Every two years, the Skills Summit gathers ministers and senior officials with responsibilities for skills policies. The host country for this event changes with each edition, featuring a different OECD member country collaborating with the OECD. Each edition explores a different aspect of skills, often linked to societal challenges and changes that face the skills landscape.
The theme of the Skills Summit 2024 is ‘Skills for the future: building bridges to new opportunities’. The 21st century has witnessed rapid technological, socio-economic and environmental changes. To take advantage of opportunities inherent in this change and to help build a better future, countries should strategically position themselves and strengthen their skills systems. Collaboration between different policy domains, education providers, employers and industries will be crucial.
While countries are adjusting to the digital and green transitions and other megatrends, they can and should also use this opportunity to consciously shape their own future. A clear vision is needed for the skills that will be strategically important for countries to achieve future ambitions. Building bridges across government, but also with stakeholders will be essential for developing such a vision.
Learning across the life course will allow people to develop the skills for the future and adapt skills sets to changing jobs and more diverse career pathways. To this end, countries will need to provide youth and adults with the required up- and re-skilling opportunities to strengthen skills sets and support career transitions throughout life. Building bridges between education and work, and between government and social partners, will be key to ensure that skills are developed in line with strategic skills needs.
To ensure that everyone can thrive in a rapidly changing world, countries should develop inclusive skills systems that support the people most vulnerable (e.g. young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, jobseekers, workers in jobs at risk of disappearing, etc.), to adapt to changes in the world of work. To reach these people and to provide them with the required support, countries should build bridges between governments and the actors who work most directly with them.
To encourage open and honest dialogue, all conversations will be conducted under the Chatham House Rule. This allows participants to speak freely without their comments being attributed to specific countries or speakers. The objective is to ask thought-provoking questions and present concrete policy examples from different countries, guided by the OECD’s latest analysis on skills.
The objective of the Skills Summit 2024 is to inspire all participants and encourage them to open discussions on the key themes and their associated challenges. Moreover, the event offers the opportunity to share best practices, with the host country’s exemplary practices playing a key role. The OECD will prepare an “Issues for discussion paper” to help stimulate discussions.