European Skills Festival gives a fresh face to skills, boosting the green and digital transitions

The European Skills Festival was held on the 9^th of May as part of Europe Day, aiming to showcase the work done by organisations and individuals to up and reskill in the context of the green and digital transitions. The event brought together policymakers, organisations and individuals from across Europe coming together to discuss skills.

The event was organised at the Cité des Métiers in Brussels and attended by 1071 participants online and since then it has gathered over 6000 views on YouTube!  Around 20 different stakeholders working on skills across different EU countries intervened including keynote speeches from four College members:

• Ursula von der Leyen European Commission President
• Margrethe Vestager, European Commission Executive Vice-President for A Europe Fit for the Digital Age
• Margaritis Schinas, European Commission Vice-President for Promoting our European Way of Life
• Nicolas Schmit, European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights

and from members of the EP

• Dragoş Pîslaru, Member of the European Parliament and Chair of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs
• Loucas Fourlas, Member of the European Parliament

The event featured a mixture of recorded and live interventions, broadcast from Athens and Luxembourg. There were also four on the spot interviews with European Social Fund beneficiaries from the Netherlands, Italy and Portugal.

A photo from the interviews can be seen here: 

Watch the recording of the event and view the pictures!

Find more skills-related content and activities on the dedicated Year of Skills website.