Skills for Key Enabling Technologies in Europe : vision for the development of skills for Key Enabling Technologies (KETs)

For Europe to be able to fully realise KETs growth potential in the future, there is a need to align the supply and demand of KETs skills. From a qualitative perspective, Europe needs to ensure a good alignment of skills possessed by the current and future employees with industry requirements. From a quantitative perspective, Europe needs to ensure the presence of a sufficient number of people who are qualified, available and willing to work in KETs. These two perspectives form a holistic vision that needs to be translated into concrete actions to tackle the KETs skills-related challenges in a coherent, consistent, efficient and coordinated manner at all levels. The current Vision Paper aims to contribute in this respect. This paper has been prepared by PwC for DG GROWTH of the European Commission under the initiative on the "Vision and Sectoral Pilot on Skills for Key Enabling Technologies". The paper has been developed in close collaboration with the relevant stakeholder groups including industry (both large companies and SMEs), academia and policy makers, as well as various supporting structures such as industry associations, cluster organisations and other network organisations and collaboration platforms. The inputs for this paper were collected by means of in-depth interviews, broader online stakeholder consultation, as well as a dedicated validation workshop. The paper sketches the overall vision on skills for KETs in Europe and offers specific measures. It specifically highlights the key directions for action regarding both qualitative and quantitative KETs skills-related challenges. Those directions for action include (1) ensuring a good alignment of educational programmes with industry needs (quality); (2) facilitating regular (re-)training of current employees (quality); (3) raising awareness about KETs in the society (quantity); and (4) improving the image of KETs as a field to work in (quantity). The proposed measures are clustered around the identified four key directions for action. The paper provides a brief description of suggested measures together with a clear indication of timelines, budget requirements and responsible stakeholder groups. The paper also indicates the target groups that need to be addressed by each proposed measure. These target groups are split into specific KETs workforce development stages starting from primary & secondary education students, and going all the way up to doctoral programmes, as well current employees, and, whenever relevant, covering also employers, educational administrators and teachers.