Commission supports creation of a partnership for skills in the agri-food ecosystem

Supported by the Commission, the agriculture and food industry presents a skills partnership under the EU Pact for Skills today.

The goal of the partnership is to upskill and reskill people in the agri-food sector, the largest producing and manufacturing sector in Europe. This will make the agri-food ecosystem more attractive to young people, while offering a lifelong learning perspective for both employers and employees.

The partnership signatories include EU associations, companies, organisations, universities and national federations. The ecosystem ranges from family farms and micro and small food processing companies to large multinationals. In a first stage, the partnership will get a better understanding of the needs of these various actors, with a view to setting realistic but ambitious targets and to monitoring future developments. Commitments include the development of partnerships between education and training organisations, innovation actors and businesses, as well as setting up an EU-wide framework for skills and job profiles.

Following Partnerships in eight other industrial ecosystems, this new partnership is a concrete implementation of the Pact for Skills, one of the flagship initiatives under the European Skills Agenda. The main objective of the Pact is to mobilise resources and incentivise all relevant partners to take concrete action to upskill and reskill the workforce in key industrial ecosystems. Since its launch, over 500 organisations have pledged to reskill close to 6 million people in Europe. This initiative also contributes to the EU-level headline target that by 2030, at least 60% of all adults should participate in training every year.