On Monday 12 April, in the context of a series of similar events, the European Commission organised a ‘High Level Roundtable on Skills for the Cultural and Creative Industries Ecosystem’.
Hosted by three Commissioners: Commissioner Mariya Gabriel (Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth), Commissioner Thierry Breton (Internal Market) and Commissioner Nicolas Schmit (Jobs and Social Rights), the objectives of this meeting were to “discuss challenges facing the Cultural and Creative Industries Ecosystem in terms of upskilling and reskilling of the workforce; identify the support needed for skills development at the European level and, in particular, how the new European Skills Agenda including the Pact for Skills can support the different industries in this strategic ecosystem, and obtain commitments from the participants of the discussion regarding their contribution to the Pact for Skills.”
At the meeting, UNI MEI and Pearle *, the ‘Performing Arts Employers Association League Europe’ delivered a joint statement on behalf of the Creative Skills Europe partnership, that brings together social partners in the audiovisual and live performance sectors (UNI MEI, Pearle*, FIA, FIM, EFJ and EBU).
They presented the key results achieved by Creative Skills Europe in the last years and put forward a number of recommendations:
– in the cultural & creative sectors, skills development has to gain more visibility at all levels (company-level and sector level);
– funding solutions have to urgently be made availabe to sector professionals more broadly and evenly across the EU;
– more sector specific labour market intelligence and skills need assessments should be produced and shared across EU borders;
– more sector-level initiatives should be promoted in order to develop training actions that fit the sectors’ needs but also to mutualise resources in an ecosystem that counts a large majority of very small businesses and a large and increasing proportion of workers engaged under non-permanent working relationships.
A ‘Pact for Skills’ is expected to be put in place by the European Commission for the Cultural and Creative Industries Ecosystem in the coming months.
European social partners will follow this dossier with attention and, in particular, monitor any new funding opportunities that could appear, especially in the context of the Recovery and Resilience Facility.
