As the Year of Skills is now in full swing, there is increasing awareness that in the years to come it will be necessary to mobilise all the stakeholders for the upskilling and reskilling of the workforce, not least in the sectors specifically called upon to deliver net zero emissions by 2050.
As they are at the forefront of the research, innovation and education continuum, universities in Europe are particularly well positioned to bring all the actors together in their territories and strengthen the connections between several local and regional skills ecosystems.
That is why NTNU (the Norwegian University of Science and Technology) and France Universités (the French rectors’ conference) have drafted an opinion paper emphasizing the role universities, including European universities alliances, will be called upon to play in the future.
It is our common belief that universities across Europe already carry out the missions that Skills academies are expected to perform, and that is why the paper asks, among other things, for greater convergence between the two initiatives.
This paper, which has already received the support of several other universities and rectors’ conferences, will be regularly updated as further input is being gathered.
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