The New Skills for New Jobs initiative was launched via a Communication from the European Commission in 2008, with a view to evaluating skills needs up to 2020 and combining the response to these needs with the affirmation of a new industrial policy.

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), in conjunction with its affiliated sectoral unions and The Alpha Group’s "Centre Etudes & Prospective" (Centre for Studies and Forecasting), engaged for this purpose, went ahead with a review of the work and discussions underpinning this initiative.

This document, gives trade unionists, along with all other interested parties, a synthesis whose principal purpose is to draw attention to key issues of the New Skills for New Jobs initiative and to provide some tentative answers to these issues.