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Closing soon: CALL FOR PROPOSAL under "ERASMUS +" PROGRAMME - a new strategic approach (Blueprint) to sectoral cooperation on skills

10 April 2017

(From ec.europa.eu)

The European Commission published a call for proposals on 26 January 2017. The topic was Sector Skills Alliances, which is part of the ERASMUS + Programme.

The call focuses on Sector Skills Alliances for:

• skills needs identification (Lot 1)

• design and delivery of VET (Vocation and Education training) (Lot 2)

implementing a new strategic approach: a "Blueprint for Sectoral Cooperation on Skills" (Lot 3)

The new Lot 3 focuses on 6 pilot sectors: defence, automobile, maritime technology, space, textile and tourism. This call is the first step in the Blueprint for Sectoral Cooperation on Skills. The blueprint is one of the 10 actions under the “New Skills Agenda for Europe” initiative. The Blueprint's goal is to improve skills intelligence. It also aims to provide a clear strategy and instruments to reduce skills shortages in the 6 pilot sectors.

The call will help European Sector Skills Alliances (made up by several stakeholder groups) in developing a sectoral skills strategy together. This strategy, in turn, supports the implementation of the Blueprint. The strategy should cover many activities and outputs to match the demand and supply of skills. This way, it adds to the sector specific growth strategy. Together, these strategies lead to systemic and structural solutions to reduce skills shortages. They also ensure appropriate quality and skill levels to aid growth, innovation and competitiveness in the sector.

Matching skills demand and supply is a growing challenge for the automotive sector. The call is an opportunity to tackle this challenge by enabling actions to overcome the current skills shortages.

The EU Alliances should be industry lead and include other relevant stakeholders, such as:

  • education and training providers.
  • social partners.
  • clusters and networks.
  • research institutes.
  • statistical bodies.
  • employment services.
  • qualification authorities.

The Blueprint can only bring results if the sector stakeholders drive and own it. That's why the full involvement of social partners is important. The Sector Skills Alliances under Lot 3 must cover at least 6 Programme Countries and include at least 12 organisations. At least 5 of these should be enterprises, industry or sector representatives and at least 5 should be education and training providers.

The total anticipated funding is 24 million euros for 6 pilot sectors. So each grant will amount to a maximum of 4 million euros. We will select one project per sector and the deadline for applications is 2 May 2017. The indicated starting period of the work is December 2017.

We're already establishing an alliance of stakeholders for the automotive sector. Potential partners willing to join may be accepted. There is a specific need for education and training providers as well as representatives from larger EU countries.

For expression of interest in the AUTOMOTIVE sector please contact us via the following email: GROW-GEAR2030@ec.europa.eu

Documents and links:

Call notice

Partner search tool

We held and webstreamed an online information event about this call for proposals on 16 February 2017. See the presentations and videos

More on the New Skills Agenda