“Anticipation of change – towards the creation of a European sector skills council for the European chemical industry?”

The added values of a ESSC in the chemical sector

2nd WorkshopOctober 4th, 2012

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I. Introduction. Added value of the European level and mobilisation of

social partners around skills needs issues.

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A. Mobilisation of social partners around skills needs issues in the chemical sector.

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Anticipating skills needs was at the heart of the ECEG& EMCEF framework Agreement of April 2011

EMCEF and ECEG signed the first framework agreement of its kind, on training and job competences, in the chemical sector on 15 April 2011.

Social partners, taking account the results of their join research on demographic change in the European Chemical Industry, consider than “One of the most dramatic, and indeed imminent consequences of our ageing society concerns the shortage of skilled workforce.“

This agreement shares its objective with various European policy initiatives in this area, in particular the European “New skills for new jobs” initiative launched in December 2008 that aims at reducing the skills mismatch prevalent across Europe.

The need to develop a “better knowledge of today and tomorrow’s skills needs” is also in line with the Europe 2020 Communication ambition to turn Europe into an economy which delivers high levels of employment, productivity and social cohesion:

As stressed by the European Commission, “One way to do this is through EU sectoral council” on jobs and skills.

Main objective of the agreement.To give employees the ability to acquire new skills and qualifications throughout their life in order to adapt change and possible shifts in their career. This is a major challenge for businesses and employees. This helps to manage industrial, economic and technological changes in the chemical industry by offering high levels of mobility and development;

To enable the establishment of benchmark for national qualifications, national Vocational Education and Training (VET) programs and company human resources development, where recognition of existing qualifications gained through ‘learning by doing’ or training on the job might be part of the training;

To foster active support of the social partners in adapting and modernizing VET systems at European and national levels and in-house training and lifelong learning;

To further encourage dialogue between employers and workers in the field of job design and development.

B. Relevance and added value of the European level.

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Relevance and added value at the European level. From the European Commission perspective, the added value of a Skills council at European

level is dependent in part on its capacity to collect accurate and complete data on different issues in order to produce a EU Skill Panorama.

European approach should also represent added value for the European countries in cooperation with ESSC, on various issues:

Skills needs: Chemical industry needs the same “old” and new skills. Cooperation between countries in ESSC for chemical industry will help in finding these new skills easily and also prepare adapted training programs.

Labour and skills supply : in some countries there is lack of specialists and in other countries, Central & Eastern Europe as example, there are surplus of specialists – so it will be task of ESSC to find this disproportions and to give suggestions for mobility

Skills mismatches : it will be more effective and cheaper, if we have European studies, instead of national, with suggestion of ESSC for chemical industry

Emerging and future occupations : more homogeneity and coherence in training system at European level, and more transparency and recognition of qualifications (through EQF) will facilitate mobility and exchange of workers between countries.

II. How the European Skills Council could provide added value in the chemical sector?

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A. National observatories’ expectations and the exchange of good practices

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The need to take into account the national observatories' expectations.

Some expectations may be : cooperation and mutual understanding (issues and concerns about training for instance) between the

concerned stakeholders, identification of space for shared experiences, exchange of good practices between them, production of common work (studies, general view of all the data, etc..), action business & development of e-learning…

Recommendations :•Take the pulse of the stakeholders in the chemical sector (convictions, degree of commitment , identified barriers, expectations)•Put focus on the involvement of social partners•Do you (observatories) think that European skills council will contribute to the existing sectoral systems for anticipating future skills and job requirements in your country?

The exchange of good practices (1)a) Exchange of information

National observatories conduct the same kind of activities that could be shared or exploited at EU level. Among these activities, the following items could be identified:

Analysis of qualitative and quantitative information (labour market, economic trends…) Qualitative and quantitative forecasting Definition of jobs qualifications Qualification of personnel Identification and monitoring of training needs Communication of the training needs towards schools, universities, centers Promotion of matching activities between identified training needs and market offer Fund raising Elaboration of specific projects at EU and national level Accreditation of training bodies

Exchange of information and methodology between observatories can help them to achieve one of the main and common objective : to improve the match on the labour market between demand and supply in quantitative (jobs) and above all qualitative (skills and competencies skills) terms.

Exchange of information and methodology will also promote relevant European research and studies in these areas.

The exchange of good practices (2)

b) The added value of the exchange on methodology

Networking among observatories could give the opportunity for them to share their methodologies. In fact, the experience shows that there is a real lack of convergence between the national observatories in this area of methodology, especially regarding:

Collecting of data, type of data, type of sources of information Definition of concept and in the first place, those of competencies, skills, qualifications. There is a real

need to speak the same conceptual language at European level Frequency of the updating procedure of the quantitative information on employment and skills

systematically collected Methods of release of structured information on employment systematically collected? Methodology and ways to carry out occupations and qualifications forecasting: what are the new

needs, what are the competences, the learning outcomes necessary for this occupation? Link between sectorial and territorial information Checking of the reliability of the information collected and disseminated on employment and skills Most updated quantitative information on training in the reference sector/territory?

The exchange of good practices (2)

Recommendations :•Put focus on the added value of exchange of qualitative information (methodology -good practices and experiences)

•Need to have a good organization inside the European Skills council (need to have an entity (secretariat ?) able to arrange meeting , collect , store and disseminate information, tools and outcomes regarding future employment and skills in the sector)

• Need of financial support (meeting, travelling, etc…)

B. From exchange of best practices to joint development of policies and action.

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Involvement in action making process.The exchange of information and good practices will certainly contribute to this objective but joint development of policies and action are more likely to achieve direct and indirect effects than those focused on the exchange of information and tools (result of a research done by Ecorys at European level). Combination of exchange of information and action or development of policies could be a real added value (in particular for EU social partners)The use the ESSC for direct training actions? Stakeholders expect that such a European Council will clearly contribute to make training systems more responsive of needs on the labour market and to enhance the skills of labour market entrants and workers. ESSC could facilitate the role of social partners in this area of action.

Recommendations :•It is in the interest of stakeholders (especially social partners) in the European Council to set targets (achievable objectives) that they have themselves prioritized.

•Objectives must be realistic and limited: for instance, do you think that an European Council will give advice? make e-learning courses ? Is it a tool for recognition of qualifications between Member States? A tool to promote mobility, employability policies?

Added value and synergies between the actions.

Recommendations :•Promote cooperation with existing EU initiatives, notably in the field of labour market trends, education and training, anticipating change

•Put focus on the work done by social partners at EU level (multi stages involvement of social partners)

•Put a distinction between information, dialogue (European skill council) and negotiation (another thing)•Think about the need for financial support (travel cost for meeting…)

•Increase organizational agility

•Does the European Council need an Economic model for its expansion?

Unity is strength!

Thanks for your attention

Jean-Jacques Paris

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