Call for Applications:
EBSN Annual Conference 2024

The European Basic Skills Network (EBSN) is pleased to invite proposals for its annual conference, taking place in Valladolid, Spain, from June 26th to 28th, 2024. This year’s conference focuses on addressing the pressing challenges of upskilling and reskilling in light of the ‘Twin Transition’: Digital and Green Transformation.

Background: The Seventh International Conference on Adult Education in 2022 (CONFINTEA VII) and the Call to Climate Action highlight the role of Adult Learning and Education (ALE) in supporting the achievement of UN Sustainable Development Goals. The concluding document, the Marrakesh Framework for Action, also strongly links inclusive literacy policies and the promotion of basic digital skills to these goals. The European Commission’s European Skills Agenda emphasises the need to equip individuals and businesses with skills essential for success in a swiftly evolving digital and green economy. The shift toward digitalization and ecological sustainability demands a workforce adept at embracing new technologies and sustainable practices.

These transitions offer promising opportunities but also raise concerns. Firstly, there’s a risk that benefits might not reach everyone equally. Balancing support and policies to ensure equitable access is crucial, particularly for vulnerable groups. Secondly, not everyone possesses the necessary digital access and competencies to adapt. Additionally, the growth of new industries and changes in existing ones could lead to job losses or reduced incomes for some workers.

Adapting to these transitions also entails altering behaviours and habits at work, in education settings, and in personal lives. This adjustment can be challenging. Basic skills serve as the foundation for learners to participate in and contribute to these changes. In addition, higher order thinking skills (HOTS) should be developed because green jobs require problem solving and finding creative solutions, such as how to reduce energy consumption and how to reduce environmental pollution. Policies should prioritize inclusive approaches and leverage advanced technologies to offer easily accessible and adequate upskilling opportunities for adults with low basic skills. Efforts to create synergies between European, national and regional/local initiatives and the actions of the European Skills Agenda like the Pact for Skills Initiative, the European approach on Microcredentials, the initiative on Individual Learning Accounts, the European Learning Model and the European Digital Credentials for Learning and the Council Recommendation on Upskilling Pathways are of utmost importance.

Initiatives like the European Year of Skills 2023 underscore the growing recognition of the role of lifelong learning in fostering innovation, competitiveness, and social fairness and could raise the visibility of and attention to promising new approaches and future practices.

The EBSN conference in 2024 offers a unique platform for policymakers, researchers, educators, and practitioners to share insights and engage in dialogues related to upskilling and reskilling for this Twin Transition. We welcome submissions from diverse academic, policy, and practitioner-focused perspectives.

We invite contributions that not only address these sub-themes but also challenge us to think broadly about the role and new understanding of basic skills in a rapidly evolving world.

• Proposals are invited to address the central theme of our conference,’ Upskilling and Reskilling for the Digital and Green Transition’, from a very broad perspective. We seek innovative and inclusive strategies that, at the same time, ensure this transition promotes justice and equity for all communities. Recent policy initiatives, research and innovation projects with new insights into effective basic skills policies and practices (but not directly connected to the green and digital transition) should be considered in this broad scope, as also suggested by some of the sub-themes.
• Abstracts should be maximum 3000 characters and clearly outline the proposed contribution’s purpose, methodology and conclusions.
• Proposals should be written in English and submitted before April 30, 2024 (extended deadline).
• The Program Committee will review proposals and authors will be notified of acceptance in mid-April.

The Program Committee will decide whether accepted proposals will be programmed as part of the plenary sessions or as part of one of the parallel workshops.

We look forward to receiving your proposals and fostering valuable discussions on upskilling and reskilling for the digital and green transition at the EBSN Annual Conference 2024. For inquiries, please contact us at secretariat@basicskills.eu.