Towards a coordinated approach to EU policies to ‘attract talent’ and ‘upgrade skills’
Houwerzijl,Mijke
Houwerzijl,Mijke
Abstract
In the context of structural labour and skills shortages, EU policy packages have been developed both to “upgrade skills of those already within the EU” and to “attract talent from non-EU countries to the EU”. In much of this volume, the focus is related to the former part, namely measures for skills development, such as professional training and lifelong learning. In contrast, this chapter focuses on the latter part, in particular, the proposal for an EU Talent Pool, aiming to facilitate recruitment of jobseekers from non-EU countries in EU-wide shortage occupations. It builds on what the EURES platform does for jobseekers with free movement of workers’ rights in the EU. The chapter argues that the talent pool initiative may not meet expectations because employers in some shortage sectors have alternative options. Moreover, it notes that most third-country nationals already in the EU are neither allowed to use EURES nor the proposed EU Talent Pool. This is deemed a missed opportunity to combat “brain waste”. A factor in this phenomenon, namely underinvestment in training, is briefly addressed and the chapter ends on a positive note with a best practice example and a call for more consistent policies to “attract talent” and “upgrade skills”.
Description
Date
2025-08
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Routledge
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Keywords
Employment, Lifelong Learning, labour migration, vocational training, third-country nationals, posting of workers, SDG 4 - Quality Education, SDG 10 - Reduced Inequalities
Citation
Houwerzijl, M 2025, Towards a coordinated approach to EU policies to ‘attract talent’ and ‘upgrade skills’. in L Mella Méndez, S Fernández Martínez & B Torres García (eds), Employment, training and lifelong learning : Comparative perspectives. 1 edn, Routledge Research in Employment Relations, Routledge, New York, London, pp. 23-34. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003591948-4
License
info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess