Alliances for Sectoral Cooperation on Skills (Implementing the 'Blueprint')

Overview

Objectives

Alliances for Sectoral Cooperation on Skills aim to create new strategic approaches and cooperation for concrete skills development solutions, by tackling skills gaps in the labour market that hamper growth, innovation and competitiveness in specific sectors or areas, aiming both at short-term interventions and long-term strategies.

The initiative provides large-scale partnerships established under the Pact for Skills with the opportunity to support the development of sector skills strategies, as well as the revision and development of job profiles and related training programmes. In particular, the initiative provides large-scale partnerships established under the Pact for Skills support to develop sector skills strategies, as well as revise and develop job profiles and related training programmes.

The deliverables of Alliances for Sectoral Cooperation on Skills (i.e. sectoral skills intelligence, skills strategies, occupational profiles, training programmes, and long-term planning) are meant to contribute to the work of the Pact for Skills large-scale partnerships.

Activities/actions supported

Alliances for Sectoral Cooperation on Skills have a duration of 48 months and must cover one of the 14 industrial ecosystems as identified in the Annual Single Market Report 2021. The Alliances should support the implementation of the commitments under the Pact for Skills by developing sectoral skills strategies (outlining activities, milestones and objectives), to lead to systemic and structural impact on reducing skills shortages, gaps and mismatches and increase the competitiveness of the sector, as well as ensuring appropriate quality and levels of skills, and contribute to the overall implementation of ecosystem-based large-scale skills partnerships under the Pact.

Furthermore, Alliances should support the design and delivery of transnational education & training content, as well as teaching and training methodologies to address urgent skills needs of people in working age and include emerging occupational profiles and related qualifications.

More specifically, the Alliances should implement the following main activities:

• Developing a strategic approach to sectoral cooperation on skills;
• Designing European sector-wide agreed ‘core’ curricula and training programmes;
• Developing occupational profiles and training content for changing and emerging occupational profiles;
• Delivering the ‘core’ curricula and training programmes;
• Designing a long-term action plan for the progressive roll-out of project deliverables after the project has finished.

For more details on the activities to be implemented, please see the text of the call.

Anticipated outcomes

The Alliances are meant to strengthen synergies between stakeholder, fostering innovation, new skills, a sense of initiative and entrepreneurial mind-sets. Moreover, Alliances are expected to contribute to the development of regional innovation eco-systems and directly provide a valuable input to the economy, integrating work-based learning. At a larger scale, Alliances for Innovation are expected to target societal and economic challenges, both in education and employment, and to address key areas such as innovation challenges, skills provision, addressing severe skills gaps, climate change, green economy, demography, digitisation and artificial intelligence.

Alliances are meant to have a short- and long-term impact on the wider range of stakeholders involved, at individual, organisational and systemic level, including beyond the project's lifetime.

Institution providing the funding

EACEA

Size of funding

EUR 4 million per 4-year project.

Conditions

Overview of eligibility criteria

The applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities, if applicable) must be public or private organisations legally established in an EU Member State or third country associated to the programme. Organisations from third countries not associated to the Programme may also participate but only as associated partners. Higher education institutions established in an EU Member State or third country associated to the Programme must hold a valid Erasmus Charter for Higher Education (ECHE).

Alliances for Sectoral Cooperation on Skills (Blueprint) must cover at least 8 EU Member States or third countries associated to the Programme and involve at least 12 applicants (beneficiaries, not affiliated entities). The consortium must include at least 5 labour market actors (enterprises or companies, or representative intermediary organisations, such as chambers, trade unions or trade associations) and at least 5 education and training providers (VET and HEIs) as applicants (beneficiaries, not affiliated entities). There should be at least one HE institution and one VET provider involved as applicants (beneficiaries, not affiliated entities) in each proposal. Affiliated entities and associated partners do not count towards the minimum eligibility criteria for the consortium composition and cannot be coordinator.

Overview of award criteria

Award criteria include the following:

• Relevance  of the project (maximum score 25 points): this includes, among others, the relevance of the proposal to EU-level policy priorities and the implementation of the Pact for Skills in particular, with a focus on supporting he work of Pact for Skills partnerships; the quality of the project's needs analysis; the inclusion of digital and green skills, deep tech skills and resilience skills; complementarity with other actions and innovation;
• Quality of the project design and implementation (maximum score 30 points): this includes, among others, the coherence between the project's objectives and activities; the quality of the methodology and approaches to management; the workplan and quality control measures; as well as the appropriateness of the budget and financial control measures;
• Quality of the partnerships and cooperation arrangements (maximum score 25 points): this includes, among others, whether the project involves complementary organisations with the necessary profile, competences, experience and expertise; proposed approach to collaboration and decision-making;
• Impact ((maximum score 20 points): this includes, among others, the potential positive impact on participants and participating organisations, as well as other individuals; approaches to ensuring the dissemination and sustainability of project results and outcomes

Projects proposals have to score a minimum of 70 points in total to be considered for funding.

Procedures

Application procedures

Appliations must be submitted to EACEA via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal.Call ID Lot 2: ERASMUS-EDU-2026-PI-ALL-INNO-BLUEPRINT.

Application support available

For help related to this call, please contact EACEA-EPLUS-ALLIANCESec [dot] europa [dot] eu (EACEA-EPLUS-ALLIANCES[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)

For additional information, please consult the 2026 Erasmus+ Programme Guide.

Useful links

Link to funding opportunity

Link to the programme for more info