EU: a pact to develop skills in the tourism sector

Launched by the European Commission on 31 January 2022, the call for’ reskilling and upskilling the European tourism workforce’ forms the backbone of the new variant of the Pact for Skills that was launched in November 2020. The flagship skills action plan has already benefited the textile, aerospace, microelectronics and maritime sectors, and is geared to enabling the creation of public-private partnerships that can develop reskilling and upskilling plans for workers in sectors undergoing rapid change. The bodies behind this call include EFFAT, the European Federation of Food, Agriculture and Tourism Trade Unions, and HOTREC, the umbrella association of Hotels, Restaurants, Cafés & similar establishments in Europe, and they note that skills is a major challenge facing the tourism sector (c.f. article No. 12267), where more than 25% of workers have few or no qualifications. Initially, the partnership should enable the retraining of the workforce that was lost during the pandemic, as well as the training of the sector’s current employees, 10% of whom should access training by 2022. In the longer term, the signatories want to put a more flexible skills development system in place; one which facilitates prompt needs assessments as well as the implementation of continuous training. In this way, they aim to ‘respond to the challenges posed by the digital and ecological transitions,’ ‘reduce job insecurity’ and ‘improve working conditions,’ which could lead to ‘higher levels of recruitment and retention of workers.’ The Pact will be implemented at European level and rolled out in each Member State.