Innovation, technological evolution and the transformation of business models require the development of new skills in manufacturing. Europe is today the world's leading centre of innovation in manufacturing and to maintain this leading position in the future, it will have to equip itself with a highly specialised workforce (so-called highly-skilled workers) and with highly flexible and dynamic skills (skills flexibility).
Today, in Europe, just over 10% of workers have participated in post-graduate training courses and over 54% of workers need reskilling in order to remain competitive in a highly competitive and increasingly specialised labour market. According to a recent international survey, 74% of top managers in manufacturing companies believe that the skills needed in the sector are changing rapidly and 82% of companies are already investing in developing new training paths for their workers.
It is therefore clear that the availability and development of new, advanced and flexible skills in workers should be considered a top priority for the European manufacturing sector. To this end, it is necessary to promote the development of a wide range of programmes that see, also thanks to the collaboration between public and private actors, the definition of new models of continuous training, upskilling and reskilling of workers' skills.