The EU Education and Skills Summit: Fueling Europe’s Growth
On 13 November, Executive Vice President of the European Commission Roxana Mînzatu hosted the European Education and Skills Summit 2025. The topic of this year, “Education and Skills: Fueling Europe’s Growth”, rooted the Summit in the current geopolitical context, where education is needed to maintain Europe’s competitiveness and economic growth.
The Summit brought together ministers, policymakers, thought leaders, and stakeholders from education, training, and labour market to shape the future of education and skills in Europe. It provided a high-level, thought-provoking and participatory platform to discuss and address the most pressing challenges facing education and training systems in Europe and explores how joint action can strengthen Europe’s competitiveness and resilience.
Once dubbed “European Education Summit”, this year the Summit added the “skills” dimension in the title, signaling the symbolic and powerful marriage between education and skills.
Back to basics: European standpoints
Executive Vice President of the European Commission Roxana Mînzatu delivered an insightful keynote, highlighting the most pressing topics for education in the EU.
Drawing from the alarming conclusions of the OECD PISA and PIAAC reports, EVP Mînzatu underscored the importance of basic skills in the educational landscape. EU citizens are faring less and less well on standardised tests when it comes to reading, writing and mathematics. She also noted how, in a knowledge economy, education is the most important currency.
Throughout the event, speakers underlined the importance of competences and skills to tackle contemporary challenges: from climate change to defense issues, from the skills gap to inclusive education systems. Director-General Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen delivered a powerful follow-up to the keynote: the most important of the key competences for lifelong learning is critical thinking, because it equips learners all over the world with the sharpest tools to safely surf tumultuous waters. As other speakers pointed out, “we need critical thinkers, not obedient citizens” (Arja Krauchenberg - European Parents’ Association).
In a high-level panel discussion, this was brought to the next level. Polish minister of Education Barbara Nowacka claimed that education plays the bigger role in protecting our democracies. In her words, “democracy starts in the classroom”, where an education that is enshrined in common values must take place.
Valuing teachers and educators
In her keynote, EVP Mînzatu also spotlighted the role of teachers and educators in the results of their pupils and students. She referred to the forthcoming EU Teachers and Trainers Agenda, praising the role of the EU in promoting decent working conditions and a sound attractiveness for the profession. After all, it is teachers and educators who are in the driving seat of learning journeys.
A high-level panel discussion followed-up on this capital issue, with one big question in mind: can we transition from shortage to strength? Teacher shortages are unfortunately a common issue, especially in central and northern Europe, with the profession being under pressure for bad working conditions and poor societal recognition. According to Anders Adlercreutz, Finnish Minister of Education and Culture, the solution is to give space for teachers to breathe and work: they are the best-placed people to address the pedagogical needs of pupils. And it is not by chance that Finland is often mentioned as one of the best education systems in the world. This was echoed by other speakers, claiming that “there is no other job in society more important than teaching” (Fergal McCarthy ‐ Executive Committee Member, European Federation of Education Employers).
Education for competitiveness: a new compass
A large part of the Summit was dedicated to finding synergies between education and the labour market, with education systems being pointed at as privileged helpers when it comes to bridging the skills gap. In her keynote, EVP Mînzatu called for a more pronounced presence of business stakeholders in formal education, citing a few examples where businesses and the industry can provide valuable cooperation models.
Education and Training Monitor 2025 - A deep dive into STEM education
The Summit was also the occasion to officially launch the Education and Training Monitor 2025, the annual report with the latest facts and figures about EU education systems. This year, the report is framed by the Union of Skills, the Commission’s overarching strategy to ensure EU education and training systems drive competitiveness, prosperity, and preparedness, and looks more closely at STEM education. This focus responds directly to the STEM education strategic plan, which reflects the call to address the insufficient supply of STEM talent, as highlighted in the Draghi Report on competitiveness.
What’s next?
In the final panel, EVP Mînzatu, EVP Virkkunen and MEP Nela Riehl, Chair of the Cult Committee, gave one voice to the Summit. In their words, the EU is committed to putting education and training atop of the EU agenda, because their spillover effects are beneficial to all areas where our contemporary challenges lie: environment, defence and democracy, labour market, competitiveness, etc.
Many EU initiatives in the pipeline are coming up to boost our continent’s strength: under the overarching umbrella of the Union of Skills, the EU Teachers and Trainers Agenda and the VET strategy promise to deliver where the EU needs it the most: in education.
