Skills are a crucial driver of the EU’s competitiveness and innovation capacity and a key determinant of social cohesion and personal well-being. Ongoing technological transformations and fast economic restructuring require people to engage in continuous learning throughout their lifetime. Member States are thus engaging in reforms to improve the capacity of their education and training systems to deliver high quality education and ensure their citizens have constant and equal access to it. The Commission supports them by providing expertise and exchange of relevant practices, thus complementing other available support.
The Commission helps Member States reform their education and training systems to make them more resilient in the long term, addressing skills gaps and shortages, and promoting lifelong learning throughout an individual’s career to keep pace with technological advancements.
To do so, the Commission engages with Member States administrations on a wide range of topics. Beneficiaries include Ministries in charge of education, vocational education and training, employment, research and innovation, as well as relevant state agencies and regional authorities.
Quality education & training systems
The European Commission supports EU Member States to establish quality education and skills frameworks. The support covers the entire lifelong learning cycle, from early childhood education and care (ECEC), school education, vocational and education training (VET), higher education and adult learning.
Areas of support may include analysis of skills gaps, elaboration of strategies and action plans, design and implementation of monitoring and evaluation frameworks, development of quality assurance and prior recognition tools, strengthening of inter-institutional cooperation and governance, etc.
EXAMPLES OF SUPPORT AREAS
- Policy frameworks and quality management systems on ECEC
- Fostering cooperation between VET, schools and business or between social partners
- Knowledge exchange and cooperation between universities, research and businesses
- National strategies to improve skills among adults, including governance models and funding mechanisms
Technical support is provided to Bulgaria and Portugal with reforms to raise the quality of early childhood education and care (ECEC) for children from birth to start of compulsory school education years. The main objective is to enable the authorities to take action to strengthen the governance of the ECEC systems and develop comprehensive monitoring & evaluation systems in support of high-quality services.
Technical support was provided to the Lithuanian Ministry of Education, Science and Sports on policies to enhance the quality and labour market relevance of higher education and vocational education and training (VET). The project resulted in an analysis as well as recommendations and a roadmap for Lithuania to strengthen the external evaluation and quality assurance systems for higher education and VET as well as build a wider ecosystem for pedagogical enhancement and policies to build supportive framework conditions for quality and relevance.
Technical support was provided to the Latvian authorities to prepare a new regulatory framework aiming to support employers, and in particular SMEs, in up-/re-skilling their employees. Policy recommendations to reform employer-led training, practical guidelines to develop a regulatory framework, and a roadmap to look beyond were developed, after in-depth consultations of stakeholders.
Inclusive education
The European Commission supports EU Member States in fostering the right to quality and inclusive education, training and lifelong learning. The support also targets reforms addressing early school leaving and combating discrimination, segregation, harassment and bullying, especially among young people.
EXAMPLES OF SUPPORT AREAS
- Early intervention tools and warning systems to prevent and combat early-school leaving
- Interventions for inclusion of migrant and Roma children into mainstream education systems and combat discrimination/segregation
- Capacity-building, including targeted trainings for teachers and support staff, school leaders and policymakers
- Efficiency of funding and spending systems
- Monitoring of education systems and policymaking
Technical support was provided to the Spanish Ministry of Education and VET to design an Action Plan aimed at tackling early school leaving (ESL) and promoting school success in all Spanish regions. The project resulted in concrete policy actions to strengthen existing territorial cooperation mechanisms, including disseminating best practices, and supporting individual school initiatives, leading to a more effective, streamlined and collaborative approach to address and prevent ESL.
Technical support was provided to the Portuguese authorities to design and implement an action plan, including possible legislative and non-legislative measures aiming to increase access to and completion of higher education for socio-economically disadvantaged groups, including in competitive study programmes.
Technical support was provided to Finland and Ireland to identify key objectives and plan actions for promoting equitable learning opportunities, improving educational outcomes and increasing access to mainstream education for all children and students. The project included an in-depth analysis of the current frameworks, capacity building, and policy roadmaps for both countries.
Digital education
The European Commission supports the development of a high-performing digital education ecosystem in the EU Member States at all educational levels. It also helps Member States enhance the digital skills, competences and attitudes of learners, teachers and trainers, with a view to rendering the digital transition accessible and inclusive.
EXAMPLES OF SUPPORT AREAS
- Strategies and roadmaps for increasing the meaningful and safe use of digital technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI)
- Monitoring and evaluation mechanisms and tools
- Design of digital infrastructure investments at various education levels
- Digital upskilling curricula and competence frameworks for teachers and learners
Technical support helped the Slovak education authorities to effectively implement the upcoming curricular and digital transformation reforms and to build the innovation capacity of the Slovak primary schools. The authorities received support through various measures, including results accelerators, a comparative study of EU countries, and methodologies for implementing curricular reforms, all of which are aimed at promoting pedagogical change and effective integration of ICT in Slovak primary schools.
Technical support is helping the Polish authorities to increase girls' and women's interest and participation in ICT in Poland. The main support measures for this project include the design and testing of new measurement tools, analyse barriers and success factors for female participation in ICT, and support the development of recommendations and an implementation concept for more gender-inclusive ICT pathways.
The technical support provided by this multi-country project, bringing together Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg and Sweden, aims to help the authorities to form a community of practice to advance strategies and tools for the ethical, meaningful, and safe use of AI in schools. The main support measures for this project include the development of practical toolkits and professional development resources, creation of a mechanism for validating AI systems in education, and exploration of integrating AI into learning resource platforms, all aimed at supporting the integration of AI in school education.
Addressing skills mismatches
The European Commission supports EU Member States to develop and improve methods and tools to monitor labour market and skills needs, and to better anticipate the skills and qualifications requirements of the labour market. Reforms include developing skills forecasting systems and technical specifications for innovative job matching tools (including data-driven AI solutions); blueprints for sectoral cooperation on skills at national, regional and local level; setting-up and piloting individual learning accounts (ILAs); building harmonised micro-credential ecosystems; helping administrations and employers to design and develop skills strategies, to equip employees with the right knowledge and skills; and improving cooperation between businesses and research institutions.
EXAMPLES OF SUPPORT AREAS
- National skills strategies, action plans and governance models to address skills mismatches and promote upskilling and reskilling of the workforce
- Skills forecasting systems and technical specifications for innovative job matching tools
- Support the establishment of individual learning accounts and micro-credentials, in line with the 2022 Council Recommendations on Individual Learning Accounts and Micro-credentials
This technical support helped Sweden to strengthen the governance of its skills system. The project identified opportunities for improvement, complemented by targeted recommendations and implementation guidance for promoting co-ordination, co-operation, and collaboration on skills across the whole of government; engaging stakeholders throughout the policy cycle; and improving the skills data infrastructure.
The technical support helped the Ministry of Education and Science of Bulgaria in developing and implementing a National Skills Strategy through a whole of government approach. The project provided Bulgaria with guidance and recommendations, fostering a deeper understanding of effective policy implementation through workshops, consultations with key stakeholders, as well as insights from national and international good practices.
This project aims at creating a unified national strategy for micro-credentials across education and training sectors in Czechia. The main support measures for this project include assessments of existing and international approaches to micro-credentials, stakeholder consultations, and the development of a proposal for a harmonised micro-credential framework, which will inform the creation of a standardised definition, certification format, and implementation plan for micro-credentials in Czechia.
Teaching professions
The European Commission supports EU Member States in designing and implementing reforms targeting quality and professionalism in the teaching profession as a way of investing into current and future generations of learners.
EXAMPLES OF SUPPORT AREAS
- Policy frameworks for careers of teachers and other educational staff to strengthen attractiveness of the profession, improve staff deployment and working conditions
- Workforce planning and forecasting tools to address teacher shortages and improve the match of teacher supply and demand
- Systems of Initial Teacher Education (ITE), early career support (induction) and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) to strengthen teacher learning and competence development in all its phases
The technical support helped the Flemish Department of Education and Training in the development of a strategy and guidelines to support schools in primary, secondary and adult education with the transition towards effective use of ICT for teaching and learning. The goal of the reform was to enable schools to develop team-based approaches towards ICT co-ordination and digital education.
The technical support helped the Austrian authorities in tackling teacher shortages by developing an effective forecasting of demand for teachers by region, type of schools and subject, and by helping schools in the implementation of professional processes of human resource management.
The technical support helped the Ministry of National Education and Youth in France in its ongoing reforms of the professional learning and development of educational staff. It provided concrete recommendations on how to make professional development opportunities for different types of educational staff more accessible, relevant and of higher quality through the newly rolled-out regional schools for continuing training.
Contact details
Head of Unit
KEES VAN DUIN
Main contact point for applying for the Technical Support Instrument
SG-REFORM-TSI
ec [dot] europa [dot] eu (SG-REFORM-TSI[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)
Further details on the work related to skills, education and training
SG-REFORM-A5ec [dot] europa [dot] eu (SG-REFORM-A5[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)
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