Written by Symbat Yessimgaliyeva, EVTA
Europe’s labour market is changing rapidly. Digitalisation, the green transition and demographic ageing are reshaping occupations and the skills they require. This creates an important challenge: the skills people have do not always match the skills employers need. This is known as skills mismatch (Cedefop, 2026).
Skills mismatch is not simply about people lacking qualifications. It can also occur when people have skills that are no longer fully aligned with new technologies, new occupations or changing ways of working (OECD, 2025).
The mismatch between the skills people have and those required by the labour market has become an increasingly important challenge for vocational education and training (VET), employers and policymakers.
A labour market in transition
Cedefop’s 2026 Skills Forecast provides projections on employment and skills needs in Europe up to 2035. It covers the EU-27 as well as Iceland, Norway, North Macedonia, Switzerland and Türkiye, using harmonised data to support comparisons between countries (Cedefop, 2026).
This forecast shows that employment growth will not be the same across all sectors. Areas linked to ICT, research, engineering and electricity generation are expected to grow more strongly. At the same time, employment is expected to decline in some traditional industries, including parts of the coal and fuel sectors.
Demographic change is also affecting future labour demand. An ageing population (aged 65 and over) is expected to increase the need for workers in sectors such as healthcare and personal care.
Understanding future skills needs
One way to respond to these changes is through better skills intelligence. This means collecting and analysing information about current and future labour-market needs (Cedefop, 2026).
Skills intelligence can help identify which sectors are expanding, which occupations may face shortages and which qualifications are becoming more important. This information can support schools and VET providers when they update their programmes. It can also help policymakers decide where future education and training opportunities are most needed.
For learners and young people, reliable labour-market information can also make career choices easier. It can help them understand where opportunities are developing and which skills may be valuable in the future (OECD, 2025).
The role of vocational education and training
Vocational education and training (VET) prepares people for specific occupations and provides practical skills that are directly connected to the workplace. Because of this close link with employment, VET can play an important role in reducing skills mismatch. Cedefop’s 2026 forecast also gives greater attention to vocational qualifications when analysing future labour-market developments (Cedefop, 2026).
Training providers can use labour-market information to review and update their programmes. They can also work with employers to understand which skills are becoming more important. Work-based learning and apprenticeships can strengthen this connection. They allow learners to develop practical experience while gaining skills that are relevant to real working environments (European Commission, Union of Skills).
Learning throughout life
The European Commission’s Union of Skills recognises the need to address skills and labour shortages across Europe. Its aim is to strengthen education, training and lifelong learning while helping people adapt to changing economic needs.
Two important ideas within this approach are upskilling and reskilling. Upskilling means developing additional skills for a person’s current role, while reskilling involves learning new skills to move towards a different role or occupation. These opportunities are becoming increasingly important because many people will need to update their competences several times during their careers (OECD, 2025).
Closing the skills gap
Reducing skills mismatch requires is a shared responsibility. Young people and workers need opportunities to develop and update their skills. VET providers need reliable information about changes in the labour market. Employers need to communicate the skills they require and cooperate with training organisations. Policymakers need to support flexible learning opportunities and lifelong learning. (Cedefop, 2026)
VET can help bring these different actors together. Its connection with both education and the workplace gives it an important role in helping people move successfully into employment and adapt to future change.
The objective should not be simply to prepare people for one job. It should be to give them relevant skills, reliable information and opportunities to keep learning as the labour market evolves.
References
Cedefop (2026), Cedefop updates Skills Forecast: New data to guide Europe’s skills and labour market policy to 2035, European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training, https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/en/news/cedefop-updates-skills-forecast-new-data-guide-europes-skills-and-labour-market-policy-2035
Cedefop (2026), Skills forecast 2026 [Dataset], European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training, https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/files/skills_forecast_2026_technical_report.pdf
European Commission (2025), Union of Skills, https://commission.europa.eu/topics/competitiveness/union-skills_en
OECD (2025), OECD Skills Outlook 2025: Building the Skills of the 21st Century for All, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/26163cd3-en
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