a lot of advice.”

“To begin with we didn’t want to have more than two or three flavours,” she says. “If you diversify too much, there’s too much choice and you have production problems.”

At the moment, her company, Matryoshka, produces tubs of “Riesling, vanilla & raspberries” and “Merlot, chocolate & sour cherry”, with a Chardonnay lemon sorbet also imminent. “In the future we’re planning to expand the offering, to develop more sorbets and add new wines with different fruit bases.”

The company now employs five full-time workers and three seasonal ones. Their expanding production facility in the hills outside Skopje can produce 300 litres of ice-cream an hour: they make 45,000 litres a year, with an average price of around €2.30 per 180 ml. unit.

It hasn’t always been easy. “The cold-chain process is more expensive and complicated than the normal supply chain. You need constant refrigeration – in transport, in retail spaces – and so people were asking us to pay 10% of their electricity bill to stock our product! There are very few distribution companies working with cold chain, and 50% of those already have contracts with large ice-cream manufacturers and they have an exclusive.”

The success of Wice, however, has meant that there’s now a demand from customers. “When our products sold out,” says Daceva, “we were then in a position to negotiate: ‘If you want more, you’ll have to pay on time’.” Wice is now available in around 120 outlets: the company supplies hotels, restaurants and cafés, and has an exclusive deal with the Tinex supermarkets.

There have been many obstacles along the way. One of the principle issues Daceva faces is a lack of highly-skilled food technicians. “Only about 50 people graduate a year in food technology in the whole of the country and it’s unlikely they’re going to come and work for a small company.”

Regulatory recognition has also been difficult because “the food standards agency didn’t know how to categorise us. They weren’t sure whether we were an alcoholic drink or a foodstuff!”

Customer behaviour, too, makes things tricky: “Temperature regulation is often out of our control,” says Daceva, “and we found people in supermarkets were sometimes leaving freezers open and damaging the product.”

The main lesson she’s learnt is that “in entrepreneurship you need to be outside your comfort zone all the time. It takes a lot of free time and social life, a lot of sacrifices, but you need to believe in an idea and know you are market fit.”

If an idea doesn’t work, she says, “you have to learn to kill your baby. It’s better to fail fast than slowly.”

It is, presumably, easier to kill a bad idea when you keep having good ones. On a visit to a vineyard a few years ago, Daceva saw vast piles of grape pomace (wine’s waste product of skin and seeds). Inspired by both the idea of a more circular economy and a business opening, Daceva decided to investigate. She discovered that the pomace contained fibre, vitamins and antioxidants, and could be used as a food-colouring and as a supplement. She founded a second start-up, Wise Group Ltd, and begun experimenting with the pomace. The firm now processes 15 tonnes of this waste product, reusing it as a healthy and natural source of vitamins and fibre.

“At the moment,” says Daceva, “we’re reinvesting everything we get. Maybe once we have the patent, we'll be able to change the business model a bit, outsource the manufacturing process, increase production, and get access to export markets.”

“Network is key,” she adds, “and knowing people is super important. I share ideas as widely as possible rather than keep them to myself because people from different cultures see problems from new angles. If the idea is good enough, it’s not that easy to steal it.”

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The ETF's project "Skilling up the Western Balkan Agri-Food Sector” was launched in 2022 with a final conference in 2024. Sofija Daceva, Founder of Matryoshka LLC, demonstrated her ground-breaking wine ice-cream, Wice, during a site visit to the company's premises as part of the ETF's international networking event in Skopje, on 5–7 December 2023. More about the event: Skilling up the Western Balkans agri-food sector.