# Action Plan on Basic Skills Canonical URL: https://digital-acquis.eu/initiative/action-plan-on-basic-skills Entry type: initiative Source edition current through: 17 July 2026 (2026-07-17). This is not a page modification date. Status: delivered. A delivered initiative is not necessarily legislation in force. Instrument: Communication Date as recorded: 05 Mar 2025 Date kind: date Status note: full date links only to published artifact types Record content updated: 2026-08-14 ## Previous steps The communication was adopted on 5 March 2025. ## Summary The plan will lift literacy, numeracy, science, digital and citizenship skills, tackling underachievement. A Basic Skills Support Scheme will pilot interventions with EU funding, from early identification and tutoring to school-level improvement plans. A European Innovative School Award will recognise innovation and partnerships with businesses and local authorities. The Commission will pilot university–business partnerships via Erasmus+, Digital Europe and EIT to train for shortage sectors and co-develop micro-credentials. The plan will expand the European Alliance for Apprenticeships to 700 pledges and streamline the Pact for Skills (linking EU Skills Academies, CoVEs and European Universities) to double 25-million upskilling commitments. ## Sources - [Official source]() ## Action items (18; complete published list) ### 1. Action item 250001 Pilot a Basic Skills Support Scheme in 2026. Provenance: source document doc-026, paragraph 1. Digital dimension: no. ### 2. Action item 250002 Draw up guidelines for policymakers in 2025 as a preparatory step for the Support Scheme. Provenance: source document doc-026, paragraph 2. Digital dimension: no. ### 3. Action item 250004 Pilot the first European School Alliances through the Erasmus+ programme in 2026. This will boost strategic European cooperation in school education, serving as testbeds for innovative teaching methods, curricula and competence frameworks, particularly for basic skills. The Alliances will support participating schools in becoming learning organisations for effective basic skills teaching, including in cooperation with local authorities. Provenance: source document doc-026, paragraph 4. Digital dimension: no. ### 4. Action item 250005 Develop guidelines for curriculum development in early childhood education and care, which support the acquisition of basic skills early on and facilitate early detection and intervention of developmental delays. Provenance: source document doc-026, paragraph 5. Digital dimension: no. ### 5. Action item 250006 Develop guidelines and best practices on advancing the assessment of digital skills in education in 2026 to help compare standards of digital skills assessments in schools across the EU. Provenance: source document doc-026, paragraph 6. Digital dimension: no. ### 6. Action item 250007 Pilot innovative approaches for personalised learning pathways in basic skills development through the use of artificial intelligence (AI) systems, building on 2026 Erasmus+ policy experimentations, to support top-performing and underachieving learners. Provenance: source document doc-026, paragraph 7. Digital dimension: no. ### 7. Action item 250008 Update the Digital Competence Framework (DigComp) in 2025, taking into account new technologies such as General Purpose AI, to support learners in developing basic and advanced digital skills. Provenance: source document doc-026, paragraph 8. Digital dimension: no. ### 8. Action item 250009 Develop guidelines on enhancing basic skills in VET through: (i) integrating literacy, numeracy, digital, and citizenship skills in VET curricula; (ii) using effective teaching methods such as problem-solving and scenario-based learning; (iii) implementing appropriate assessment and quality assurance measures. Provenance: source document doc-026, paragraph 9. Digital dimension: no. ### 9. Action item 250010 Create a toolkit for basic skills, including basic digital skills, in apprenticeships in 2026 to provide hands-on guidance for VET schools and employers to integrate basic skills in their apprenticeship programmes. Provenance: source document doc-026, paragraph 10. Digital dimension: no. ### 10. Action item 250012 Set out an EU Teachers and Trainers Agenda in 2026. It will focus on improving educators’ working conditions, training and career prospects, including in early childhood education and care. It will aim to break the vicious circle of low attractiveness and sustainability of careers, which has led in particular to a shortage of STEM teachers and a drop in basic skills. Provenance: source document doc-026, paragraph 12. Digital dimension: no. ### 11. Action item 250013 Set up, in 2025, a new community of practice of Erasmus+ Teacher Academies – the European partnerships between teacher education institutions and training providers – on the European School Education Platform. The action will foster collaboration among the 43 Erasmus+ Teacher Academies to identify and disseminate relevant, applicable knowledge and share innovative practices to amplify high-quality teacher training, including on basic skills. Provenance: source document doc-026, paragraph 13. Digital dimension: no. ### 12. Action item 250014 Pilot a mentoring system for early career teachers in all subjects by 2026 to effectively integrate basic skills development into their teaching practices. Provenance: source document doc-026, paragraph 14. Digital dimension: no. ### 13. Action item 250015 Promote job shadowing for education policymakers through Erasmus+ in 2026, which will increase their learning mobility, including to countries with high scores in international assessment tests. Provenance: source document doc-026, paragraph 15. Digital dimension: no. ### 14. Action item 250016 Expand EU online communities for educators (European School Education Platform, including eTwinning) in 2025, which reach 400,000 participants, providing better professional learning opportunities, evidence-based tools, material and resources on effective basic skills teaching and assessment. Provide high-quality material for educators, parents, teachers and youngsters, including on cybersecurity, through the Better Internet for Kids initiative. Provenance: source document doc-026, paragraph 16. Digital dimension: no. ### 15. Action item 250017 Promote high-quality learning material on digital skills by practicing teachers through the EU Code Week activities, aiming at 100,000 activities per year. Provenance: source document doc-026, paragraph 17. Digital dimension: no. ### 16. Action item 250019 Engage volunteers under the European Solidarity Corps in 2026 for mentoring and tutoring activities for underachieving children and adults as part of the ‘Volunteering Teams in High Priority Areas’ strand. The programme will recruit a diverse group of volunteers to assist and inspire children in their academic and social development while also promoting intergenerational solidarity by enriching the experiences of both the volunteers and the children they mentor. Provenance: source document doc-026, paragraph 19. Digital dimension: no. ### 17. Action item 250020 Launch an EU literacy coalition in 2026, involving governments, businesses and libraries, to create a community around literacy, raise awareness about the literacy crisis and encourage young people, in particular boys, to read for pleasure. Provenance: source document doc-026, paragraph 20. Digital dimension: no. ### 18. Action item 250021 Organise peer-learning activities for Member States on innovative community learning spaces to help develop adults’ basic skills. Provenance: source document doc-026, paragraph 21. Digital dimension: no. ## Referenced entries - [EU Literacy Coalition]() — status: forthcoming. The EU Literacy Coalition is an initiative announced under the Union of Skills and the Action Plan on Basic Skills. The Commission says the Coalition will be established in autumn 2026. In preparation, the Commission held a conference on reading and literacy in Warsaw from 5 to 7 May, followed by a two half-day stakeholder workshop to lay the ground for the Coalition. The Commission presents the initiative as a joint approach across education and culture that brings together the cultural, creative, education and book sectors in response to declining literacy competences and reading habits. Source document doc-026, action item 250020: > Launch an EU literacy coalition in 2026, involving governments, businesses and libraries, to create a community around literacy, raise awareness about the literacy crisis and encourage young people, in particular boys, to read for pleasure. - [EU Teachers and Trainers Agenda]() — status: forthcoming. The Teachers and Trainers Agenda is an initiative within the Union of Skills aimed at tackling shortages, improving conditions and strengthening careers for educators. The wider strategy seeks to help people access quality jobs, help companies find talent and make skills portable across the EU. It includes action on basic skills, STEM, vocational education and training, upskilling, reskilling, skills intelligence and talent attraction. Source document doc-026, action item 250012: > Set out an EU Teachers and Trainers Agenda in 2026. It will focus on improving educators’ working conditions, training and career prospects, including in early childhood education and care. It will aim to break the vicious circle of low attractiveness and sustainability of careers, which has led in particular to a shortage of STEM teachers and a drop in basic skills. - [European School Alliances]() — status: forthcoming. The programme will knit Europe’s education and innovation fabric into a single, high-performing network. Universities alliances will launch joint programmes (especially in AI, quantum, semiconductors, data and cybersecurity) under a European degree/label, backed by an EU legal status and an investment pathway that secures long-term cooperation, shared infrastructures, and partnerships with business and research. In schools, a 2026 pilot will create European School Alliances to boost pupil and teacher mobility, enable cross-border cooperation between schools and authorities, and serve as testbeds for pedagogy, curricula and competence frameworks. Alliances will help schools become learning organisations focused on mastering basic skills. Source document doc-026, action item 250004: > Pilot the first European School Alliances through the Erasmus+ programme in 2026. This will boost strategic European cooperation in school education, serving as testbeds for innovative teaching methods, curricula and competence frameworks, particularly for basic skills. The Alliances will support participating schools in becoming learning organisations for effective basic skills teaching, including in cooperation with local authorities. ## Citing documents - [Union of Skills]() — status: delivered. Union of Skills measures span basic education, digital learning, science and technology education, vocational training, higher education and labour-market mobility. The programme lists action on basic skills, a Skills Guarantee, skills academies, university-business partnerships, portability and recognition of qualifications, a European degree or label, and talent attraction. It also includes support for teachers and academic staff, school and university alliances, and ways for international talent to enter the EU. Its timetable combines pilots, strategies, frameworks and legal arrangements intended to connect education and training with skills needs. Source document doc-025, action item 240001: > Action Plan on Basic Skills [Q1 2025] ## Current developments Latest updates from Digital Policy Alert and Global Trade Alert. No reviewed developments available; this does not establish that no developments exist. ## Associated policy priorities - [Human Capital, Skills & Talent Mobility]() ## Broader policy context (shared priority; not a direct citation) - [2030 Roadmap on the Future of Digital Education and Skills]() — status: forthcoming. The roadmap will steer Europe’s digital education transformation, building on the review of the Digital Education Action Plan. It will promote equal access, build a digital education ecosystem, and forge partnerships with EU-based EdTech. An accompanying AI in Education initiative will set an AI literacy framework, support safe, ethical AI uptake in classrooms, and address online safety, wellbeing and misinformation. The Roadmap complements the Union of Skills and the STEM Plan, enlarging Europe’s AI-capable talent pool. The Digital Competence Framework will be updated by end-2025 to reflect emerging technologies. It will strengthen teacher capacity through targeted support and guidance. - [Digital Competence Framework (DigComp 3.0)]() — status: not recorded. DigComp 3.0 provides a common framework for identifying and describing the key areas of digital competence. Its use spans employment, education and digital-skills training across the EU, with adoption in at least 22 Member States and use as a basis or guide for 27 digital-skills certification schemes in 25 countries. The Joint Research Centre presented the new version in an online event for policymakers, employers, educators and researchers working on digital competence development. - [Digital Skills Academies]() — status: not recorded. The EU will deploy a targeted network of Skills Academies anchored by a flagship AI Skills Academy and complemented by a Quantum Skills Academy, a Cybersecurity Skills Academy (with an Industry–Academia network and cyber-campuses), and Net-Zero Industry Academies. Academies will offer one-stop training, apprenticeships and fellowships, returnships for women, and competitions. Building on Large-Scale Partnerships, a rollout will serve strategic sectors: defence, automotive, grids, wind, food, AI, quantum, virtual worlds and semiconductors. Coordinated under the Union of Skills and linked to the Clean Industrial Deal, the EIT will equip 1 million learners by 2028, with gender and mobility targets across Europe. - [EU Visa Policy Strategy]() — status: delivered. EU Visa Policy Strategy sets out changes to make visa tools more responsive to readmission, security and border-management cooperation. In 2026, the Commission plans a new framework for visa-exemption assessments, a Visa Code revision and the launch of the European Travel Information and Authorisation System. The measures cover restrictive visa options, digitalised procedures, travel-document security, longer-validity multiple-entry visas, support for innovation talent, border-management IT and a proposed EU Visa Support Office within a revised Frontex mandate. - [European Skills High Level Board]() — status: not recorded. The Board will be the steering hub of the Union of Skills, chaired by the Commission and uniting business leaders, education and training providers, and social partners. It delivers cross-sector insight and guidance on skills issues, drawing on evidence from the European Skills Intelligence Observatory and aligning action with the competitiveness steering mechanism. It will support a new EU-27 Recommendation on human capital and inform country-specific recommendations, while taking into account the Digital Decade Board’s advice on digital basic skills. With a dynamic, agile set-up, the Board can convene stakeholders quickly and accelerate implementation across sectors. - [European Strategy for VET]() — status: forthcoming. The Strategy upgrades VET into a first-choice pathway for competitiveness, cohesion and generational renewal. It tackles skills shortages by modernising curricula with employers, expanding work-based learning, and boosting mobility and internationalisation (via Erasmus+ and a pilot European VET diploma/label in 2025–26). It raises excellence and inclusiveness, combats gender stereotypes, and sets a 2030 STEM target: at least 45% of initial medium-level VET enrolment, with one in four women. Centres of Vocational Excellence will scale transnational partnerships and drive national reforms, while recognition frameworks ease cross-border learning and careers, making VET as valued as higher education across the Union. - [Fair Labour Mobility Package]() — status: forthcoming. The Package will remove frictions to cross-border work while safeguarding rights, making Europe’s labour market more efficient. It will propose a European Social Security Pass for digital verification of entitlements, streamline posting procedures, and clarify social-security coordination for cross-border remote work. The package will strengthen the European Labour Authority’s mandate and data capabilities to improve enforcement and joint inspections. A Skills Portability Initiative will simplify recognition of qualifications and interoperable digital credentials, including for third-country nationals. Together, these measures cut administrative burden for employers and workers, enable service provision, and support talent circulation across the Single Market. - [Intergenerational Fairness Strategy]() — status: delivered. The Commission will present the first EU-wide strategy to embed long-term, intergenerational perspectives across policymaking. It will: (1) strengthen intergenerational democratic participation and scrutiny; (2) tackle cross-cutting challenges (i.e. climate, housing, fiscal sustainability, skills and lifelong learning) through an intergenerational lens; and (3) empower all ages, combating ageism and protecting children’s rights. The strategy is being co-created via a 2025 four-phase process and may include a monitoring tool for intergenerational fairness. It will align with the Union of Skills agenda and related education actions, ensuring no generation is left behind. It will propose metrics and mainstream youth participation. - [MSCA Choose Europe for Science]() — status: not recorded. Choose Europe will co-fund recruitment programmes that link MSCA grants to long-term positions, tackling precarity and drawing top researchers to Europe, including in AI. It sits within a wider talent-magnet approach: a new Visa Strategy to better use the Students & Researchers and Blue Card Directive, pilots of Multipurpose Legal Gateway Offices, and an EU Talent Pool plus a 2030 target to host at least 350,000 non-EU tertiary graduates annually. Complementary quantum actions include a European Quantum Talent Mobility Programme and a Pilot for Researchers-in-Residence in quantum startups. Together, this integrates R&I careers, mobility and immigration tools into one offer. - [Quality Jobs Act]() — status: forthcoming. Developed with EU social partners in 2025, the Quality Jobs Roadmap will set a coherent EU strategy to raise job quality alongside competitiveness. It will back fair wages, high health-and-safety standards, decent working conditions, work-life balance, gender equality and wider collective bargaining; strengthen enforcement of work-related rights; and support access to training and fair job-to-job transitions, drawing on the European Pillar of Social Rights. It will align with the Competitiveness Compass, Union of Skills and the Clean Industrial Deal so decarbonisation creates attractive jobs and regional cohesion, and may announce targeted legislative and non-legislative actions with robust monitoring and evaluation. - [Recommendation on Human Capital]() — status: delivered. The Commission will introduce a recommendation on education and skills within the European Semester to anchor the Union of Skills in the competitiveness steering mechanism. It will be underpinned by the European Skills Intelligence Observatory and advised by a European Skills High-Level Board, ensuring timely, granular evidence and guidance. The recommendation will target structural reforms across the skills pipeline (i.e. basic education, VET, higher education and lifelong learning) linking them to labour-market needs. It will inform Council debates, the Joint Employment Report and country reports/CSRs, and promote whole-of-government coordination across education, employment and economic portfolios, nationally. - [Skills Portability Initiative (SPI)]() — status: forthcoming. The initiative will remove barriers to cross-border work by making skills and qualifications usable across the Single Market. It will consider a legislative proposal to ease mobility and promote common EU formats for interoperable digital credentials, building on EQF, Europass and ESCO. Recognition in regulated professions will be expanded and modernised using digital tools, while simpler common rules will be explored to recognise third-country nationals’ skills. In parallel, the EU will develop a framework for automatic recognition of qualifications and learning periods in school, VET and higher education, and examine accession to the Lisbon Recognition Convention. - [STEM Education Strategic Plan]() — status: delivered. The EU will reverse declining STEM performance and close talent gaps by 2030 through enrolment targets (45% of initial VET in STEM, 32% tertiary, and 5% ICT PhDs) with gender goals (≥25% women in VET, 40% tertiary, 33% ICT PhDs). It will modernise curricula via a STEM competence framework, pilot STEM education centres, and launch Advanced Digital Skills Competitions. Universities and Centres of Vocational Excellence will offer joint programmes and micro-credentials aligned with industry, moving toward a European degree for engineers. A Teachers & Trainers Agenda and actions under the Union of Skills will boost capacity and attractiveness. --- [Reading guide and interpretation notes]() · [Methodology]()