Cedefop, the EU’s agency for vocational training, has published a new report titled, ‘Empowering Adults Through Upskilling and Reskilling Pathways’. It aims to show the size of the low-skilled adult population in Europe and to identify groups that are at risk of having low skills.
The report considers skills broadly, including digital skills alongside more traditional areas like literacy and numeracy. Among the report’s findings are measures of computer use and digital skills. According to the report, “in countries such as Bulgaria, Italy and Romania, one in four adults declared in 2015 they had never used the computer, while the share drops to less than 5% in Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.”
The report concludes that there are 128 million adults, or just over 46% of the population, with the, “potential for up-skilling and re-skilling.” This varies from country to country. Around 70% of adults in Malta and Portugal fall into this group, while only 27% do in Finland.
More information can be found on the website of Cedefop.