An in-depth overview of the EU cohesion funds' investments in skills in the context of the European Year of Skills : final report

This in-depth overview of European Union (EU) cohesion funds' investment in skills aims to better understand the proportion of planned investments by the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+), European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), and Just Transition Fund (JTF) dedicated to labour-market focused education, training and skills. Other EU funds that support skills exist as well, such as the Recovery and Resilience Fund (RRF), Erasmus+, Technical Support Instrument (TSI) and Horizon Europe. However, they are not covered in this report. Through a combination of quantitative and qualitative research, the report presents the overview of the volume and share of planned financing targeted at education, training and skills, including the types of activities and target groups associated with these investments, across relevant investment priorities, programmes and Member States. Member States1 actively contributed to this report by reviewing the initial data assembled by a team of researchers at the ESF+ Support Centre. Types of activities are grouped by interventions that are directly related to (formal and non-formal) education and training at various levels, as well as those related to the context of training activities (promotion, guidance, curriculum review, etc.). Target groups are presented by age, as well as additional socio-economic factors, such as employment status, and specific types of vulnerabilities. This analysis allows to compile the overall financial estimates of EU cohesion funds allocated to skills and the estimated expected range of participants in skills-related measures.