Fair Labour Mobility Package: new EU initiative highlights the importance of recognition and transparency

The European Commission today unveiled its Fair Labour Mobility Package, including a new Skills Portability Initiative designed to make it easier for people to have their qualifications, credentials and skills recognised across borders. The initiative aims to improve the use of digital credentials, increase transparency of qualifications and simplify the recognition of skills held by people from outside the European Union. It will also support the wider use of digital qualifications, facilitate the comparison of qualifications across countries and simplify recognition procedures for both EU citizens and people holding qualifications acquired outside the EU.

For skills and qualifications to be recognised, they first need to be understood and trusted. This depends on systems that make people's knowledge, competences and qualifications transparent and comparable, regardless of where they were acquired.

As the only EU agency working on skills and qualifications beyond the EU's borders, the European Training Foundation (ETF) helps partner countries build the foundations that make skills portability possible. Through its work on qualifications systems, lifelong learning and labour market relevance, the ETF supports greater transparency, recognition and trust in skills and qualifications.

This includes policy advice and technical support on national qualifications frameworks, micro-credentials, validation of skills acquired outside formal education, digital credentials, recognition arrangements and qualifications transparency. The initiative reflects areas in which ETF has long supported partner countries, helping develop systems that make qualifications more transparent, comparable and easier to recognise across borders. In EU enlargement countries, the ETF also advises national stakeholders on the use of European skills transparency tools such as ESCO, the EU's common classification of skills, competences, qualifications and occupations, and supports preparations for implementing EU standards linked to labour and skills mobility.

The importance of these efforts is growing. As European labour markets face skills shortages and demographic change, employers increasingly need reliable ways to understand what workers know and can do, regardless of where those skills were learned. According to the European Commission, 74% of SMEs face skills gaps, underlining the importance of making skills and qualifications easier to understand and recognise across borders. At the same time, individuals benefit when their qualifications and skills can be recognised more easily across borders, opening pathways to employment and further learning opportunities.

In line with the EU's approach to migration and mobility, the ETF promotes a "triple-win" perspective that seeks benefits for individuals, countries of origin and countries of destination alike. Supporting skills portability, qualifications transparency and recognition contributes to more effective and evidence-based approaches to labour mobility.

The ETF also contributes to EU Talent Partnerships by providing expertise on the skills dimension and supporting the implementation of related roadmaps in partner countries. Through labour market intelligence, skills anticipation and advice on qualifications and lifelong learning policies, the Foundation helps strengthen the systems needed for skills recognition, matching and fair labour mobility.

The ETF currently supports Talent Partnership countries including Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia and is expanding its engagement in Bangladesh and Pakistan. The ETF also provides technical support for the piloting of the MED Skills Tracker under the Pact for the Mediterranean, helping improve transparency and understanding of skills across countries and labour markets.

The Commission's new initiative represents a further step towards ensuring that skills can be recognised, trusted and valued wherever they are acquired. Through its work with EU candidate and neighbouring countries, and other partner countries, the ETF continues to support the systems and reforms that make this possible.