The cooperation of the social partners must become a priority – high-quality and functional social dialogue (not only) in times of crisis is essential.

For more than two years in Slovakia, one crisis alternates with another. In addition to new challenges in the form of a pandemic or an energy and inflation crisis, our country also has to deal with unstoppable global technological progress and profound changes in the labor market. Today, employers associated with the National Union of Employers (NUE) jointly discussed how to ensure that companies and their employees can keep up with the accelerated transformation of the labor market with representatives of the Ministry of Investments, Regional Development and Informatization of the Slovak Republic (MIRRI), universities, as well as with social partners from Slovakia and Romania.

Two years ago, COVID-19 fundamentally accelerated digitalization and the transformation of the world of work and individual jobs – in response to the coronavirus, many businesses were forced to either temporarily close their operations or accelerate their digital transformation, reconfigure internal processes and switch to remote working mode. During the pandemic, part-time employment also began to be used more intensely, as confirmed by Eurofound data, according to which more than a quarter of workers within the European Union (EU) worked fewer hours in the pandemic year 2020.

As a result of the unpredictable situation, the financial resources of individual Member States of the Union were directed primarily to halting the spread of the disease and the subsequent recovery of economies. Although many measures focused on short-time work, temporary unemployment, or wage subsidy schemes, they needed to address the area of education and to upskill fundamentally. "The skills and abilities requirements of employees have been fundamentally modified due to the pandemic, literally in a matter of months. Only a few Member States have provided financial incentives for training. Unfortunately, Slovakia has not yet taken major measures in this area. Therefore, education and training opportunities, especially for adults, are left behind, which translates into an acute shortage of skilled workers across all sectors," says Mário Lelovský, 1st Vice-President of NUE.

Abstract predictions about the advent of artificial intelligence have recently turned into a technology realistically available to the public. Anyone who chatted with a robot during Christmas knows that learning will be essential for their future career. As of 2025, up to 90 percent of jobs will require digital skills. Therefore, the European Commission (EC) also gives priority to education, which has dedicated the current year precisely to skills and lifelong learning. Even though the EU is counting on a rate of adult participation in the lifelong learning system of at least sixty percent, Slovakia has long stagnated in this area. Together with Romania, it is at the tail end of the ranking – the proportion of employees involved in lifelong learning in these countries does not even reach five percent. The level of digital skills is also alarming. This is well below the EU average in both countries. "At the same time, the loss of jobs is directly threatening low-income groups in low-skilled jobs, who often lack basic digital skills and do not have the opportunity to provide the necessary courses or retrain on their own,"   explains Lelovsky. He sees the causes mainly in the setting of the education system. According to him, it cannot respond flexibly to current trends and challenges. The lack of general awareness of what transformation brings and the purpose of lifelong learning is also a problem. In this area, the 1st Vice-President of the NUE considers it essential that the state, employers, and trade unions "pull" the same rope: "The digital transformation affects us all. Unless we prepare employees for the changed conditions, the enterprise will not have the needed employees. Employees will not have the necessary qualifications and therefore no adequate jobs, and the state will have thousands of unemployed people instead of employed tax and contribution payers."

Slovak employers discussed the possibilities of improving their cooperation today with representatives of the government, academia, representatives of successful projects in adult education in Slovakia, and other European social partners, declaring that ensuring decent work and inclusive growth is their priority. In this area, they consider it essential to start, above all, with building an experiential and more flexible education system. The European social partners also agreed that the pandemic has negatively affected the quality of social dialogue, especially in central and eastern European countries. "Unforeseen circumstances often call for a prompt response from the government and the introduction of systemic measures. Only the social partners have the necessary practical experience that the state needs. Our common priority should be to find optimal solutions and to take not truly workable measures that benefit our people, economic stability, and the further development of our country. I am pleased that today's event and our foreign partners' experience have confirmed that it can be done if one wants to. I believe they also inspire our country," concludes the 1st Vice-President of NUE.

Please note: The text expresses only the authors' views and cannot be considered those of the European Commission. The discussion is organized under the auspices of the National Union of Employers (RÚZ) within the project "Challenges from the pandemics: adult learning in Romania and Slovakia" – #AdultLearningROSK.