This Discussion Paper sets out the arguments surrounding why and how industrial clusters, and cluster organisations, can contribute to addressing skills imbalances.
Calls for a human-centric approach to skills, built into regional industrial ecosystems and resulting in skills pacts between key players, highlight the central role for place-based collaborative dynamics, which bring together the strategic intelligence, demands and capacities of a wide range of actors to tailor responses to skills shortages and mismatches.
While many cluster organisations are already engaged in activities that respond to skills imbalances within their clusters, joint cluster actions must be widened and deepened in order to respond to skills imbalances from the dual green and digital transitions that are impacting European industry.