Across the EU’s neighbouring regions, governments face a common challenge: ensuring that skills systems are agile and responsive enough to meet the evolving demands of labour markets in the context of digitalisation, the green transition, and wider structural changes. A new publication by the European Training Foundation (ETF), From Skills Anticipation to Skills Action, brings fresh evidence to this pressing issue - drawing on research conducted across its partner countries in the Western Balkans and Türkiye, Eastern Europe and the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean. 

The publication, produced in collaboration with our ETF Skills Lab Network of Experts, brings together six original studies selected through a joint research call. It covers different contexts -from small farms in Serbia to the steel industry in Türkiye - but with a shared objective: to better understand how skills systems can go beyond identifying needs, to actually delivering the right skills at the right time. 

Rather than simply tracking global trends, the publication examines how different national contexts influence countries’ ability to act on emerging skills needs. In doing so, it sheds light on how education and training systems are shaped by broader institutional settings, and what options are available to accelerate progress. 

The opening chapter sets out a clear framework for interpreting changes in the demand for skills. It draws on international research and the ETF’s own analysis to unpack the drivers of transformation: automation, AI, environmental sustainability, global value chains, and shifting demographics. 

A key insight is that the pace and impact of these changes vary significantly by country. While tools like the European Skills and Jobs Survey (ESJS) show that technology is reshaping work across the EU, its effects are more incremental in ETF partner countries, where the uptake of digital tools remains relatively limited, and the impact on jobs is more about building on existing roles rather than replacing them. 

The green transition presents another layer of complexity. In the EU, the Green Deal has mobilised significant resources and regulatory momentum. In the EU’s neighbouring countries, however, institutional capacity, labour market structures, and climate change shape what the transition looks like in practical terms and what skills are needed to support it. 

A recurrent theme running throughout the publication, is that change is often failing to take place at sufficient scale in the countries, such that there is a risk of falling behind some of the major economies. One factor is a latent skills gap related to knowledge about new technologies and how they might transform product ranges and production processes in almost any sector. 

Each of the six case studies offers practical insights: 

A core message throughout the publication is that skills anticipation is only the starting point. The real challenge lies in building the institutional mechanisms to act on this intelligence. This means engaging employers, aligning education systems with sectoral needs, and making smarter use of data to shape investment decisions. 

There is also a warning: some countries risk falling into a low-skills trap, where limited innovation reduces the demand for new skills, which in turn weakens incentives for reform. Breaking out of this cycle requires coordinated policy efforts that connect industrial development with education and labour market strategies.