By: EURATEX
August 2024
Within the framework of the European Commission Pact for Skills, the TCLF Skills Alliance is the textile clothing leather and footwear initiative to support public and private organisations with upskilling and reskilling.
As Europe is rapidly shifting towards climate neutrality and the digital transformation is changing the way people work, learn, take part in society and lead everyday lives, Europe can only grasp these opportunities if people develop the right skills. This will mean to upskill their job in a new work environment, and, for young people, entry in the labour market with new skills.
The Pact for Skills is the first point of the European Skills Agenda as part of the EU Industrial Strategy: calling all stakeholders to join forces in a collective action to ensure that people have the right skills for the job. Spread over five years, the plan is to help individuals and businesses develop more and better skills and to put them to use, by strengthening sustainable competitiveness, ensuring social fairness, putting into practice the first principle of the European Pillar of Social Rights, and building resilience to react to crises.
In this context, the TCLF Skills Alliance is the EU Large-Scale Skills Partnership (LSPs) dedicated to textile clothing leather and footwear (TCLF) aiming to mitigate the lack of skilled workforce in the TCLF sectors as well as master the green and digital transition by improving existing skills (upskilling) and training in new skills (reskilling). To reach this ambitious goal, the Pact brings together various actors of the TCLF ecosystems: companies, social partners, national and regional authorities, vocational education and training providers and universities. The TCLF Skills Alliance also guarantees the exchange of best practices to increase the sector's attractiveness for young people searching for a career in a more digital and green economy.
In practice, in the framework of the TCLF Skills Alliance, the European Union is co-funding three major initiatives for a total budget of more than €12 million: AEQUALIS4TCLF, METASKILLS4TCLF and TCLF SkillBridge. Building on the results of the previous Blueprint project, the AEQUALIS4TCLF and METASKILLS4TCLF projects complement each other by offering new curricula and training programs in multiple EU countries anticipating emerging skills needs and promote innovative educational resources, VET/HE networks, regional partnerships and a European Virtual Reality Campus. Working parallelly with the other projects, TCLF SkillBridge intends to establish regional and local skills partnerships, providing tools, guidelines, events, and support to companies (mainly SMEs) with training and mentorship activities. It targets several regions relevant to the TCLF sector across Europe, seeking to develop TCLF regional skills partnerships while ensuring a harmonised approach.
Over the next three years, the TCLF Skills Alliance through projects and initiatives will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of the European TCLF industry ensuring the industry remains competitive by attracting young talents and maintaining the existing knowledge and expertise.
Author: EURATEX