The UfM and the European Training Foundation consolidate their partnership for better employment prospects in the Euro-Mediterranean Region

Turin, 25 November 2019. The Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean and the European Training Foundation have joined efforts to co-organize the UfM Workshop on the Future of Work and Skills for the Future in partnership with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), with a focus on three key thematics, namely Entrepreneurial Skills, Digital Skills and Green Skills.

The Workshop brought together over 50 stakeholders and active actors from regional and international organizations, business support organizations, the private Sector, the civil society, development cooperation and academia from both shores of the Euro-Mediterranean Region. They exchange views and experiences, share best practices and lessons learned, and present policy recommendations and ideas for developing pertinent policies and projects to unleash the full potential of these sectors and to develop specific skill-sets.

The Ministerial Declaration of the 4th UfM Ministerial Conference on Employment and Labour held in Cascais on 2-3 April 2019 placed an unequivocal emphasis on “the importance of the concertation (…) in contributing to finding sustainable solutions to the challenges of the future of work.” The Ministers welcomed the decision of ILO to place 2019 under the forward-looking topic of the “Future of Work”, and underlined “the role that skills development plays to boost employability, competitiveness and growth and to address better the challenges of technological change and digitalization of the economy in the region.”

During his speech at the Workshop, the UfM Deputy Secretary General for Business Development and Employment, Rachid Maaninou, reviewed the state-of-play of the UfM Med4Jobs flagship initiative stressed that “this event is only a first step towards consolidating a concrete partnership with ETF as we pursue our common ambition of equipping generation after generation with the necessary skills for the future labour landscape.”

For his part, ETF Director, Cesare Onestini, took stock of the efforts undertaken by the European Training Foundation in promoting “Skills for the Future” and highlighted the importance of the partnership with the Union for the Mediterranean.

In the margins of the Workshop, the UfM delegation held a side meeting with ETF and DG Employment, during which they discussed the coordination of efforts towards acting upon the four priority areas of action identified by the UfM Member States in the Ministerial Declaration on Employment and Labour (Cascais, 3 April 2019).

The Outcome Document of the Workshop can be consulted in the next days here.