The rapid transition to a greener and more digitalised economy as well as the regulatory proposals to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent, are massively impacting jobs and skills needs in the MET industries.
MET companies are fully committed to the digital transformation of our industries as well as to the greening of the European economy. As a matter of fact, our companies are deploying massive investments in order for the industries to contribute to the reduction of CO2 emissions.
Taking into account the employment and skills dimensions
Against this background, MET employers were concerned that the Fit for 55 package, which sets out the regulatory framework to make the Green Deals´ ambitious targets a reality by2050, did not come up with concrete measures on how to address the massive consequences that the package is already having on jobs and skills in our industries.
In this regard, Ceemet continues to advocate for the implementation of effective measures that support quality employment and facilitate job-to-job transitions, especially targeted to those workers most affected by the twin transition. Companies, notably micro, small and medium-sized companies (MSMEs), should receive support and have the possibility to access adequate measures supporting effective job-to-job transitions. Likewise, up-skilling and re-skilling of the workforce across the MET industries should be made an urgent priority. Accordingly, Ceemet calls on policymakers to actively back companies, in particular MSMEs, to identify their immediate and future skills needs. This support should be extended to the development of labour market-relevant skilling schemes.
Today, we are witnessing how greening policies and industrial policies are significantly impacting labour markets and their main actors: companies and workers. This is the reason why social partners should be actively involved in the design and deployment of those policies. Within the MET industries, the automotive sector is being seriously impacted by the twin transition as it is going through an unprecedented digital transformation, coupled with the goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. This structural transition is already massively affecting jobs in the car industry.
Against this challenging backdrop, Ceemet has positioned itself as an active stakeholder in a range of initiatives and EU-funded projects addressing the transformation of the automotive industry. Through these fora, the MET industries articulate their perspectives on the challenges facing the automotive sector and contribute to the development of concrete solutions.
Coalition for a Just Transition for the automotive sector
To voice our concerns on the challenges that the automotive industry faces and come up with forward looking solutions, Ceemet together with other stakeholders (trade unions, industry associations, and NGOs) has set up this coalition that calls for a number of measures to be put in place in order to mitigate the effects of the Fit for 55 Package on the automotive and mobility sectors including:
- Mapping of the employment impacts at company, regional and national levels to ensure effective skills intelligence and anticipation of change.
- Policy support and exchanges of best practices: the extension of the Just Transition Platform to the scope of the European Green Deal.
- Transition planning and social dialogue, including negotiated transition plans at company, regional and sectoral levels, and strengthening of social dialogue through binding social conditionality on access to EU funds.
- Adequate resources for active labour market policies, including re-training and up-skilling, through a dedicated fund for the mobility ecosystem.
The Automotive Skills Alliance (ASA)
Ceemet is convinced that in order to foster labour market-relevant training, we need to invest first in anticipating the skills needs of the future to ensure that education and training programmes are connected to the needs of companies. For this reason, Ceemet is amongst the founding members of the so-called Automotive Skills Alliance (ASA) (formerly Pact for Skills for the automotive industry).
ASA counts on a very large partnership that includes researchers, industry associations, companies, education and training providers, regions and municipalities, social partners, etc.
However, the automotive sector is not the only MET industrial sector impacted by the twin transition. Several of them have been regrouped in the frame of the “mobility ecosystem” for which the Commission is co-building a Transition Pathway.
Transition ecosystem for the mobility ecosystem
Ceemet is an active member of this Transition Pathway for the Mobility Ecosystem established to ensure a successful green and digital transformation of the industrial sectors concerned, namely the automotive, the rail industry and shipbuilding, which are the core of our industries. Eight roundtables compose this Transition Pathway, and Ceemet is co-chairing, with industriAll Europe and the European Commission, the discussions around the social dimension of this ecosystem.
In this light, Ceemet will continue to advocate for the active involvement of social partners in the design and deployment of all policies that impact the labour market for MET companies. We will also insist on the need to put skills at the heart of this ecosystem, as a cross-cutting issue impacting all “mobility sectors”.
TRIREME: Digital and green skills towards the future of mobility
Ceemet is an active member and key partner of TRIREME, an EU-funded project, focused on the mobility- automotive ecosystem, that aims at facilitating its transition towards a greener and more digital future by developing a comprehensive and sustainable skills and training strategy that addresses the current and future needs of the workforce.
This project, funded by the ERASMUS+ programme, was launched in March 2024 and will last until 28 February 2024. It gathers a large and diverse partnership including Higher-Education institutions and VET education institutions, Industry representatives at national and EU level, EU social partners, SMEs, regions, consultancies and NGOs.
As part of this project, Ceemet, together with its trade union counterpart, industriAll Europe, is leading Work Package 6 that deals with the social transformation of the automotive mobility ecosystem in the context of the twin transition.
To this end, the social partners are committed to:
- Analysing the social aspects of the transformation of the automotive-mobility ecosystem,
- Collecting, sharing and analysing good examples of national, regional, local, and company initiatives and social partners’ activities that have proven to be successful in tackling the social aspects of the green and digital transition.
- Compiling and analysing “less successful” practices in order to identify what has not worked.
- Organising different workshops with mobility stakeholders in Brussels and in different European regions in order to present and collect the best practices on the ground and discuss the preliminary recommendations.
The regional workshops will also serve to gather relevant information on how the transition is taking place at the regional level.
Moreover, the social partners will develop policy recommendations and concrete actions that will be disseminated across the mobility ecosystem and also addressed to policymakers.