Towards a coordinated approach to EU policies to ‘attract talent’ and ‘upgrade skills’

In the context of structural labour and skills shortages, EU policy packages have been developed both to “upgrade skills of those already within the EU” and to “attract talent from non-EU countries to the EU”. In much of this volume, the focus is related to the former part, namely measures for skills development, such as professional training and lifelong learning. In contrast, this chapter focuses on the latter part, in particular, the proposal for an EU Talent Pool, aiming to facilitate recruitment of jobseekers from non-EU countries in EU-wide shortage occupations. It builds on what the EURES platform does for jobseekers with free movement of workers’ rights in the EU. The chapter argues that the talent pool initiative may not meet expectations because employers in some shortage sectors have alternative options. Moreover, it notes that most third-country nationals already in the EU are neither allowed to use EURES nor the proposed EU Talent Pool. This is deemed a missed opportunity to combat “brain waste”. A factor in this phenomenon, namely underinvestment in training, is briefly addressed and the chapter ends on a positive note with a best practice example and a call for more consistent policies to “attract talent” and “upgrade skills”.