Post-COVID-19 European Country-Specific Recommendations on adult education, training, and skills: Content, focus, shifts, and patterns

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly disrupted economic and social life across Europe and the wider world. Currently, the European Commission is heavily investing in recovery and resilience facilities to encourage economic and social reforms in Member States. As part of the European Semester, the Commission formulates annual Country-Specific Recommendations (CSRs) to steer and advice Member States on their policy directions. This paper aims to investigate to what extent the European Commission’s recommendations include advice on education, training, and skills development to boost economic and social progress. Four specific aims were to investigate (1) the content of CSRs that mention the need for actions relevant to adult education, training, and skills development, (2) the extent to which these CSRs focus on economic versus social goals, or both, (3) the extent to which the content and focus of these CSRs shifts over years, and (4) the extent to which there are visible patterns within the content and focus of CSRs across the 27 EU Member States. Results indicate that CSRs in the first year of the COVID-19 lockdowns – 2020 – heavily focussed on the need for digital skills development. CSRs in 2022 were not dominated by advice on education, training, and skills development apart from the focus on skills mismatches in some countries. The 2023 CSRs were strongly targeted towards the need for green skills development. In line with previous academic debates around education and training, CSRs contained text on economic and social goals, although social aspects tend to lead back to the integration of vulnerable adults in the labour market for economic purposes, instead of treating education holistically. While CSRs are country-specific, it is clear from the analyses that core recommendations feature across Member States, linked to broad European agendas such as the Twin transition to a green and digital economy.