Research Seminar

Impact of COVID-19 on Skilling, Upskilling and Reskilling in Enterprises

The research seminar will take place on 28 June 2021 from 13:00 - 14:30 (CEST).

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about significant, unprecedented changes to the way many of us work and learn. As uncertainty about the future of work increases, it is becoming even more necessary that people are empowered with the right skills through timely and relevant skilling, upskilling and reskilling efforts. This is so people can become more agile and resilient, and able to cope with the challenges posed not only by the current pandemic but also by future developments more generally.

In view of the significant interruption to skills development activities due to the pandemic, several international organizations conducted a global online survey to shed light on the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on skilling, upskilling and reskilling of employees, apprentices and interns/trainees in enterprises and other organizations.

The global survey and the survey report are the result of collaboration between ten key international and regional development partners: the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the European Commission (EC), the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop), the European Training Foundation (ETF), the Global Apprenticeship Network (GAN), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the World Bank Group (WBG).

The survey focused on three main areas:
  1. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on skilling, upskilling and reskilling of employees, apprentices and interns/trainees.
  2. The good practices and innovative solutions instigated by various enterprises and other organizations to mitigate the impact of the pandemic.
  3. Policy recommendations to address the impact of the pandemic once lock-downs and other restrictions are lifted and in the future.

Objectives of the seminar

The main objectives of the seminar are to:

● present the key findings from the global survey;

● launch the survey report; and

● highlight innovative solutions and policy options to enhance the agility and resilience of skills development systems in the long-run.

Speakers 

The research seminar is an open, online event. The speakers will be the representatives of the 10 development partners who collaborated on the survey.

As it is an open event, anyone interested in this topic can register for the event here.

Language

The webinar will be English.