Action plan 2021-2027 tracker: employment and skills

• Funding
• Partnership
• Project

This action is continuous, with more initiatives expected to take place until 2027. So far it includes:

• Within the European Partnership for Integration with European social and economic partners, the EC’s Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs and the Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, hold regular meetings to discuss the labour market integration of refugees and other migrants. A third joint statement focusing on displaced people from Ukraine and the European Year of Skills was published in December 2022.
• One of the topics under the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) 2023-2025 Thematic Facility is ‘multistakeholder initiatives for migrant integration into the labour market’. As a result of the call, 8 projects were kicked off in spring 2024, including LABOUR-INT 3.
• The EC also forged links between the European Partnership on Integration and the European Integration Network (EIN) at the November 2023 labour market integration meeting EIN meeting.
• The EC works closely with employment services through its Public Employment Services (PES) Network. In July 2023, the PES network updated its recommendations to guide employment services assisting refugees and persons displaced from Ukraine.

• Funding
• Partnership
• Publication

This action is continuous, with more initiatives expected to take place until 2027. So far it includes:

• Under the InvestEU programme, €2.8 billion are dedicated to social investments and skills. The programme supports also microfinance and social entrepreneurship through a range of financial products particularly helpful to vulnerable people, including migrants.
• Beyond financing, the InvestEU Advisory Hub provides capacity building and targeted advisory services. An example is the 2022 Social Inclusive Finance Technical Assistance (SIFTA), managed by the European Investment Bank.
• In March 2023, the EC launched in partnership with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) the Youth Entrepreneurship Policy Academy, which brings together various stakeholders to improve related policies and programmes.
• The EC and the OECD also provide evidence on the situation of migrant entrepreneurs through the The Missing Entrepreneurs reports and the next International Migration Outlook which will include a special focus on migrant entrepreneurship.

• Partnership
• Publication

This action is continuous, with more initiatives expected to take place until 2027. It focuses on sharing and scaling up good practices via a number of networks and platforms, and in partnership with the EU countries, such as:

• A March-April 2022 European Integration Network (EIN) meeting
• A June 2022 seminar on the skills of people fleeing the war against Ukraine organised with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Austrian labour ministry
• The June 2022 joint European Union Agency for Asylum and (EUAA) and OECD survey on the skills profile of people fleeing the war against Ukraine
• EUROCITIES mutual learning meeting 27 June 2023 on skills development and recognition of qualifications for migrants
• The November 2023 European Integration Network (EIN) meeting in Madrid
• Dissemination of the results of the Technical Support Instrument (TSI) project on recognition of qualifications of displaced people from Ukraine with France, implemented by the OECD
• Webinars in 2024 – see an example following the 2023 EC Recommendation on the recognition of qualifications of third-country nationals.
• The European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop) published in May 2023 the third edition of the European guidelines for validating non-formal and informal learning. The European inventory on the validation of non-formal and informal learning, an overview, was then published in May 2024.

The EU Skills Profile Tool for Third-Country Nationals is mostly used in reception centres and by organisations supporting the integration of asylum seekers and refugees.

This action is continuous, with more initiatives expected to take place until 2027. The action aims to promote its use among authorities and other integration stakeholders, including before arrival and in the case of resettlement and complementary pathways schemes. The tool is thus continuously improved:

• With its translation to Ukrainian in March 2022, it is now available in 31 languages.
• As of early 2023, the tool was also integrated with Europass: a profile can now be exported from the EU Skill Profile Tool to Europass.
• The tool was also updated to use the latest version of the multilingual classification European Skills, Competences, and Occupations (ESCO).
• Its interface was further adapted to mobile in 2024.

• Funding
• Programme

This action is continuous, with more initiatives expected to take place until 2027. The Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV) programme 2021-2027 protects and promotes EU rights and values. In 2021, 25 projects were selected under a call promote equality and to fight against racism, xenophobia and discrimination, including the 4IncludE network which, among many other issues, sees entrepreneurial skills as means to inclusion.

The CERV programme for 2023-2024, in addition, includes a call for proposals for network of towns to EU citizenship rights and European common values with a focus on EU citizens with a migrant background, too.