Skills needs, developments, vocational education and training systems in the changing electricity sector

(30 October 2018) OThe European social partners for the electricity sector—industriAll European Trade Union and the European
Public Service Union (EPSU), representing the trade unions, and Eurelectric, representing the electricity-
sector employers—have identified the skills needs for the electricity sector and education and training
systems as a priority for their joint work. There are several drivers motivating these priorities. Firstly, the ongoing
transition of the electricity sector driven by the decarbonization and the digitalization of the sector
and the skills required by new technologies and business models. Secondly, high youth unemployment in
Europe: the situation of young people in the labour market, and especially the transition of young people
from education to the labour market, has been identified as a priority.

The mitigation of climate change coupled with digitalization of the sector will have a serious impact on
employment. It will result in shifts in employment and job profiles that need to be addressed urgently. Education
and training systems will have to provide for the skills that our sector needs in order to respond to
these shifts. Our joint understanding and cooperation to promote a Just Transition to clean-energy systems
within the EU is based largely on the skills dimension. Moreover, Europe has recently witnessed an economic
and financial crisis, the effects of which were especially severe for young people. In many EU countries,
young people who wanted to enter the labour market were faced with unemployment or precarious
working conditions. We have addressed this problem in our Joint Agreement on a Quality Framework for
Traineeships in the European Electricity Sector, which provides for good working conditions and standards
for young people in traineeships.

These considerations led us to carry out an EU-funded project to study the drivers of change in the electricity
sector, their impact on job profiles, the diversity of education programmes in Europe and, ultimately,
to identify best practices. With this, the resulting study, it is our ambition to contribute to the discussion
and offer best practice or solutions that could be replicated across the EU. What is more, the study and
its recommendations have led us to develop a roadmap in which we define the key areas in the field of
skills, qualifications, education and professional development that we need to address as European social
partners in the coming years. It includes some very specific commitments for the European social partners
as well as for social partners at national, sectoral and company level.
It is our ultimate objective to offer an attractive work environment and quality employment—built on a
well-educated workforce

• Report: "Skills needs, developments, vocational education and training systems in the changing electricity sector"

• Executive summary of the report "Skills needs, developments, vocational education and training systems in the changing electricity sector" - EN - FR - DE - ES - IT - CZ - RO