Individual learning accounts 2022/C 243/03 - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 243/26

A skilled workforce is crucial to strengthening the Union’s sustainable competitiveness, supporting a job-rich recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuring socially fair digital and green transitions. As labour markets evolve, people need to keep pace by upgrading their skills. New and better skills open up more opportunities and equip people to play an active role in managing transitions in the labour market and participate fully in society, against the backdrop of demographic change. Moreover, adult upskilling and reskilling can be powerful tools in promoting social fairness and inclusion for a just transition.

Article 14(1) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights (1) states that everyone has the right to education and to have access to vocational and continuing training. The first principle of the European Pillar of Social Rights (the ‘Pillar’), jointly proclaimed by the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on 17 November 2017 (2), states that everyone has the right to quality and inclusive education, training and lifelong learning in order to maintain and acquire skills that enable them to participate fully in society and manage successfully transitions in the labour market. The fourth principle of the Pillar touches on active support for employment, to uphold everyone’s right to timely and tailor-made assistance to improve employment or self-employment prospects. The fifth principle of the Pillar, on secure and adaptable employment, emphasises that, regardless of the type and duration of the employment relationship, workers have the right to fair and equal treatment regarding working conditions, access to social protection and training.

On 25 June 2021, the European Council welcomed the Union headline targets of the European Pillar of Social Rights action plan, in line with the Porto Declaration of 8 May 2021, thereby supporting the ambition of ensuring that, by 2030, at least 60 % of all adults participate in training every year. However, participation in adult learning in the Union has stagnated over the last decade and 21 Member States fell short of the 2020 Union-level target. Taking that into account, the Council adopted the Resolution on a new European agenda for adult learning 2021-2030 (3) to support progress towards the Union adult learning headline target. For many adults, such as those in atypical forms of work, employees of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the unemployed, the inactive and the low-qualified, skills development opportunities are too often out of reach.

The European Skills Agenda, adopted by the Commission on 1 July 2020, calls for a skills revolution to turn the ecological and digital transitions into opportunities for a prompt and fair recovery. Inter alia, it announces that the Commission will explore individual learning accounts as a tool to support the upskilling and reskilling of working-age adults, complementing other actions targeting employers and the providers of education and training.

Skills for the green transition and the upskilling and reskilling of the workforce will be needed in the context of the shift to a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy, as laid out under the European Green Deal, which aims for climate neutrality by 2050. The Commission communication of 14 July 2021‘Fit for 55’ recognises that the green transition can succeed only if the Union has the skilled...