Pact for Skills: upskilling and reskilling are needed, but adequate EU funding needs to be deployed
On the occasion of the European Vocational Skills Week, The European Commission launched on 10 November 2020 a Pact for Skills to encourage relevant stakeholders to make concrete commitments to upskill and reskill workers.
Mr. Alexandros Vassilikos, HOTREC board member, had previously represented HOTREC at a round table on this initiative organised by the European Commission with the participation of both Commissioner Breton and Commissioner Schmit (29 October).
Stakeholders joining the Pact were invited to sign up to a Charter, engage with measurable commitments and report annually on their progress to the European Commission via KPIs. By signing the Charter, stakeholders can benefit from EU support through networking, knowledge and guidance.
Nevertheless, we would have welcomed a bottom-up approach and the necessary EU funding to develop much-needed training.
HOTREC also hopes that Member States will include the necessary financial support to reskill and upskill workers in their national Recovery Plans. Other forms of easy-to-use national and EU funding for hospitality SMEs and micro-enterprises would be welcome, as well.
Developing massive training has always been amongst hospitality’s priorities. To this end, HOTREC and EFFAT – its trade union counterpart –signed a pledge under the umbrella of the European Alliance for Apprenticeship to encourage their members to develop apprenticeship schemes at national level.
