The main objective of PILLARS is to provide policy makers and the public with information about what kind of (new) skills will be in demand and how to revise education and training systems to create the opportunities to acquire them. Three main factors have predominantly shaped the European labour markets in the past decades and these factors will continue to influence them in the future: technological change, international trade and industrial transformation. The PILLARS project consists of ten partners, eight EU partners and one partner in China and Latin America. PILLARS will achieve its objectives through the combined efforts of these partners in three PILLARS.

The Three Pillars Framework

 

Pillar 1

Past

The first pillar quantifies the impact of technological change and structural transformations on labour market outcomes (employment, wages and mobility), mediated by the mismatch between demand and supply of skills. This pillar will look more closely at past waves of automation technologies, recent trends of international fragmentation of production in Global Value Chains (GVCs) and industrial transformation of European regions on EU labour markets, in terms of employment reconfiguration, skill mismatch and migration.

Pillar 2

Future

The second pillar studies future trends in emerging automation technologies, functional specialisation along GVCs, industrial transformations, and skill requirements. We build on the impact assessment of Pillar 1 and provide a comprehensive set of forecasting scenarios and projections for the direction of change of the three main factors that influence labour markets – technological change, international trade and industrial transformation – and how they will change the demand for skills and jobs in the near future. 

Pillar 3

Present

The third pillar takes stock of current labour market policies, smart specialization strategies and training policies to identify areas of success and directions to be mitigated. By including the projections of change from Pillar 2, this pillar will provide a coherent and cohesive policy roadmap that includes a battery of action in different policy areas (innovation, trade, education and training) to achieve Pathways to Inclusive Labour Markets.