The European Commission and the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) organized an online event ‘Green and digital transition. The role of Regions and Cities’ in close cooperation with the European Association of Regional and Local Authorities for lifelong learning (EARLALL), the German delegation at the CoR and the Basque Government. The event focused on the role of regions and cities in ensuring apprenticeships are up to speed with the green and digital transition. It was a good opportunity to explore how regional and local authorities are supporting apprenticeships in providing those green and digital skills that will be more and more required in the coming years.
Emil Boc, Mayor of Cluj-Napoca, outlined that digitalisation is a revolution in how we teach, work and communicate. He said "The new generation is used to living and being digital, but we need to make sure that our teachers have the right skills for the digital world." Boc stressed that supporting teachers and trainers is critical and a matter of emergency as we cannot have a digital education without teachers being prepared for the digital era.
Boc argued that inclusion is the solution for the digital gap and digital divide. "You are not digital if you are not inclusive." Boc added that digital literacy is a must especially in a context when new jobs will require more digital skills. In this regard he argued that upskilling the workforce has to be accelerated.
Boc, who is the rapporteur on Achieving the European Education Area by 2025 said that green, digital and resilience are key words for the future and a better quality life for our citizens as well as for Europe. He said that European cooperation is essential for the provision of cohesive education all over Europe, that authorities should better identify their resources, focusing on shifting towards more flexible models, and support the increase of the use of technology in this field.
Insisting on the need to invest in education Boc said "Education is the trigger for change in local ecosystems-towards a greener, knowledge-based and digital economy. The way cities invests today in education is the way their community will look tomorrow."
Emil Boc also gave a practical example during the debate: "In my city we created a "Cluster for education" which is the first model we have in Romania to work from bottom-up level to achieve European Education Area. We see it as a useful tool to work with the entire community in order to achieve this goal. The young generation is teaching the elderly how to use and make use of digital tools."