02/12/2025
On 27 November, the TRAILS team attended the REBOOT Skills Final Seminar, an event highly relevant to TRAILS’ mission of tackling skills mismatches through better data, AI-driven tools and improved coordination between training providers and industry. As TRAILS seeks to build new mechanisms for matching workers, training and labour market needs, following such EU-wide initiatives offers valuable lessons on how digital transformation is reshaping future skills systems.
The seminar opened with Minna Isomursu (University of Oulu, Finland), who presented the REBOOT consortium: six training providers, four higher education institutions and four professional associations. She highlighted key achievements, including 50 courses delivered (doubling the original goal), 1,443 individuals trained, 1,197 full learning pathways completed and a 90% positive feedback rate. These results reflect strong demand for accessible digital upskilling and echo TRAILS’ motivation to address skills mismatches emerging from rapid labour-market shifts.
A presentation by Martin Hayes (University of Limerick, Ireland) provided deeper insights into how training initiatives can respond to changing labour-market requirements. REBOOT Skills successfully engaged 345 women, 1,302 course completers and 419 SMEs, offering targeted programmes in additive manufacturing, cybersecurity, data analytics, Design Thinking and AI Leadership. Hayes emphasised the importance of stackable micro-credentials – a direction fully aligned with TRAILS’ ambition to develop adaptive and personalised learning pathways informed by real-time data and AI.
Skills impact and learner satisfaction were further explored by Laurent Declercq (Flanders Make, Belgium), who presented findings from 714 feedback responses. Participants reported strong learning outcomes, despite some challenges related to technical complexity or contextual relevance. These insights underscore a core motivation of the TRAILS project: the urgent need to improve the match between training offers and real labour-market needs, reducing inefficiencies and preventing mismatches from deepening.
The seminar also featured a panel on Collaborative Training for Companies, moderated by Ward Rottiers (KU Leuven). Testimonials from learners and SMEs – such as Dipanjan Das (Finland) and Aleksi Arpiainen (TT Gaskets, Finland), highlighted how well-designed training can support both individual employability and company competitiveness. This is particularly important in the context of TRAILS, which aims to empower VET and Adult Education systems to better connect employers, workers and learning opportunities, enabling more efficient workforce reallocation.
Afternoon sessions focused on developing the “perfect training”, the changing needs of the manufacturing industry and the future of AI- and cybersecurity-related skills. Experts from DIMECC, Skillnet Ireland, Flanders Make, MADE SCARL, IBEC and the University of Oulu shared insights on how industrial transition, digitalisation and external shocks, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and energy crisis, are reshaping skills needs. This discussion reflects TRAILS’ core motivation: the urgent recognition of skills mismatch as a multidimensional challenge, influenced by technological, economic and societal factors.
The final panel, “How do we go forward?”, moderated by Martin Hayes, centred on how Europe can accelerate digital skills development and support workers through the “great restructuring” of the labour market. Panellists emphasised long-term cooperation, adaptable training systems and stronger data-driven approaches to industry needs.
This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101132673
