PortAbility Blueprint: VET and skills for a just transition in Europe’s port city regions

Ports have always been places of movement: of goods, people, work, ideas and opportunity. Today, the regions around them are moving again, fast, and under pressure of a more digital and sustainable future, towards greener industries, digital logistics, new blue economy activities, changing waterfronts and different kinds of jobs.

To ensure a just transition we need to keep people and inclusion at the heart of planning. Who gets access to the new opportunities? Who needs support to adapt? What skills will workers, learners, trainers, employers and communities need next? And how can port city regions make sure that change is fair, inclusive and locally rooted?

These are the issues at the heart of the PortAbility Blueprint, which is our shared map for action: it brings together evidence from different port city regions and turns it into priorities for skills, inclusion, training and cooperation.

The synthesis brings together evidence and insight from PortAbility’s work across its four regions: Taranto, Andalusia, Volos/Thessaly and Cyprus. It draws on applied research carried out by partners over the past year, the knowledge and experience shared by regional stakeholders, and the academic literature review developed within PortAbility, now published open access in the Sustainability Journal.

The Blueprint was written to help PortAbility move from shared evidence to shared action. It identifies the main challenges, priorities and opportunities that will now inform the next stage of the CoVE: the competency framework, learning resources, training activities, upskilling actions, regional cluster work, study visits and national events.

The synthesis helps readers think through questions that are already shaping port city regions:

• Who is at risk of being left out of the green and digital transition?
  
• What skills will workers, learners, trainers and organisations need next?
  
• How can port authorities, education providers, businesses, unions and community organisations work together more effectively?
  
• How can regional skills systems become more inclusive, flexible and future-facing?

It is written for everyone helping to shape the future of port city regions: port authorities, VET providers, employers, chambers of commerce, trade unions, NGOs, employment and guidance professionals, public bodies, universities, researchers, social enterprises, civic organisations and local development actors.

Inside, readers will find a shared picture of the challenges and opportunities facing Europe’s port city regions, from green and digital skills to social inclusion, from stakeholder cooperation to future learning pathways. It shows why vocational education and training has a central role to play, not only in preparing people for new jobs, but in helping regions manage transition in a fairer and more connected way.

Many of you contributed your knowledge, experience and local insight to this work. We hope you will recognise your perspectives in the synthesis, and also find new comparisons, ideas and questions that speak to your own local reality.