The Health ecosystem includes:
- Pharmaceuticals and other medical products
- Personal protective equipment
- Medical services, hospitals, nursing homes, residential care
Find out more about the LSP(s) in this ecosystem and their commitments below:
Challenges
The health workforce represents a significant share of the European workforce. Despite its importance, the health sector continues to face considerable workforce challenges which were exacerbated by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. A starting point to address these challenges is by tackling the urgent need for health workforce upskilling and reskilling. However, the health sector is faced with complexities that make upskilling and reskilling a rather difficult exercise. Such complexities include the rapid transformation of the sector – including digital and green transformations – coupled with the known workforce shortages, further increased by large-scale resignation of health professionals, in particular from the frontline. This comes as a consequence of increased workloads and difficult working conditions and impacts the ability and willingness of health professionals to participate in training opportunities. Despite these difficulties, developing skills which support the health sector’s transformation is essential. Digitalisation is core to this transformative process. Nevertheless, the health sector is lagging behind when it comes to seizing digital opportunities. Training on digital technologies is often offered only as an optional course and health professionals report that they do not have enough opportunities to make full use of digital technologies. Besides digitalisation, a future-ready health workforce should also be resourced and trained to engage with the green transition towards more environmentally sustainable health provision which respects the ‘one health’ principles.
Size of the labour market
Almost 15 million people in Europe work in healthcare occupations.
Commitments made under the Pact for Skills
The Health Large Scale Partnership will create and implement a shared model for the skills development of the health workforce in Europe, with a particular focus on green and digital skills. In addition, the Health Partnership will also establish a culture of life-long learning, will ensure dialogue with an between health professionals, and will aim to address the disparities among health and education systems. Last but not least of all, the Partnership will foster exchange of data on skills gaps and needs for existing and emerging occupations. The partnership will nourish equal opportunities to upskilling and reskilling within the health sector
For further information please refer to:
Challenges
The skills required in the Long Term Care (LTC) sector are constantly evolving and becoming increasingly complex. However, a lack of investment into training means that workers are not getting the digital and soft skills development required to provide person-centred care and support.
Additionally, access to training is hindered by several factors such as the heterogeneous size of employers and the lack of social dialogue in several countries. Long term care workers generally have lower qualifications than health workers, which can also affect the quality of care delivered.
Size of the labour market
There are over a 100 000 Long Term Care Providers (LTCP) throughout Europe, employing over 6.3 million long-term care workers in the EU (in 2019).
Commitments made under the Pact for Skills
The Skills Partnership for Long Term Care aims to train at least 60 % of LTC professionals every year in areas related to digitalisation and person-centred care by 2030 – in line with the targets set by the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan. This means that at least 3.8 million LTC workers will be trained every year by 2030.
The Partnership plans to apply for a Blueprint for sectoral cooperation on skills in Long Term Care. Through the Blueprint, the Partnership will seek to undertake a range of activities, including the creation of a European-wide curricula and training programmes for LTC professionals on digital and person-centred skills.
For further information please refer to:
- DownloadDriving up Training & Lifelong Learning in Long-term Care PDFEnglish