The social component is very important when we talk about skills, but today we are still in a defensive zone with the jobs of the future, Silvia Monica Dinica, senior official with the Ministry of Labour, Family, Youth and Social Solidarity (MMFTSS), said on Monday.
"We are still in a defensive zone with the jobs of the future. That is, we also try to adapt as things appear. We are not frontliners in this discussion yet. Obviously, this is a discussion where the Ministry of Education also has a key area, because, in the end, where research happens, where innovation happens, there is also a large component in research institutes and universities. These things must somehow be addressed in talks with the Ministry of Labour. It is a challenging area. I would not say that it is an area where we can already draw the conclusion. I think there is a great potential also because this area of sustainability, I don't necessarily see it as someone who came, imposed a directive and there must be some indicators, but I see it as a safety zone for us, for all of us, at the level of citizens (...) I think we are sitting on a mountain of information, but it is very fragmented between ministries, between bodies, between authorities. I think that the local administrations could give a lot of input if they had this reflex. Inevitably, you know, we end up at the level of competences, because any of us, wherever we are, whether we are in a non-managerial or a managerial position, or we are in a place where we have the highest decision, in the end the reflex is to be practical, to draw some conclusions based on the input we have at the level of society," said Dinica.
According to her, the market needs skills both in the area of high training and in terms of professional retraining.
"The social component is very important in this context, and the key is to this area of competences. We also need skills in this area of high training, but we also need to look at skills in the area of reskilling, upskilling, getting out of vulnerability. First of all, what we need to do is look at the data. I know that this area has been repeated before, but it would be very good if we could have some reports as up to date as possible, about what the market demand is and what the existing professional training courses are. Things are still happening fragmentedly. In the area of lifelong professional training, if we look at the European indicators, Romania is lagging behind. Basically, there is no discussion about what green skills mean, what this technology area means... I'll give you just one example: we are talking about this area of technology, on different businesses, where the person who operates in a company must understand the energy area, the environmental area, but he or she must also have enough technical skills to be able to integrate this area of technology into his or her activity. Simplistically speaking, you can't have a machine that does things without you knowing which button to press and, especially, how to configure that technology, whether it's energy or the environmental area. At this moment, the conversation is not much updated and far too little is happening," Dinica told the conference "CSR and sustainability" organised by the Bursa publication on Monday.
The role of environmental, social and governance (ESG) departments in companies and the integration of sustainability into the business strategy are among the topics that will be discussed at the third edition of the conference on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability.
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