PACT FOR SKILLS:

Large Scale Partnership for the

Health Ecosystem     

Partnership Manifesto 
   
 PACT FOR SKILLS: LARGE SCALE PARTNERSHIP FOR THE HEALTH ECOSYSTEM

Contents 
Contents 2 
The challenge 4 
The ambition 5 
The partnership proposal and objectives 6
Monitoring and Key Performance Indicators 7

   

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 PACT FOR SKILLS: LARGE SCALE PARTNERSHIP FOR THE HEALTH ECOSYSTEM

A pan-European multi-stakeholder Partnership on health workforce upskilling and

reskilling has been launched to support the twin transition to a green and digital economy,
make EU health systems more competitive globally, and enhance Europe’s open strategic
autonomy. It will do this by creating a movement to discuss, anticipate, and address the
skill needs of the health workforce, factoring in current issues such as staff shortages;
identifying and forecasting the skill gaps in the sector; bringing together existing initiatives;
and working towards a future-proof skills strategy to be implemented at local, regional,
national, and, ultimately, European levels. The Partnership is co-funded by the European
Commission and coordinated by the BeWell project. All agencies involved in health in Europe
are invited to join the Partnership.

 
   

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 PACT FOR SKILLS: LARGE SCALE PARTNERSHIP FOR THE HEALTH ECOSYSTEM

The challenge 
The health workforce represents a significant share of the European workforce. Figures by Eurostat1
have identified almost 15 million people who work in health occupations, representing over 7% of all
persons employed and almost 4% of the EU population. Despite its importance, the health sector
continues to face considerable workforce challenges. These were exacerbated by the effects of the
COVID-19 pandemic, which highlighted how unique, complex, and constantly evolving the sector is,
and the pressures it faces.

A starting point to address these challenges is by tackling the urgent need for health workforce
upskilling and reskilling. However, the health sector is faced with complexities that make upskilling
and reskilling a rather difficult exercise. Such complexities include the rapid transformation of the
sector – including digital and green transformations – coupled with the known workforce shortages,
further increased by large-scale resignation of health professionals, in particular from the frontline. This
comes as a consequence of increased workloads and difficult working conditions and impacts the ability
and willingness of health professionals to participate in training opportunities.

Despite these difficulties, developing skills which support the health sector’s transformation is
essential. Digitalisation is core to this transformative process, a key towards better health
outcomes, strengthened and supported practitioner-patient relationships, interdisciplinarity, and health
systems resilience. Nevertheless, the health sector is lagging behind when it comes to seizing digital
opportunities. Training on digital technologies is often offered only as an optional course and health
professionals report that they do not have enough opportunities to make full use of digital technologies.2

Digitalisation, however, is just a piece of the puzzle. A future-ready health workforce should also be
resourced and trained to engage with the green transition towards more environmentally
sustainable health provision which respects the ‘one health’ principles. According to studies, the
health climate footprint is equivalent to 4.4% of global net emissions3 and its carbon footprint is set to
triple by 2050.4 Updated skill profiles and training will be thus required as the health sector is making
headway towards more sustainable activities and tasks.5 In addition, the broader ‘greenification’ of the
health sector should also pass through providing the health workforce with the skills and tools to better
understand the immediate as well as the long-term health impacts of the climate change or
environmental health risks such as air pollution and limited access to blue/green spaces.

Besides digital and green skills, attention should be also paid to developing other competences in
the health workforce, including logistics, management, communication and other skills such as
patient-engagement, cross-sectoral collaboration, and leadership, providing professionals with
even more tools to handle the evolving health environment.6

Finally, to succeed, upskilling and reskilling will need to take into consideration several other
crucial and sensitive points, including the complex transition from education to the labour market
and the need to avoid excessive burden on a health workforce already dealing with shortages
and high levels of pressure on employees’ mental health.

 
1  Eurostat, 2020. Majority of health jobs held by women. Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products‐eurostat‐news/‐/ddn‐20200409‐2  
2 For instance, analysing data and using digital tools for collaboration were among the most requested skills in the sector in 2020, with demand set to grow substantially by 2030. 
(European Skills Panorama. Most requested skills in online job ads in EU27 in Skills in 2020 (health and social care sector). 
https://skillspanorama.cedefop.europa.eu/en/dashboard/skills‐online‐job‐advertisements?country=EU27_2020&occupation=&year=2020#3 and EIT Health and McKinsey, 2020, 
‘Transforming healthcare with AI: The impact on the workforce and organisations’)  
3 https://noharm‐global.org/sites/default/files/documents‐files/5961/HealthCaresClimateFootprint_092319.pdf 

4
 https://www.arup.com/‐/media/arup/files/publications/h/hcwh‐road‐map‐for‐health‐care‐decarbonization.pdf 
5
 OECD. Greener Skills and Jobs. Greener skills_Highlights WEB.pdf (oecd.org) 
6 Pact for Skills report from the roundtable with Commissioners Kyriakides, Schmit and Breton for the health ecosystem. 

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 PACT FOR SKILLS: LARGE SCALE PARTNERSHIP FOR THE HEALTH ECOSYSTEM

The ambition 
The Partnership will plan and address how to better prepare the health workforce for current and
upcoming challenges within ever-evolving societal contexts, through a sustainable, inclusive,
resourced, and collaborative life-long learning approach. Properly implemented, upskilling and reskilling
initiatives will increase the attractiveness of the health sector, thereby helping to retain existing
workers and recruit new ones to mitigate current workforce shortages. These initiatives should also
support the shift towards a health-promoting and person-centred sector, able to adapt quickly to
emerging challenges and provide professionals with resources that will help them to reduce
their workload and stress levels, while guaranteeing effective patient care.

The Partnership will focus on key skill sets deemed most urgent and relevant to strengthen and build
resilience across all areas of the complex network of health systems that exist across Europe at local,
regional and national levels, which collectively we call the health ecosystem.

• Skills to support the digital and green transformation of the health sector, for existing and
emerging occupations.

• Interdisciplinary skills and skills to enhance the integration of care across patient pathways
and of health promotion and disease prevention across health-relevant sectors.

• Communication and other skills including patient engagement, leadership, and advocacy.

Change management and organisational skills to help the health workforce become more engaged
in co-creating innovation across the health ecosystem.  

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 PACT FOR SKILLS: LARGE SCALE PARTNERSHIP FOR THE HEALTH ECOSYSTEM

The partnership proposal and objectives 
All the large-scale skills Partnership partners will commit to shaping a shared model for skills
development in Europe for the health ecosystem. They will focus on:

 Ensuring that individuals entering the health workforce are equipped

with appropriate skills and ready to face a constantly evolving environment. This
approach should be coupled with establishing a culture of life-long learning for all,
guaranteeing that the health workforce is properly resourced and trained throughout
their career, and re-establishing both the positive image and attractiveness of the
sector. This should be achieved through matching skilling opportunities with optimal
working conditions and sufficient frontline health professionals, thus guaranteeing both
patient care and the ability to engage with upskilling and reskilling.
 Ensuring dialogue with and between health professionals to understand and take
into consideration their needs and challenges, increasing their willingness and ability
to engage with training opportunities.
 Addressing the disparities among health and educational systems within and
across European countries, which are in many cases directly linked to unfair health
inequalities within and between European countries.
 Ensuring that - independently of where they live and their social and economic
conditions - every patient and resident in Europe would have access to an
adequately educated and resourced health workforce
 Exchanging and transferring knowledge of best practices in skills across Europe.
 Creating synergies with pan-European projects and initiatives in the health field.
 Exchanging data on skills gaps and needs for existing and emerging
occupations within and beyond European countries’ borders, for assessment and
forecast.
 Work against discrimination, and for gender equality, health equality, and equal
opportunities, within the health sector.

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 PACT FOR SKILLS: LARGE SCALE PARTNERSHIP FOR THE HEALTH ECOSYSTEM

Monitoring and Key Performance Indicators 
To measure its success, the Partnership will take into consideration the following indicators:

• Coverage of the Partnership: number of organisations involved in the partnership and its
steering committee. Number of health sectors and number of countries represented in the
Partnership.

• Communication/dissemination events: number of events promoting the health ecosystem

Partnership carried out within the framework of the Pact for Skills and beyond. Number of other
communication/dissemination activities such as joint statements and campaigns.

• Skills intelligence: number of skills needs assessments produced at European, national and/
or sectoral levels by stakeholders of the partnership and shared within the partnership.

• Upskilling and reskilling actions run by the stakeholders in the Partnership: number of
participants in education and training actions (considering the levels of training, gender, age,
geographical balance, with inclusiveness and access to education as key elements).

• New training models and tools, including pilot initiatives created and tested by the
stakeholders in the Partnership: number of new training initiatives, programs, materials, and
tools.

BeWell is co‐funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union under Grant 
Agreement  number  101056563  to  develop,  implement  and  upscale  the  strategy  on 
upskilling and reskilling of the European health workforce. 
 
 

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 PACT FOR SKILLS:
Large Scale Partnership
for the Health Ecosystem

Partnership Manifesto