Recovery and resilience scoreboard. Adult learning and skills

Abstract

Skills are one of the foundations of the European economy and society by preparing people to seize opportunities and drive transformations, notably in relation to the green and digital transitions. Despite its central role in addressing prevalent skills shortages and mismatches, adult learning participation is still not widespread across EU Member States: Only 10.8% of adults participated in learning in 2021 in the EU (vs. 9.1% in 2020), and only 4.3% of low-skilled adults took part in learning (vs. 3.4% in 2020).1 Only 54% of adults had at least basic digital skills in 2021, with only limited progress over the last years, and the share of ICT graduates remained unchanged compared to the previous year at only 3.9% in 2020. At the same time, demographic change is reducing the available labour force and requires Europe to fully take advantage of all its talents and diversity. Employers report the lack of staff with appropriate skills as the major obstacle to investment while at the same time, the share of firms investing in training fell during the COVID-19 crisis.