Europe is facing a labor crisis. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, a significant number of open job positions across all sectors are further intensified by the digital and green transition.
Without a highly skilled workforce, European companies are feared to lag behind others in the coming years.
Where are the workers?
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on society and the way we work. This disruption became even more pronounced after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine’, and the labor market has not yet recovered. 2022European Union in ’Available vacancy rate in ’ %It was 2.8; the Romanian ’ %0.8’ to Austria’ %changed up to 4.6’; Many member countries saw an increase compared to pre-pandemic levels.
SpainIn the transportation sector of vacancies in ’ 0, in public administration 1 and in professional and technical activities was found to have increased. The biggest shortcomings are concentrated in the manufacturing and construction sectors. Businesses across the continent are beginning to feel the burden of this famine. A quarter of the 25 million SMEs in ’ say hiring high-quality managers and staff is their biggest problem.
Skill Development and Training
NextGen Robotics is a Danish consortium developing next-generation robots and autonomous solutions. It brings together local companies such as Inrotech, which designs welding robots, with universities. Training and attracting talent is vital to their business.
The company is already taking advantage of EU financing. Philip Toft Halskov is a marketing executive who chooses to develop and learn 3D modeling skills to attract more customers.
“Sometimes it can be very difficult to show customers what the robot looks like and how it works. So our plan was to learn how to visualize this portal; For example, the following: show how it works and how the customer can use it in their own production.
Christian Ryrberg Schmidt took a new step in his career by studying technical data management system design.
“DenmarkThere are not many people with this course in ’. It is very important that we have this system and it is very important for me to have skills in this regard.
Inrotech relies on a positive working environment to attract and retain talent to keep up with the competition. NextGen Robotics’ needs to hire individuals from artisans to PhD holders to achieve its goal, explains Kasper, coordinator of the consortium:
“Our strategic forum identifies skilled workforce as the number one challenge”
NextGen Robotics invests in the development of training and skills with the support of European funds. They also aim to attract students and talents from abroad, such as Reza. The Iranian robotics engineer chose to do his thesis at Odense’de.
“ University has a department known in the world as S2 Robotics. Here we will establish a very large center and try to bring automation and robotics technologies to the marine, construction and energy sectors.” explains
Year of Skills
September 2022The ’de European Commission launched the Year of Skills initiative, a bold new strategy to boost skills development, training and innovation initiatives across member states.
Nicolas Schmit, European Commissioner for Business and Social Rights, “, says this is actually a strong message to overcome a major challenge. “We are talking about millions of people who need to change their qualifications or just improve them. Therefore, this is an important meeting about the economic future of Europe’ with the great transformations that are taking place, whether digital or green.”
While the EU is focused on equipping itself for the digital transition, Schmit hopes the strategy can help boost growth across all sectors.
“Of course, we talk a lot about digital skills, and there are hundreds of thousands of vacancies in this field. But there's also the construction industry, desperately looking for skilled individuals. There are many professions that need to be requalified as technologies evolve and change due to climate change. These are highly demanding professions, and we attach great importance to apprenticeship as the transition from education to employment is much smoother.”
The EU Commission relies on a targeted approach to address the growing problem of labor shortages. Without a workforce, Europe will have difficulty achieving its key climate and digital transformation goals in the coming decades. The Year of Skills is a strategy to encourage innovation, encourage education, and empower people to develop skills.
