It is rare that the governments, employers and unions of the 27 member states agree, but political actors and social agents share concern about the changes that the labor market has already begun to experience. The rise in the average age of workers, digitalization and the ecological transition give rise to a transformation that is advancing at a forced pace, increasing the ‘gap’ between the skills required by companies and those that people of working age have. In this context, leaders consider that it is essential to promote training but they emphasize the importance of doing so not only in the skills that are needed today, but also in the coming decades and to identify them they propose using Artificial Intelligence (AI). ). ).
“Public employment agencies and European networks can map which skills are most in demand today and try to anticipate which will be most in demand in the future in this way. AI can help us reduce this lack of fit in the market “labor” said the European Commissioner for Employment and Social Rights, Nicolas Schmit, at the conference on Active Employment Policies held this week in Barcelona. The representative of the body led by Ursula von der Leyen was convinced of the change that the implementation of this tool could bring to guide public and private training and made reference to some models that have already been launched in Spain.
The use of this technology is also present in the Volt EU Talent Pool initiative, which received initial support from the European Parliament and on which the European Commission is expected to issue a proposal at the end of the month. The project seeks to replace the EURES community employment portal and instead build a platform that allows people from other member states or third countries to express their willingness to work in a certain country or in a given economic sector. Once the data has been entered, the artificial intelligence would be in charge of making a ‘match’ between the candidate and the company that needs their services. As one of the party representatives explained to La Información, the objective is also to develop this website together with the public employment services of the 27 to enhance its reach.
Continuous training as a pending task.
“Jobs are going to change in the near future, it is best to work with those who are already in the labor market” defended the confederal secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), Ludovic Voet, on the same day. “We cannot ask workers to prepare for a job that we still do not know what it will be, that is why we need a social dialogue that allows us to anticipate changes and be able to identify the sectors that are going to be transformed, identify which professions are going to be transform and how” explained the representative of the unions. Who understands that it is crucial to “not leave workers alone” and create concrete training programs to prepare them for those jobs of the future.
Employers also agree on putting emphasis on preventing the skills of people who already have a job from becoming obsolete, which has led to the signing of the Barcelona Declaration, the first signed by the agents. . for almost a decade (2016), as celebrated by the Vice President of the Government and Acting Minister of Labor and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz. The social partners, the European Commission and the Council of the European Union have committed to promoting tripartite dialogue to “promote skills, the improvement of qualifications and requalification throughout the professional life of the working-age population “. “.
Currently the number of jobs not filled due to problems finding a suitable candidate is equivalent to 2.7% of the active population, despite the fact that unemployment is above 5%, which leads employers to do reference to a lack of valuation between demand and supply in the European labor market, as happens in Spain. However, the objective goes beyond reducing unemployment and filling vacancies and seeks to increase the productivity of companies, while guaranteeing decent working conditions, as explained by the actors.
