SKYLA – Skills for Twin Transition

The Cluster of Mechatronics and Automation is involved in the SKYLA project to develop and anticipate the skills needed for a successful twin transition to digital and green transformation.

SKYLA places skills at the centre of the twin policies of green and digital transition and the strengthening of Vocational Education and Training (VET) in the context of regional ecosystems and innovation strategies. The project is funded under the INTERREG Europe 2021-2027 programme and co-funded by the EU ERDF.

Aware of their political role in addressing skills shortages and the need to support workers to retrain and up-skill, 10 partners from 8 European regions, supported by a lifelong learning expert association, are collaborating within SKYLA to address VET constraints in innovation ecosystems.

All partner regions in the SKYLA project note similar concerns about future employment, especially in the wake of the COVID pandemic and due to the complex or sometimes non-existent links between SMEs as the economic backbone in the regions and VET providers. An important prerequisite for successful links between education and business needs is the creation of capacity in the regions to anticipate the skills that will be required by the fast-growing advanced industries with digital and green technologies.

In the longer term, the EU is committed to promoting the dual green and digital transition to make its economy fairer, more sustainable and resilient. Vocational education and training is a key instrument for implementing this development strategy. To meet today’s challenges, VET systems need to adapt and modernise hand in hand with smart specialisation strategies, and VET will play an increasing role in strategy development and the management of regional economies.

SKYLA’s overall objective is to support public authorities in placing future skills at the centre of the dual transition to smarter and more sustainable development by strengthening and adapting the role of VET in innovation ecosystems and smart specialisation strategies (S4/S3).

To accomplish this, SKYLA partners are collaborating at the interregional level to achieve the following specific objectives:

• Promoting interregional knowledge exchange on policy adaptation and modernisation of VET systems, their integration into smart specialisation processes and the needs of innovation ecosystems. To fulfil this objective, all partners will actively participate in 23 interregional events organised by SKYLA.
• Creating policy improvements to integrate skills for the dual green and digital transition, with a new role and improved capacity of VET systems. In order to achieve this goal, the Cluster of Mechatronics and Automation is actively involved in the development of a Policy Needs Assessment, which together with the cross-regional exchange of experience and knowledge will be used to create an Action Plan for the improvement of the Strategy for Young People of Sofia Municipality 2017-2027.
• Sharing and implementing good practices for VET that leverage the regions’ resources and respond to the needs for skilled and educated workforce. Each SKYLA partner region will identify a minimum of 2 good practices from their territory to offer solutions to the new workforce challenges for the dual transition.
• Work with local stakeholders by holding meetings in each semester of the project.
• Implementation of the Action Plans and monitoring of the effects achieved for local policies and long-term impact on territorial development during Phase 2 of the project.

The main target groups of SKYLA in the partner regions are VET organisations, industry representatives with a focus on digital and green growth, public administrations and agencies, NGOs in the field of modern learning and lifelong learning. In a broader range of communication, SKYLA seeks to reach citizens, students and workers from different sectors related to the dual green and digital transformation.

The project has a duration of 4 years from 01.03.2023 to 31.05.2027 and a total budget of 2,080,524 EUR.

SKYLA project partners are as follows:

• Agency for the development of the Empolese Valdelsa (IT)
• Podlaskie Voivodeship (PL)
• Regional Council of Skåne, Department for Regional Development (SE)
• Industrial Development Center South (SE)
• Sofia Municipality (BG)
• Cluster of Mechatronics and Automation (BG)
• Fingal County Council (IE)
• Regional Development Fund of Attica (EL)
• European Association of Regional and Local Authorities for Lifelong Learning (BE)
• European Social Fund Agency (LT)
• Pôle emploi Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (FR)

Web site of the SKYLA project: http://www.interregeurope.eu/skyla

Contacts: cma@cluster-mechatronics-automation.com