Making Europe more attractive to skilled workers is one of the main goals the European Commission is setting by proclaiming 2023 as the EUROPEAN YEAR OF SKILLS.
In the State of the Union 2022 address, by President von der Leyen, reference was made to a shortage of human resources for European businesses and record numbers of job vacancies. Indeed, more than three-quarters of EU businesses currently face difficulties in finding workers with the necessary skills, and the most recent Eurostat data show that only 37 percent of adults are in the habit of taking training.
"Europe lacks truck drivers, waiters and airport workers, as well as nurses, engineers and IT technicians. Both low-end and high-end. We need everyone on board.”
In times of green and digital transition and socio-economic crisis, new opportunities for citizens and the EU economy are growing: never before has having the required skills enabled people to cope successfully with changes in the labor market.
To compete is certainly to compete (mors tua vita mea), but also to share strategies and values, to meet the challenge of the market. The verb, of Latin origin, in fact indicates the action of "to go together, to converge at the same point".
Europe wants to strengthen the skills of those who act in the labor market in order not to leave anyone behind; the effort will therefore be to invite them to look together for ways to head towards the same goal (cum-petere), to seek the solution to a problem, to find the right direction. The path mapped out is the increase of investment in training; the process of matching skills to market needs, particularly of women and young people who are neither employed nor in education or training; and the creation of attractive conditions for people from outside the EU with the necessary skills.
The European Year of Skills, promoting competitiveness, participation and talent is also the year of JUMP. Our organization has been active, since 2012, in spreading the EU's founding values of youth empowerment and promoting lifelong learning. JUMP stands, after 10 years of intense project activity and thanks to the Erasmus Plus program, as a European player and absolute protagonist in the field of teacher training. Calabria, in the last 4 years, has been able to host more than 1,500 international teachers who, in addition to strengthening transversal skills strategic for the fight against school dropout, have been able to discover a unique, welcoming and valuable land.
Pietro Curatola
Jump President and Founder
CEO of Centro Territoriale Europeo srl
