BPIE’s Climate Conversations series aims to shine light on a diverse range of perspectives on buildings and climate policies, engaging experts with various backgrounds. We seek to explore solutions and blind spots to key challenges related to reducing the climate impact of buildings, and to achieving a Just Transition that leaves no one behind.

Upskilling and growing the workforce in both renovation and construction is fundamental to scaling up renovation rates that will help the EU achieve its climate goals. At the same time, skills and education are foundational to strengthening the social fabric and ensuring a fair and Just Transition. You can’t do one without the other.

In this discussion with Andrei Frank from the Lifelong Learning Platform (LLLP), the European network and non-profit organisation representing the interests of education and training stakeholders, we seek to better understand the broader discourse around the European Year of Skills, an EU-Commission led initiative that runs until May 2024. We discuss the types of skills and competencies needed for a Just Transition including the difference between transversal vs technical skills, strategies to ‘rebrand’ an existing industry such as the construction sector, and the roles and responsibilities of the EU, Member States, industry and civil society to advance on rolling out training and education programs to ensure we meet our climate goals.   

BPIE: At BPIE, we’ve calculated that in order to reach our 2030 climate target, the current deep renovation rate of 0.2% annually needs to grow by at least a factor of 10 to 2% and should approach 3% as quickly as possible. We effectively need a massive upscaling of renovation, which means massive upscaling of skills. Whose responsibility is it to fill the existing skills gaps and make the renovation and construction sector more attractive to future workers?

Andrei: It’s a shared responsibility between the EU and the Member States. Educational training is a Member State competency, but at the same time, everything in terms of EU policies, Council recommendations and conclusions, targets established for the EU Green Deal, the European Education Area or for the Green Deal Industrial Plan, it is all agreed with the Member States.

So, Member States have given their confirmation that ‘yes, this is something that we want to work on’. These are targets that we can and want to meet.

There is also a lot of willingness from stakeholders. There are so many companies that are engaged in partnerships with civil society, with universities, with other types of education training providers, or involved in EU-funded projects on the topic. There is much work happening on these on-the-ground projects but the outcomes aren’t always reflected in Member States’ planning and guidance. So I’d say it’s less an issue of responsibility and more an issue of coordination. It’s often the case that Member States don’t assume responsibility for this coordination role to the extent needed, and then fail to operationalize it through guidelines towards the education and training institutions. This leads to goals and terminology staying at the level of EU jargon, rather than becoming concrete actions.

How skills contribute to reducing eco-anxiety

BPIE: We’re now coming to the end of the European Year of Skills. What is the role of skills to meet our climate goals and what are the consequences if we don’t invest in skills and in education?

Andrei: Any kind of transition, any kind of change is very much dependent on having the right type of competencies. If you’re worried about climate change but don’t necessarily know how to start working on it, then you get stuck and you fall further into eco anxiety. Just having the basic knowledge and understanding how systems are interconnected gives you the background to know how to approach, and work on the energy transition.

If we don’t work on competencies that can help people understand exactly how global systems are interconnected and equip people with ways to engage with this, then every year you reach a situation that we now see with the European Year of Skills: one year we look at one specific sector, and one specific skill set that is needed for it. The next year we focus on another ‘at risk’ sector and build the skills for this one, and so forth. Every year we reinvent the wheel rather than building the type of transversal competencies that help people more quickly switch from one sector to another or adapt to changes.

Every year we reinvent the wheel rather than building the type of transversal competencies that help people more quickly switch from one sector to another or adapt to changes.

BPIE: Can you explain the difference between the technical and transversal skills?

Andrei: A technical skill is something that is linked or specific to a task or an academic discipline or, let’s say, an area of knowledge. Some examples of technical skills, linked to the construction sector, could include knowing how to operate heavy machinery or how to read a blueprint. You might be able to use some aspects of them in another environment, but they are very much connected to the task at hand.

Whereas transversal skills would not necessarily be related to one particular job and would be seen as working in different contexts within the workplace, outside of the workplace, within a learning experience overall. For example, communication or teamwork or critical thinking are transversal competencies that can be moved from one place to another.

BPIE: Does the European Commission value one type of skill set over the other?

Andrei: Unfortunately, looking at the way they’re talking about it when they launched the proposal for the Year of Skills, there was no mention of transversal skills. There was a focus on technical skills.

BPIE: And beyond the Commission? Where do you see value placed, more broadly?

Andrei: Overall we see the spotlight more on technical rather than transversal skills. If you think a bit more broadly about courses that are available, let’s say you work in the construction sector, if you want to develop one specific technical skill, like onsite safety, there are more readily available trainings on those specific aspects.

But when it comes to time management or critical thinking for example, there are less opportunities for specific trainings within or outside the workplace. So that again says something about how we value one over the other. Or rather, how we assume that somebody would develop soft skills or transversal skills in the workplace. For example, you would learn teamwork by just doing it. Which is not always the case.

Transversal skills and the Just Transition

BPIE: What’s the link between investing in transversal skills and the Just Transition?

Andrei: Investing in transversal skills equates to ownership of the Just Transition. By investing in transversal skills, learners develop the capacity to understand exactly why a Just transition needs to happen and in what way. They can become active promoters of the Just Transition and have ownership over the reforms that need to happen at national, regional or EU level.

Without necessarily having systems thinking or critical thinking within your competence toolkit, it would be harder to understand why exactly should you care about this or why exactly should your job significantly change. Or why you would need retraining.

Investing in transversal skills equates to ownership of the Just Transition. By investing in transversal skills, learners develop the capacity to understand exactly why a Just transition needs to happen and in what way.

BPIE: So in a sense, we could say that investing in transversal skills can help a person, an industry, effectively adapt to climate change.

Andrei: Yes, definitely. By developing transversal competencies, it’s far easier to switch from one sector to another or within a sector to adapt. This could be adapting to changing needs in terms of how your profession can become more environmentally friendly, how a new technology can be brought within your profession to make it more environmentally friendly, and how you can start learning how to work with that new technology.

BPIE: We’re now coming to an end of the European Year of Skills. Are you happy with the outcome?

Andrei: The European Year of Skills has certainly raised awareness of the importance of skills. What we would still hope to see would be a focus on valuable existing reforms and initiatives which haven’t been effectively implemented at national level. Half of EU Member States still have not effectively implemented the Council Recommendation on the validation of non-formal and informal competencies that was put in place in 2012. 13 Member States still have a lot of progress to catch up on.

Then we want to have 60% of all adults engage annually in training.This is the overall goal of the action plan of the European Pillar of Social Rights. But at the moment, we’re talking about just over 30%, between 30 and 40% adults actually engaging in such training. So there’s still a long way to go. If you look at the Skills Agenda, there’s actually an initiative (Action 7: Increasing STEM graduates and fostering entrepreneurial and transversal skills) on developing a strategic framework on the validation of transversal competencies. This was put into the document and since then there has been no specific discussion on such a framework at EU level.

So again, the Year of Skills can very much contribute to bringing all of these initiatives into the spotlight and seeing how exactly we can discuss and work together with the Member States to facilitate implementation. On policy I have to say that there has been a lot of push going in the right direction on education and training. It’s the issue of the implementation now that is stagnating.

BPIE: Why is implementation is such a challenge?

Andrei: A big challenge in many countries is that they are missing a government strategy on education and training, where all of the ministries covering employment, education, finance would get altogether around the table to plan a lifelong learning strategy which would include all of the different types of stakeholders and providers, all types of companies, including SMEs, and how they can be engaged. I think a lot that has been missing on implementation is this type of collaboration.

And then, education and training is frequently not high on a country’s priority list. Everybody agrees education is a human right, it’s needed, but we don’t necessarily put the money there. That’s why we also published an investment position paper last year where we raised this point that learning is too often planned for labor market gaps and labor market needs.

Focusing on filling market gaps has future risks because education and training should provide a holistic type of learning to each learner, and that requires a different type of investment.

Focusing on just filling market gaps has future risks because education and training should provide a holistic type of learning to each learner, and that requires a different type of investment, different type of planning, a different type of linking between formal and non-formal learning environments.

How to rebrand an industry with effective training strategies

BPIE: The construction sector is not typically viewed in a positive light; most kids don’t dream of being a construction worker when they grow up.  Do you have examples of best practice of how to ‘rebrand’ a sector to make it more attractive to young people/future workers?

Andrei: Our members working in vocational education, such as the European Forum for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (EfVET), have multiple sectoral alliances for building strategies for competence development in different sectors. These are called Blueprint Alliances. A recent such Alliance on the construction sector specifically was launched, connecting 17 partners across ten EU Member States. It has a €4 million budget and they are seeing how they can support the construction sector, to identify the skills needed and to upskill and reskill while also engaging in outreach to bring more people into the sector.

The way it’s framed in their work is linked to innovative type of technologies that could address the green and digital transitions. They’re looking at flexible types of learning and modular learning that allows a participatory approach for the learner in the learning process. This in turn can boost motivation, it can show learners the real impact they could make through such a job later on.

What young people care about when developing an entrepreneurial skillset is to make a difference in the world.

A year ago, the European Parliament published a report on entrepreneurial skills and literacy for younger generations. What young people care about when developing an entrepreneurial skillset is to make a difference in the world. That’s what they care most about when they would want to open up a business or engage in something like this. The need here is to make people understand how each and every sector really contributes to making an impact on the transitions that we are working towards.

How design and implementation of training can contribute to a Just Transition

BPIE: Do you think the Commission has focused on the right things in the Year of Skills?

Andrei: In short, yes. There is work happening in the right direction.

The problem is that, though it might have the right assumptions, it’s not starting from the same premise that we would start from. For example, the Commission is intensifying efforts on cybersecurity skills, and other high level competencies, which we find puzzling. Over 40% of people across the EU do not have basic digital skills, and we’re talking about upskilling on cybersecurity. So yes, absolutely, digitalization is important. But we need to first address those 40% people that are at risk of falling behind. I think that should be the priority number one.

Make training available to people who don’t typically have access it, who have less opportunities, less resources, or who had previous bad experiences with education and are reluctant to go back to it.

Otherwise, the European Year of Skills becomes more about serving the same people that already have a higher socioeconomic background, that already might have good competences, and then it’s just about getting even higher competencies. If we don’t close the broader skills gaps and if we don’t focus a bit more on those most disadvantaged, there is a risk that all of these challenges that we’re now experiencing will just exacerbate further into the future.

Make training available to people who don’t typically have access it, who have less opportunities, less resources, or who had previous bad experiences with education and are reluctant to go back to it.

BPIE: It’s not a very Just Transition if people can’t access existing training. What are the best ways to ensure accessibility to skills development?

Andrei: There needs to be more communication and dissemination effort for the available options, while there needs to be flexibility in terms of how the training offer looks like. You can’t expect people to engage in training after their working hours if they have household responsibilities, or to pay out of their own pocket. And you can’t necessarily expect a person who hasn’t set foot in a classroom in decades to return to such an environment when they’re 50 as if it were easy. While maybe the classroom format is also not the most desirable and effective way of learning for certain individuals.

Most ‘traditional’ learning programs can last for lengthy periods of time, whereas now there are more micro-credentials on offer that can be completed much faster. This includes a modularized type of learning enabling quick access to one type of certification, that can be stacked up with future certifications. In such a way you can create your own type of learning journey. This could be more relevant or something that learners want. This already exists in terms of the Commission’s plans for individual learning accounts, or for the Micro-credentials. The initiatives are there. But this again brings us back to the question of implementation. This is a challenge we’ve been talking about for decades.

You can’t expect people to engage in training after their working hours if they have household responsibilities, or to pay out of their own pocket.

BPIE: There are 13 member states who are way behind on implementing the Council recommendations on validation of competencies. What about ones who are doing well? Who are the front runners?

Andrei: The Nordic countries are doing great work. Sweden is doing quite well on validation and recognition, funding and investment towards adult learning centers and creating study circles where environmental topics are frequently discussed. Finland is also doing quite well on that, especially due to its national lifelong learning strategy. There is a fantastic reform of the vocational education training system happening right now in Spain. France is another great current example on individual learning accounts, in terms of access to funding for undergoing vocational training.

BPIE: But how do we actually stop taking a piecemeal approach to everything?

Andrei: It’s constant work to maintain collaborations and contacts. It’s about figuring out that it’s not going to be one single reform or one single action that will connect everyone. It’s constant hard work for all stakeholders to stay motivated, collaborate, and push each other to go in the same direction. But what else can we do? Achieving a Just Transition means that we have to do things differently than before.