Skills for the Future: A Pact Rooted in Inclusion
Parenting skills have long been an undervalued component of the European skills landscape. Since 2021, Parents International has actively contributed to the Pact for Skills, a European Commission initiative launched in November 2020. The Pact is a central element of the European Skills Agenda, aiming to address skills mismatches and shortages to enable labour market participation, inclusion, and resilience in the face of rapid societal transitions.
The initiative resonates deeply with the reason Parents International has been active in the skills field and was also eager to launch the ParENTrepreneurs project: skills and competences gained and developed through parenting are valuable for the labour market, but we need to find effective ways to validate and recognise them. The outcomes of ParENTrepreneurs have been consistently used in our work within the Pact for Skills initiative over the past four years, providing a clear framework for integration.
According to the original EC press release, “skills are central to our recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and for mastering the digital and green transitions. Businesses, large and small, need skilled people to innovate and grow. Yet, mismatches and shortages in skills are increasing, while a large number of people are at risk of unemployment. Only by joining the forces of all relevant partners can we make substantial progress in meeting Europe’s skills needs.”
The Pact for Skills promotes joint action to maximise the impact of investing in improving existing skills (upskilling) and training in new skills (reskilling). It calls on industry, employers, social partners, chambers of commerce, public authorities, education and training providers, and employment agencies to work together and make a clear commitment to invest in training for all working-age people across the Union.
Validating Parenting Skills as Lifelong Learning Assets
Parents International has been highlighting the multitude of skills and competences built while parenting in a number of fields – including education, care, communication, time management, project coordination, and financial planning, just to name a few. These parenting skills are often gained outside of formal education settings, but they reflect the real-world capacities needed in a dynamic labour market.
The year of school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic also boosted parents’ digital skills as they were pushed to homeschool their children, navigating digital mazes set by teachers and schools. Acknowledging these parenting skills and making it possible for parents to use them for future jobs remains central to our contribution to the Pact. A number of successful enterprises built on the “home” skills of low-skilled adults clearly show the value of this approach, and thus we continue to promote them as much as possible, both through advocacy and collaboration.
Parenting is a lifelong learning journey, and needs to be acknowledged as one. It is a dynamic and adaptive experience that evolves with each developmental stage of the child, requiring flexibility, reflection, and continuous learning. Parents, as the most impactful educators of their children, also act as role models of lifelong learning for upcoming generations. In many families, these learning dynamics are the foundation upon which children develop motivation, autonomy, and self-efficacy.
Over the past years, we have built partnerships with vocational training providers, local labour market actors, and industry, and we are determined to widen these collaborations further, using the leverage of the Pact. By putting parenting skills in the spotlight, we are contributing actively to the monitoring supply element of the initiative.
Empowerment, Equality, and the Road Ahead
Parenting skills can be mostly utilised by mothers on the labour market, although fathers increasingly benefit as well. By promoting this approach, we are showing a way to offer women—especially those with little formal education—opportunities for successful careers. This supports gender equality and equal opportunities, while also reducing skill gaps that often go unnoticed due to their informal origin.
ParENTrepreneurs, offering a competence framework, a training to systematise these competences, and a tool to validate and recognise them, remains a strong and important vehicle in this work. We have seen from our engagement that this approach provides confidence, direction, and new opportunity for parents who might otherwise remain outside traditional career pathways.
Parents International will continue promoting a similar framework in all areas and domains of parenting. We hope that, through the Pact for Skills, we will continue to have the opportunity to further develop such frameworks—preferably together with industry to ensure we speak their language and address real workforce needs. We also hope EU funding will continue to support this important work.
Parenting skills deserve formal recognition, visibility, and validation—across sectors and education levels. They are part of a broader culture of lifelong learning that Europe needs to embrace in practice, not just in policy. By empowering parents, we build the foundations for future generations—and a stronger, more inclusive labour force for all.
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