An international seminar on "Challenges and opportunities in 21st century work scenarios in the European Union" was held on September 23 and 24, 2022 in Valencia, Spain, organised by CEAT (Spanish Centre for Workers' Affairs), in cooperation with EZA and financed by the European Union.
OPENING SESSION OF THE SEMINAR
The opening session began at 12:30 p.m. with the intervention of the President of CEAT, Mr. DAVID CERVERA, who welcomed the participants, outlining the opportunity for this Seminar to analyse, debate, and make proposals regarding the transformation of jobs of work and the digital economy.
Mr. PIERGORGIO SCIAQUA, Co-President of EZA, also highlighted the importance of social dialogue between all European agents and the necessary collaboration between member countries to continue building Europe and our Europe of the future where technology is a value added to maintain and improve quality of life and state of well-being.
Finally, the Senator for Castellón, Mrs SALOMÉ PRADAS, took part in the opening session, excusing the absence of the President of the Diputación de Alicante, highlighting in her speech the diversity of existing jobs and their adaptation to a new digital space. It is not possible to include 100% digitisation in all of them, pointing out the need to attend to professions such as tile workers in the Valencia region and protect workers and employees in the sector. Also she highlighted the importance of actively participating in Europe and proposing alternatives to promote employment, fundamentally in the youngest.
FRAMEWORK PRESENTATION
The Deputy of the Valencian Courts, Mr. MIGUEL BARRACHINA, in the framework paper "THE DIGITALISATION OF THE ECONOMY: A BALANCE BETWEEN THE URBAN AND RURAL WORLD", addressed the environment and the need to take measures to reactivate an exodus from the cities to the towns. This return to the rural environment has been favoured because of the COVID pandemic, the rural environment re-emerging as place of first and second residence. He pointed out that this has been possible thanks to teleworking, and that this rebalancing is something that we must take advantage of and follow lines that guarantee quality work and real connectivity everywhere. He also highlighted that this repopulation of the rural environment facilitates the possibility of maintaining and caring for the environment, avoiding fires and that the animals can develop in a suitable environment. For this, the incorporation of technology, sensors, and drones, among others, can facilitate measures to care for and control these spaces.
Mr. Miguel Barrachina also pointed out that just as large companies acquire CO2 emission rights and pay for it, farmers should charge for the profit they make in caring for the fields and the maintenance and conservation of the trees that limit contamination, for example in orange groves. One of the most applauded ideas was that farmers be made easier to do their work without so much bureaucracy and that they be allowed to do as they know the environment. The approach is to value hunting, pruning, preventive care of the forest through a serious plan based on knowledge of the environment, using surveillance with drones, cameras, and technologies, being able to anticipate the different problems. that may arise. In the words of Barrachina, “when the land is abandoned and no longer taken care of, a fire is fuelled within 10 years”
.
OTHER PRESENTATIONS TO HIGHLIGHT
D. JOSÉ SECO, President of Education of CSIF of the Valencian Community,
“Lifelong learning: Transforming the generation of technological and entrepreneurial talent”. He pointed out that education is an essential element of life, the feeling that teachers, parents, and students have with the legislative changes is one of chaos. There is a lack of adequate guidance for students so that they know how to reach an end and that families know that there are always multiple ways to achieve it. The system must provide the necessary opportunities so that each one can, through regulated, non-regulated, semi-presential, face-to-face training or in any other modality, have access to a job once their training and specialisation is finished.
Mr. JOSÉ LUIS SANTILLANA Director of the Studies Office of the USO union, "Artificial intelligence: ways to boost competitiveness and employment in the EU", pointed out that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the crucial elements that is generating a great transformation in jobs, but it also has a direct application in maintaining and improving the current state of well-being. In his speech, he explained the importance of the application of these technologies in the day-to-day work, highlighting the risks of lack of privacy that teleworking can entail and the security gap inherent to it, as well as the importance of individual self-management of the employee in not being permanently connected and falling into the risk of not disconnecting.
D. VICENTE MARCHANTE, President of USIE, Trade Union of Education Inspectors in the Community of Valencia, explained the legislative changes that are being implemented at the national level and in the Community of Valencia itself and the need to convey these Vocational Training studies with the STEM due to the large number of emerging professions and those that will be created in the coming years for which there are no defined professional profiles yet.
INTERNATIONAL ROUND TABLE
Professor of Economics, Mr. JAVIER MORILLAS, energised the table in which different organisations presented the vision of the future of work in their respective countries, Poland, Portugal and Italy and also the representative of the USO union showed the actions and work they are currently carrying out.
Mr. PEDRO ESTEVAO Researcher at the University Institute of Lisbon (C.F.T.L.-BASE-F.U.T.) – Portugal, focused his speech on four ideas on challenges and opportunities of digitization, emphasizing the loss of jobs, situations of economic crisis, caused by the effects of climate change, Covid 19, or the war in Ukraine, the green transition and the role of trade unions.
Ms. MAGDALENA BABIRACKA and Ms. EWA MIROCHA from Europejski Dom Spotkań - Fundacja Nowy Staw – Poland, pointed out in their speech that digital skills play a very important role in the development of society and the economy. The digital transformation in companies or in the public sector makes it possible to increase labour productivity, streamline processes and transform organisational culture, which is why it has a colossal impact on the competitiveness of the economy and on the usefulness of public institutions. However, this cannot happen without radically improving the digital skills of entrepreneurs, managers and employees. Already digital skills are often a key component for many companies during the hiring process. These skills are already required at the recruitment stage. It was noted that in conclusion, we see a continuing need for digital skills development and education for digital skills development.
Mr. JOSÉ MANUEL PESSANHA, President Federação dos Trabalhadores Democrata-Cristãos (FTDC) – Portugal, spoke to us about Millennials, a generation that emerged in the mid-nineties and Generation Z. Millennials are 50% of the workers in the world of work in Europe in 2020, and will reach 70% in 2030 and companies, if they want to win and retain talent, have to offer flexibility of schedules and autonomy at work
Mrs SHEILA ROSAURO, representative of USO for young people from the Balearic Islands, conveyed two messages: today's young people have few job opportunities in today's world of work, due to their lack of experience. And today's youth are not trade unionists, therefore they can hardly represent and defend the workers.
CLOSURE
The closing ceremony was presented by Mr. DAVID CERVERA OLIVARES, President of CEAT, thanking the participants for their active participation and the speakers for their interventions with their high academic level and their contributions. Dr. JAVIER MORILLAS pointed out that this seminar is a great opportunity to debate and reflect on the impact of technology as an element of change, the incorporation of Artificial Intelligence to maintain and improve the welfare society and the risks that we also assume in regarding the lack of privacy and security in digital environments. He has also focused on the need to adapt Vocational Training to the real needs of the market and link STEM directly to these studies due to the high number of jobs that exist and will arise in these subjects.