REF: EaSI –  PROGRESS VP/2014/012

Objectives

The overall objective of the Call is to is to encourage new forms of collaboration between public and private actors on the labour market (such as social partners, training and education providers, labour market intelligence entities, companies including SME’s, chambers of commerce, public and private employment services) to address persistent skills shortages and mismatches and thus help fill the gap between labour supply and demand in the EU.

 The operational objective of this call is to support the consolidation and continuation of European Sector Skills Councils that are beyond the feasibility phase.

 The activities should aim to achieve the following technical objectives:

1) To provide more and better sectorial skills intelligence, based on the synthesis and compilation of existing national sources on employment trends and skills demand and supply in the sector.

2) To contribute to the development of skills governance at sectorial level and of national skills policies by facilitating capacity building and peer-learning amongst national skill observatories or equivalent organisations and by creating a European platform of exchange and development of joint sectorial skills projects.

Skills governance encompasses collaborative systems for aligning educational output to labour market needs, systems supporting skills-based matching on the labour market, and initiatives for better skills use by enterprises. Skills governance builds on and uses skills intelligence to affect outcomes of education and training systems and on the labour market.

Projects to be submitted in relation to the functioning of a European Sector Council on Employment and Skills have to contain the core of Networking for skills development in order to stimulate policy development in participating countries, by actively engaging national and regional stakeholders in its activities and by fostering ownership of the initiatives developed within the network in the participating countries.

European sector skills councils should organise during the 18 months of financing at least three physical meetings of the European sector skills council and an annual European conference.

*The EaSI Programme shall, in all its axes and actions, aim to:

(a) pay particular attention to vulnerable groups, such as young people;

(b) promote equality between women and men,

(c) combat discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief,

disability, age or sexual orientation;

(d) promote a high-level of quality and sustainable employment, guarantee adequate and decent social protection, combat long-term unemployment and fight against poverty and social exclusion.

Eligibility

The composition of the consortium (lead and co-applicants):
The consortium shall include European umbrella organisations and/or national organisations, national social partners, public authorities, sectorial skills observatories, non-profit making organisations, research centres and institutes, universities and/or civil society from at least 10 EU Member States. European sector skills councils should encompass as part of the consortium sector specific organisations representing both demand and supply on the labour markets:

a. labour demand actors and employment services, e.g. employers’ organisations and in particular SME representatives, employment services, research institutes ortechnological platforms;
b. labour supply actors, e.g. trade unions and education, training and guidance providers (organisations developing initial and continuing vocational education and training and/or tertiary education, qualification authorities, organisations involved in recognition and accreditation of sectorial skills or occupational profiles, research institutes).

These are the sector to which this call for proposal is addressed on setting up European skills councils:

• Nursing
• Construction
• Steel
• Gas
• Automotive
• Chemicals
• Fishery
• Furniture
• Shipbuilding
• Audiovisual & live performance
• Agriculture
• Electricity
• Sports & leisure
• Dairy

Project schedule

Financing

The total indicative amount available for this call for proposals is EUR 600.000.
Grants are expected to be in the range of EUR 300.000 per application selected.
Co-financing rate: Up to 80 % of the total grant requested

Aditional information

Direct link to the Call for Proposal