We are thrilled to share that we are developing two comprehensive course modules as part of the "No One Behind! Digital and Ecological Competences for Vulnerable People" project. These modules aim to empower individuals facing challenges in accessing green job opportunities in Austria's dynamic Tourism and Retail sectors.

Course Highlights:

Unit 1: Navigating the Green Job Landscape

Discover green job search engines and platforms.

Explore social networks for job opportunities and effective networking strategies.

Learn how to build a professional online presence.

Unit 2: Europass CV and Certificate in Employability

Understand the Europass Certificate Supplement and its components.

Gain insights on utilising Europass for job applications in Austria.

This course is designed to equip vulnerable communities with the skills and knowledge needed to thrive in the evolving green job market.

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is one of the EU's oldest and most comprehensive policies. It has been shaping European agriculture for over six decades, aiming to ensure food security, support farmers, and protect the environment.

What is the CAP?

The CAP is a set of rules adopted by the EU to support farmers and ensure a stable food supply across the bloc. Initially focused on increasing agricultural production and guaranteeing affordable food, the CAP has evolved over the years to address new challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, and rural development.

Why is the CAP important for sustainability?

The CAP plays a crucial role in promoting sustainability in the European Union. Here's how:

• Environmental Protection: The CAP has integrated environmental measures into its framework. These include measures to reduce the use of pesticides and fertilizers, protect water resources, and promote biodiversity.
• Climate Action: The CAP supports farmers in adopting practices that mitigate and adapt to climate change, such as agroforestry, organic farming, and carbon sequestration.

Rural Development: By investing in rural areas, the CAP helps to maintain vibrant rural communities and preserve cultural landscapes.

• Food Security: A sustainable agricultural sector is essential for long-term food security. By promoting resilient and diversified farming systems, the CAP contributes to a stable food supply.

Challenges and Future Directions

While the CAP has made significant strides in promoting sustainability, challenges remain. These include balancing the needs of farmers with environmental protection, addressing the complexity of agricultural systems, and ensuring fair distribution of benefits.

Looking ahead, the CAP will need to continue evolving to meet the growing challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, and food security. Future CAP reforms should focus on further integrating environmental objectives, supporting farmers in the transition to more sustainable practices, and promoting short food supply chains.

In conclusion, the CAP is a cornerstone of European agricultural policy and plays a vital role in promoting sustainability. By addressing environmental challenges, supporting rural development, and ensuring food security, the CAP contributes to a more sustainable future for Europe.

The project partners of No One Behind! are currectly creating the content of the training paltform. Interviews with employers and workers in the green sector will be part of the content offered to our future users, and Inforef has been busy lately. Last week, we put on our boots and headed to the fields of Le Jardin Vivifiant, an urban farm where customers do their own harvesting. This week, we visisted La Ressourcerie, a company that collects and repairs discarded furniture and objects to sell them in one of their second hand stores. Organic farming and recycling/upcycling will be the two sectors addressed in the Belgian section of the platform.

Europe is undergoing a significant transformation driven by the urgent need for green and digital advancements. As Thierry Breton, the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, noted, this rapid change is unprecedented in history and requires an extensive overhaul of industries employing millions of workers. At the inaugural Pact for Skills Forum in Brussels, the emphasis was placed on a skills revolution as a critical component of this transition.

New digital skills are essential for the green transition, which simultaneously propels the development of new technologies. This dual shift necessitates collaboration between the public and private sectors to upskill and reskill the workforce. Paul Guest, the forum's moderator, highlighted that the strategic decisions guiding Europe's future—particularly in green and digital domains—are shaping the skills required.

The European Commission has initiated several programs, such as the European Training Foundation's focus on building skills for the green economy. The Pact for Skills, a key component of the European Skills Agenda, supports these efforts, aiming to upskill and reskill workers across the continent.

Commissioners Thierry Breton and Nicolas Schmit stressed the urgency of this endeavor, citing Europe's ambitious goal of achieving zero carbon emissions by 2050 and the rapid adoption of technologies like artificial intelligence. The continent faces a significant skills shortage, with 70% of companies reporting difficulties in finding appropriately skilled workers.

To address these challenges, the European Commission categorized the continent's industrial capacity into 14 ecosystems, encouraging stakeholders from various sectors to collaborate on skills development. This collaborative model has already retrained five million people, with a target of 25 million by 2030.

A crucial aspect of this transformation involves promoting STEM fields and encouraging diverse participation, including women and youth, in these areas. Additionally, there is a need to attract skilled migrants to Europe, a point emphasized by Breton and Schmit as essential for maintaining competitiveness and innovation.

The European Training Foundation is also working to address the skills dimension of migration, facilitating partnerships with countries like Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia. This holistic approach aims to create mutually beneficial outcomes for migrants, their countries of origin, and Europe.

In conclusion, Europe's green and digital transitions demand a comprehensive skills revolution, engaging all sectors and leveraging both internal and external talent. This collective effort is crucial for ensuring that Europe remains a competitive and innovative global player. 

For more detailed information, please access the article here

Patricia Urban and her colleagues' 2023 report, "Jobs for the Green Transition," delves deeply into green jobs, or those that benefit the environment. They describe how the COVID-19 pandemic and other world crises are making these jobs more crucial. We believe the report gives a well structured discussion of green jobs and the context of the green transition, together with policy examples. We summarize their conclusions and ideas here, and you can access the full report here.

Getting to Know Green Jobs

The report stresses how important green jobs are for moving the economy toward activities that are better for the environment. Green jobs are different because they require non-standard cognitive abilities, more formal education, and a lot of training on the job. Because of this, we need to know more about which jobs might be affected by or help with the greening processes. Even though international organizations and academics have come up with different definitions, there is still no single way to classify and measure these jobs.

A Different Way to Classify Green Jobs

The researchers suggest a new way to look at green jobs that considers everything from the company’s impact on the environment to the kind of tasks each worker does. They also want to start looking at the environmental impact of the materials used in these jobs. However, they find it hard to gather all the needed information and to keep up with how fast the job market changes.

The Role of Digital Jobs

Digital jobs, or jobs related to technology, are also highlighted as important for supporting green jobs. As technology progresses, it can help make other industries greener and more sustainable. This area needs more exploration to better understand how technology and green jobs can work together.

Implications for policy and social issues

On the policy front, there is a noticeable emphasis on developing sector-specific skills to foster green jobs. But this way of thinking might make it harder to understand how the green transition will affect things in a bigger picture. The report wants assessments to be more thorough and look at both direct and indirect effects on workers across all industries. Also, social factors need to be taken into account right away to make sure that the switch to a green economy is fair for everyone and doesn't hurt vulnerable groups more than others.

To harness the full potential of green jobs, the following strategies are recommended:

1. Developing an Integrated Framework: Establish a comprehensive classification system that includes all aspects of green jobs, from environmental impacts to social equity.

2. Enhancing Data Collection and Measurement:Improve the availability and granularity of data related to material inputs and green job metrics to refine the taxonomy and make it more actionable.

3. Bridging Digital and Green Divides: Explore the intersections between digital technology and green jobs to foster sectors that are both innovative and sustainable.

4. Fostering Sector-Wide and Inter-Sectoral Training: Expand re- and upskilling programs beyond sector-specific boundaries to prepare a workforce capable of adapting to diverse environmental challenges.

5.Prioritizing Social Justice: Integrate social policies that prevent the marginalization of vulnerable workers and ensure equitable benefits from the green transition.