2023: European Year of Skills

Opinion by Alice Corovessi, Managing Director INZEB

In her State of the Union address in September 2022, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission proclaimed 2023 as the European Year of Skills.?

The EU Year of Skills?is an excellent opportunity for the European countries and the organisations working and supporting adults’ upskilling and reskilling to showcase their great achievements but also a great opportunity to exchange and replicate best practices and discuss the transformation of people and communities through collaboration. To reach the maximum for the education and lifelong learning domains, a stronger governance structure at all levels is needed while an inclusive approach should be foreseen to promote social, environmental, and economic sustainability.

Construction, Renovation, and Skills

Several studies highlight that building renovation creates local jobs and stimulates much-needed investments in economies. According to the Sustainable Recovery report (IEA, 2020), building renovation is the biggest job creator with 12 to 18 local jobs for every million invested. At the same time, the European Commission has estimated the potential for an additional 160.000 green jobs in the construction sector in the EU by 2030.?

To deliver the change and support the EU objectives for a decarbonised building stock, a sufficiently large?and skilled workforce composed both of white and blue collars are required.

A climate-neutral building stock is possible but requires new job profiles that consider green and circular skills as mandatory, requires specialists in deep building renovation including specialists for advanced technological solutions, and requires well-informed professionals able to offer end-users updated and resource-efficient services.

At INZEB, we welcome this thematic year and we are ready to contribute to its success both at national and European levels.

If you are interested in our proposals for reskilling and upskilling, we invite you to navigate our study “Feasibility study with an assessment of options as well as recommendations for the establishment of one or more national certification scheme(s) or equivalent qualification scheme(s) for installers of small-scale RES technologies and energy-related building elements in Greece”.

The study was prepared by INZEB for GIZ GmbH in the context of the project “Technical Support for Clean Energy Investments in Greece” (TARES4) with financing from the European Commission and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi).?