EU Council takes action on skills shortages with a new human capital recommendation

The Council of the European Union has adopted a recommendation on human capital which aims to help Member States to address skills and labour shortages across key sectors, with a focus on boosting competitiveness and resilience.

The recommendation focuses on:

• Strategic sectors: Targeting shortages in digital, health, agriculture, and education.  
• Training partnerships: Encouraging cooperation between businesses, training providers, and public employment services.  
• Basic skills: Supporting literacy, digital skills, and access to education for all ages.  
• Vocational educationand STEM: Making VET and STEM more attractive and inclusive, especially for underrepresented groups.  
• Investment and data: Promoting public and private funding and using data to forecast skills needs.  

'' Human capital is Europe’s greatest asset. With persistent labour and skills shortages affecting strategic sectors from health to digital technologies, today’s recommendation marks a decisive step to strengthen our competitiveness, resilience and social cohesion by investing more effectively in people’s knowledge, skills and potential.'' - Marinos Moushouttas, Minister of Labour, Republic of Cyprus

This is the first EU Council recommendation on human capital, highlighting its importance for competitiveness and the long-term resilience of Europe’s workforce.