Results of the European Year of Skills

About the European Year of Skills

The European Year of Skills aimed to address skill gaps in the EU by focusing on digital and green technology skills. Through national and EU initiatives and funding opportunities, it supported reskilling efforts, particularly for small and medium enterprises. Various stakeholders, including the European Commission, Member States, and education providers, collaborated on skills-related activities and events throughout the year. The initiative started on 9 May 2023, and ran for 12 months, promoting numerous actions and initiatives. On 30 April 2024, the European Year of Skills – What Comes Next?event celebrated the Year, its achievements and future projections. However, empowering individuals with essential digital skills remains a top priority for the EU. The European Year of Skills highlighted the importance of providing people with the right skills for quality jobs and helping companies, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, address skill shortages within the EU.

The results of the European Year of Skills

Above all, the European Year of Skills is about empowering people to develop their professional lives. Better skills mean new opportunities, higher-quality jobs, and a more competitive European economy. With over 190 initiatives skills took centre stage also at a European, national, regional and local level: people exposed to the campaign show greater awareness, understanding and trust regarding the initiatives regarding skills that the EU has undertaken, are more willing to take a training course and says that the Year has had a positive impact in their lives. 

The European Year of Skills in numbers

• 2000+ events across Europe

• 190 EU-led initiatives on skills

• 1.37 million visitors to 54 events in 23 Member States

• 69 million reach on social media

The Digital Skills and Jobs Platform and the European Year of Skills

The Platform supported the goals of the Year as it provides a wide range of high-quality information, resources and opportunities in the area of digital skills and jobs across all levels, from basic to advanced. The Digital Skills and Jobs Platform offers training opportunities and career development support, good practices, expert advice, resources and tools, and shared European Year of Skills-related events. The  Year of Skills focused on promoting the recognition of skills and qualifications across Europe. In this regard, also the European Digital Skills Awards 2024 fall within this logic: they aim to reward projects and initiatives that are helping to bridge the digital gap. Since 2023, the Platform also hosts the Cyber Skills Academy aimed at increasing the number of professionals trained in cybersecurity to close the growing cyber talent gap. The Academy will bring together existing initiatives to close the cyber skills gap and respond to the needs of the cybersecurity job market.

Discover more about the results of the European Year of Skills.

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