Engaging companies and authorities in skills planning
On 11 and 12 February 2025, the Policy Learning Platform hosted a peer review for the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Region, which requested advice on how to engage private companies and local authorities in forward-looking job and skills management.
Policy challenges for job and skills management
The following questions were addressed during the peer review:
- How to engage companies actively in territorial job and skills policies such as the GPECT (Gestion Prévisionnelle de l’Emplois et des Compétences Territoriale) policy in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté?
- How to empower municipalities and other local actors to act in a complex policy landscape?
- How to sustain cooperation with both businesses and public stakeholders over time?
Peers from across Europe
Alongside Erik Gløersen and Luc Schmerber, Thematic Experts on ‘More Social Europe’, six excellent peers participated in the peer review:
- Christian Mayer, Business Upper Austria, Austria
- Anders Elmevik, Region Skåne, Sweden
- Fliss Miller, South Yorkshire Combined Authority, United Kingdom
- Patrik Ondrejech, Trnava Region, Slovakia
- Gabriele Marzano, Regione Emilia-Romagna, Italy
- Nils Walbrodt, SHIBB Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
Recommendations for job and skills management
Below you can find some recommendations that were brought by the peers during the peer review, aiming to answer how private companies and local authorities can be engaged in forward looking job and skills management.
- Translate the benefits of collective approaches into business language and show concrete added value.
- Target smaller, sector-specific initiatives for stronger alignment between skills development and economic strategies.
- Promote collaborative approaches such as clusters and supply chains, as these tend to resonate more with businesses than purely territorial frameworks.
- Consider alternative GPECT models that combine territorial and sectoral approaches.
- Strengthen governance by identifying capable local leaders, setting clear performance indicators, and establishing agile partnerships.
- Empower local actors with the autonomy and tools to act, especially in labour market areas with specific challenges.
- Foster stronger ties between GPECTs and research, higher education, and Vocational Education and Training (VET) institutions.
- Encourage business-university cooperation and practical training tailored to future needs.
- Coordinate skills planning with broader innovation and economic development policies.
- Build broad local alliances to address NEETs and support vulnerable groups through integrated, community-level initiatives.
- Align local attractiveness strategies with labour market needs, including campaigns to attract and retain skilled workers.
- Consider examples like Digital International House (Skåne) or Community Skills Hubs (South Yorkshire) for inspiration.
- Apply tools like Mind the Gap (Region Skåne), a workshop-based method to help SMEs strategically identify and act on their skills needs. It also serves as a powerful entry point for dialogue between companies and public authorities.
More information will be available soon in the follow-up report.