Cedefop: skills shortages now brake on European investment as 77% of firms lack staff

• 2026-10-21
• Europe
• News Desk
• Source: Cedefop https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/en/news/europes-twin-transition-needs-skills-systems-can-move-fast-last

Skills shortages are holding back European investment, with the share of companies citing a lack of skilled staff as a barrier rising from 62% to 77% in under a decade, according to discussions at the European Digital Sustainability Skills Conference organised under the Digital4Sustainability project and held in Brussels on 30 September 2026. The event brought together policymakers, businesses, training providers and researchers.

Key facts

• The share of European companies reporting a lack of skilled staff as a barrier to investment rose from 62% to 77% in less than a decade, according to figures presented at the Brussels conference on 30 September 2026.
• Four in five working Europeans cannot find a suitable training programme or the information they need about it, the event heard.
• Retention in STEM-related fields stands at only around 50%, meaning Europe loses many learners before they complete training.
• The conference was organised under the Digital4Sustainability project, which turns emerging labour market needs into learning resources from strategy and profiles to curricula and pilots.

Digital and green skills converge

Why are digital and green skills being treated together?

Participants agreed that Europe can no longer treat digital and green skills as separate agendas. What is emerging instead, they said, is demand for hybrid skills that combine digital, sustainability, business and transversal competences across occupations and sectors.

Meeting that demand will take more than new courses, according to the conference's conclusions. It will require skills systems able to spot change early, react quickly and keep successful solutions running over time.

Barriers to investment and training

What is blocking investment and training?

The conference placed skills within Europe's wider goals on competitiveness, resilience and the twin transition. Companies are expected to digitalise, decarbonise and adapt to new regulatory and market pressures at the same time, making the ability to find and develop talent a decisive factor.

The shortage figures suggest skills gaps are no longer a secondary labour market issue but a constraint on investment, innovation and transformation. Participation in learning also remains weak, with four in five working Europeans unable to find a suitable training programme or information about one — a problem that goes beyond the supply of training itself.

Speed and staying power

What does Cedefop say is needed?

From the perspective of Cedefop, the EU agency for vocational education and training, the findings underline the need for both speed and staying power. Europe must respond rapidly to immediate shortages and emerging competence needs while also investing in the longer-term development of experienced professionals and stronger skills systems.

This dual need was captured in calls at the event for a "sprint" and a "marathon" approach to skills policy. The challenge begins early: in fields crucial to the twin transition, Europe is still losing too many learners before they complete training, with retention in STEM-related fields at only around 50%.

How can successful solutions be made to last?

The conference looked beyond diagnosis to delivery. A recurring message was that effective skills policy must connect the full chain: skills intelligence, educational profiles, curricula, learning programmes, piloting, recognition and scaling.

Tools such as microcredentials and other flexible learning formats can help people build on existing competences, stack skillsets over time and gain recognition for what they have learned. For solutions to last, however, they must be embedded in wider skills governance systems, involving employers, education and training providers, certification bodies and policymakers in a continuous process of adaptation and renewal.

The Digital4Sustainability project illustrates this approach by converting emerging labour market needs into concrete learning resources, from strategy and profiles to curricula and pilots.

The message from Brussels was that Europe's challenge is to turn skills intelligence into a connected cycle of programme design, delivery, visibility and long-term uptake. The conference's findings feed into Cedefop's continuing work on anticipating and matching skills, microcredentials for labour market education and training, skills and jobs for the green transition, and continuing education and training.

Source: Cedefop