LLL - Lifelong Learning

Lifelong LearningGreen TransitionDigital TransitionLabour Market Policy

29 Sep

Image of an engineer in a field using a tablet.

Lifelong learning is defined as all purposeful learning activities undertaken on an ongoing basis to improve the knowledge, skills and competence of individuals throughout their lives. Learning activities may be formal, non-formal or informal.

The European Union (EU) has been developing Lifelong Learning policies and funding measures for decades. These have been enhanced by key EU milestones such as the European Year of Lifelong Learning (1996), the European Employment Strategy (1997) and the Memorandum on Lifelong Learning (2000) following the Lisbon Council.

When Europe began shifting towards a knowledge-based society and economy, the main purposes of the lifelong learning strategies consisted of building motivation and skills to allow citizens to learn about the newly accessible resources and how to use them. This would strengthen Europe’s competitiveness and improve the employability and adaptability of the workforce, as well as facilitate the understanding of how to meet the challenges in a world which was becoming more complex, especially in terms of cultural, ethnic and linguistic diversity.

In the era of the ‘twin transition’, lifelong learning has become a crucial aspect of the strategy to invest in people’s skills to sustain the green and digital transitions at a global level.

In 2015, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) adopted the policy guidelines for a ‘just transition’ to help countries to fulfil the Agenda 2030 goals towards more sustainable means of production and consumption, addressing environmental, economic and social sustainability criteria. The key policy areas identified explicitly include skill-development policies and active market labour policies.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, the ILO adopted a global call to action to support a “fully inclusive, sustainable, and resilient” recovery aimed at creating decent jobs for all. One of the measures is to “strengthen public and private investment in skills development and lifelong learning, including through universal access to quality education and more equitable and effective access to training, including apprenticeships, career guidance, upskilling and reskilling, and through other active labour market policies and partnerships that facilitate successful labour market transitions and reduce skills mismatches, gaps and shortages, including for the low-skilled and the long-term unemployed”.

According to the ILO, the drivers of the green transition require new skills for green jobs to be acquired through training, development of technology, and policy incentives at all stages of the individual working life. The ILO highlights improved environmental regulations, the introduction of green technology and innovation, and the demand for greener products, including clean energy, as the main drivers of this transition.

Previously, the 2008 ILO-UNEP Green Jobs Report (2008) stated that the transition to a greener economy might lead to the creation of additional jobs, the substitution of some jobs, erosion of some employment, and the upskilling of many existing jobs.

Energy Transition Scenario, 2030

Circular Economy Scenario, 2030

Source: ILO(2019), Skills for a Greener Future. Infographic

The significance of lifelong learning within this context is further substantiated by an analysis conducted by the ILO, which addresses the training requirements of various skilled workforce levels to capitalise on the opportunities presented by the twin transition. This is crucial considering the anticipated obsolescence of existing job positions in the evolving labour market landscape. Upskilling is imperative across all levels of skilled occupations, with a particular focus on on-the-job or short-term learning for low skilled positions, updated vocational education and training (VET) programmes for medium-skilled occupations, and continuous updating of university and specialised training programmes for higher-skilled jobs. Re-skilling, primarily targeting medium-skilled workers, is also envisioned.

Re-skilling Measures Required at All Skill Levels

The ILO identifies a set of main skills needed for a just transition. These include care skills, STEAM skills, skills to operate and maintain technologies, design and system thinking skills, digital literacy and digital detox literacy, teamwork and communication skills, coordination and management skills, strategic and leadership skills, and innovation and entrepreneurial skills.

In line with the ILO prediction, the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission identifies and provides frameworks and tools to develop the skills required for the twin transition as well as the cross-cutting competences or sector-specific skills through education and training provision in the form of lifelong learning. The key cross-cutting competences identified include digital competence, STEM, languages, literacy, cultural awareness and expression, entrepreneurship, civic competence, and personal, social and learning-to-learn skills. The JRC has identified key competences to promote personal fulfilment, employability, social inclusion, active citizenship, sustainable and health-conscious lifestyles, and thriving lives in peaceful societies for European citizens.

The key competence frameworks developed by the JRC include guidelines and tools for lifelong learning to achieve entrepreneurial, life, green and digital competences through lifelong learning.

The EntreComp (2016) framework was developed in partnership with DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion and it includes a set of skills to improve defined areas: ‘ideas and opportunities’, ‘resources’ and ‘into action’. Such skills include creativity, valuing ideas, mobilising resources, working with others and taking the initiative.

LifeComp (2020) involve skills such as flexibility, communication, collaboration, critical thinking and managing learning.

GreenComp (2022) involve skills such as critical and systems thinking and problem framing to embrace complexity in sustainability. Proper learning should also improve individual initiative, collective action, and political agency skills to allow for embodying of sustainability values, envisioning sustainable futures and acting for sustainability.

Over the past decade, significant progress has been made in the development and updating of DigComp (2013), DigComp 2.0 (2016), DigComp 2.1 (2017), and DigComp 2.2 (2022). These frameworks emphasise the need to enhance competences in five key areas: information and data literacy, communication and collaboration, digital content creation, digital safety, and problem solving.

In March 2023, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) published a significant analysis examining the influence of the green transition on employment and jobs. The study revealed that while the demand for green jobs is consistently growing, the current supply of such jobs falls short of meeting the labour market's needs. Specifically, the OECD highlights that 70% of European firms experience shortages of workers possessing green skills.

As part of the initiatives towards a sustainable future, the OECD, similar to the ILO and JRC, recognises the importance of investing in lifelong adult learning to attract a suitable workforce, facilitate re-skilling and up-skilling, and equip individuals with essential green skills. The OECD highlights that current adult learning systems face challenges in keeping pace with labour market transformations. Nevertheless, these systems have the potential to play a crucial role in shaping a green future through comprehensive strategies and systematic evaluation of curricula, adopting a sector-specific approach. Additionally, providing support and incentives for employers, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), to train their workers can further enhance the effectiveness of adult learning systems in promoting sustainability.

In conclusion, all major international organisations agree on the importance of lifelong learning to cater for the transition to a greener, more inclusive, and sustainable future. To achieve this, lifelong learning must be accompanied by coherent skills, sectoral and environmental policies, as well as sound local coordinated partnerships between institutions, economic sectors and social partners. All stakeholders shall work together to anticipate and monitor the skills needed and to provide incentives and guidelines to promote targeted lifelong learning to acquire green, digital, and transversal life skills among the workforce more effectively. This will be achieved together with active labour market policies, career guidance measures and a better alignment of environmental and labour market policy.

The Smartly project enables partners to contribute to addressing labour market skills and competences growth in line with the international policy context.

The activities that are being developed to improve partner organisations’ profiling tools and capacity will improve the support to youths for the identification of their training needs. Furthermore, the activities will help to develop learning paths consistent with preferred individual career choices for youths, in line with labour market needs particularly for green and digital jobs.

Induction training courses on green and digital skills have been developed in line with the European Qualification Framework in order to facilitate mainstreaming. Smartly aims to raise candidates' awareness of actual labour market needs and consequent opportunities for their careers, while providing them with induction skills that are required in the era of the twin transition.

Article written by Eleonora Turchetto, Senior Research Officer, at PoloGr (Fondazione Polo Universitario Grossetano).

References:

http://learningportal.iiep.unesco.org/en/glossary/lifelong-learning

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/infographics/lifelonglearning

https://www.uil.unesco.org/en/articles/european-communities-memorandum-lifelong-learning-issued-2000

https://ec.europa.eu/ploteus/content/descriptors-page

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52009XG0528(01)&from=EN

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2012:070:0009:0018:EN:PDF

http://www.european-council.europa.eu/home-page?lang=en

http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=101&langId=en

https://www.ilo.org/

https://www.skillsforemployment.org/skpEng