BeWell consortium met in Oslo, Norway, for the project’s summer General Assembly meeting, on 19-20 June 2023. BeWell partners had the opportunity to review the progress made so far and plan the project’s next steps.
Reaching the end of the project’s first year, the BeWell consortium has achieved one major milestone, the launch of the BeWell Skills Strategy first version. This strategy is being developed in two versions. This first version was created using BeWell consortium member expertise, and skills intelligence gathered. It will be shared broadly with the public to gather feedback from all stakeholders; concurrently, the BeWell project will pilot new qualifications, and the results of both initiatives will be incorporated into the second and final version to be published in June 2026.
“Taking a strategic approach, we have currently completed the first version of the strategy & will develop the second version at a later stage. This allows us to gather valuable input & feedback from stakeholders, incorporating their opinions & comments into the final version of the strategy” – George Valiotis, Executive Director, EHMA and coordinator of the BeWell project.
This strategy will be implemented at local, regional, national, and European levels through the Pact for Skills. The Pact for Skills aims to mobilise and incentivise all relevant stakeholders to take concrete commitments for upskilling and reskilling, and, when relevant, pool efforts thanks to partnerships. To this end, BeWell has established and coordinates the pan-European and multi-stakeholder Large Scale Partnership (LSP) for the health ecosystem. The LSP plays an important role in shaping the skills strategy as well as skills development within the European health and care ecosystem. Therefore, it supports the twin transition to a green and digital economy, makes EU health and care systems more competitive globally, and enhances Europe’s open strategic autonomy.
In parallel, the project is developing its Skills Intelligence. The digital and green skills monitor is a web-based tool that captures and facilitates comparative analysis on digital and green skills training programmes in Europe and other countries. The goal of the monitor is to provide an overview of upskilling and reskilling possibilities to empower the digitalisation and ecologicalisation of the health and care sector. This includes everything from life-long learning, continuing professional development and continuous medical development programmes that are focused on digital and green skills.
Adding to these upskilling and reskilling opportunities, the BeWell project is also developing new qualifications, innovative curricula and training programmes. The training programmes will be available for pilot use in September 2023. Based on the curricula and training programmes developed, the modular training at levels EQF 3-5 and EQF 6-8 will focus on initial education as well as continuing professional development (reskilling and up-skilling). The training for emerging occupational profiles will address the rapidly changing convergence of requirements such as digitization, ethics and cybersecurity in the context of integrated care and resource conservation and waste management as well as workforce shortages or demographic change, among others.
Year 2 of the BeWell project is well under way with exciting developments ahead! Most notably, the first phase of the Skills Strategy consultation will run among the consortium partners and their own membership until the end of 2023. It will then open to the wider public in various forms ranging from online questionnaires to tailored workshops and meetings as from January 2024. BeWell invite you, all stakeholders of the health and care ecosystem, to provide your feedback on a Skills Strategy that will help shape the health and care workforce of tomorrow. A Skills Strategy for and by the health and care workforce!