The Pact for Skills is one of the flagship actions of the European Skills Agenda.
The Pact aims to support public and private organisations with upskilling and reskilling, so they can thrive through the green and digital transitions.
A strong connection will be established with the Pact for Skills initiative, in order to make useful content for the members that will implement the pact.
The Pact for Skill roundtable raised several issues the Agri-food sector is facing and identified potential ways of overcoming them: upskilling and reskilling workers; intersectoral skill transfers; increased attractiveness of the sector to youth; digital transition; partnerships between learning institutions and companies.
In the FIELDS project we foresee the subscription of a sector skill alliance (task 5.4) among the members of FIELDS project. Lately was agreed during project meeting to instead participate in the Pact for Skills for the agri-food ecosystem. So, it is very helpful that you subscribe the pact for skills: your participation is not resource demanding and is not binding in terms of key performance indicators, but does not provide any money to the members.
The Pact for Skills brings together various stakeholders to ensure high-quality vocational education and training, as well as upskilling and reskilling of the European workforce in all ecosystems, including the agri-food sector. This initiative aims to meet the challenges of green and digital transitions while attracting and retaining a skilled workforce. The agri-food ecosystem, comprising the largest producing and manufacturing sectors in Europe, faces globalization, climate change, changing consumer demands, and competition. The ecosystem requires a skilled workforce, including agronomists, sustainability experts, digital and food technologists, while addressing skill shortages, bridging curriculum gaps, and supporting SMEs. The Pact for Skills aims to develop partnerships, enhance vocational education, promote lifelong learning, and improve sectoral attractiveness. It plans to monitor progress, recognize skills, and align with sustainable development goals.
The roadmap will also utilize resources from projects like FooD-STA, ASKFOOD, FIELDS, and I-RESTART, supported by the European Commission. Stakeholders such as farmers, cooperatives, processors, associations, EU confederations, and education organizations will be engaged through the social dialogue framework. Actions will be accompanied by Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to assess impact and progress. Communication will be improved to attract young talent and address the challenges faced by the ecosystem.
Special attention will be given to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to align their specific skills needs.
The Pact4skills is associated with both the FIELDS and I-RESTART projects, coordinated by the University of Turin and the Confederation of Farmers – Confagricoltura. In the case of the FIELDS project, the task 5.4 is related to the establishment of the sector skill alliance.
We encourage you to subscribe the pact for skills as soon as possible, as proof of participation you could send us the pdf of the Application form, we need it for the deliverable of task 5.4. We are available for clarification, for further information you can send an email to the coordinators: remigio.berruto@unito.it or d.rossi@confagricoltura.it.
