Skills that travel: Microcredentials, digital wallets and the Skills Portability Act – Building and recognising skills in regions and sectors: the circular economy as a test case
📆 Thursday 10 December 2026, 8:00 – 9:40 CET
đź“ŤOrganised at the European Parliament, Brussels, MEP salon area
On 15 September 2026 the European Commission adopted the Fair Labour Mobility package. Its Skills Portability Initiative contains three proposals: a Skills Portability Act setting a standard digital format for qualifications in the European Digital Identity Wallet, a revision of the Professional Qualifications Directive, and a Directive on recognising the qualifications of non-EU nationals. The aim is that a qualification obtained in one Member State can be read, checked and trusted in another. The proposals are now with the European Parliament and the Council.
The circular economy is a good test case for this aim, for two reasons :
1- It depends on people whose skills change as fast as the rules and technologies they work with: operators of secondary materials, procurement officers applying circular criteria, repair and remanufacturing technicians. A digital product passport or a new rule on secondary materials can create a new job profile within months, but a qualification takes years.
2-These skills are built in regions and sectors. Through smart specialisation, VET systems and circular economy strategies, regions decide which skills to develop in their territory, and sector organisations shape the job profiles industry needs. This is where new credentials either enter official training paths and national systems or stay outside them.
The workshop brings these angles into one debate as the legislative process moves on. The first panel, on microcredentials, digital wallets and the Skills Portability Act, asks what it takes for a credential to be trusted across borders and sectors and carried in a digital wallet. The second panel looks at how regions and sectors build skills with industry and get them recognised, using the circular economy as a test case. Experience from two Erasmus+ projects, MASTERY and RECEBA, feeds into both panels.
What will it take for the skills of the circular transition to be recognised across Europe, and what can those who train and hire do as the Skills Portability Initiative moves from proposal to law and into practice?
DRAFT AGENDA
8:00 : Opening and setting the scene
- MEP Dimitris Tsiodras (EPP)
- Anna Banczyk, Head of Unit EMPL.B.3 “Vocational Education and Training, Skills Portability, CEDEFOP”, European Commission (tbc)
- Mikel Irujo Amezaga, ACR+ President and Regional Minister for Industry and Ecological and Digital Business Transition, Government of Navarra (tbc)
- Ivana Russiello, Sistemi Formativi Confindustria, MASTERY and RECEBA Project Coordinator
8:30 : PANEL 1 : Microcredentials, digital wallets and the Skills Portability Act
Moderator MEP Brigitte van den Berg (Renew Europe)
- Pavel Trantina, European Economic and Social Committee, Section for Employment, Social Affairs and Citizenship (SOC) (tbc)
- Maria Nakova, Cleantech Bulgaria, coordinator of the BuildSkills Academy CoVE
- Sabrina di Ruggiero, Project Manager, Schuman Associates, Skills Coalition and Digital4Business project
9:00 : PANEL 2 :Building and recognising skills in regions and sectors: the circular economy as a test case
Moderator MEP Nela Riehl (Greens)
- Le Forem (tbc)
- Euratex (tbc)
- Brikena Xhomaqi, Lifelong Learning Platform
9:30 : Closing remarks by Victor Negrescu, Vice-President of the European Parliament (tbc)
