On March 21st, the 10th meeting of the Regional Implementation working group of the ASA took place in a hybrid format, to support further collaboration among the participating regions. The objective was to brainstorm on joint activities, benefits and opportunities brought about by the regular exchange between regions with strong interest of supporting up- and reskilling actions in the automotive-mobility ecosystem.
Regions of Trnava (SK), Stuttgart (DE), Lombardy (IT), Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes (FR), Castilla y Leon (ES), Grand Est (FR) welcomed a new member, region of Basilicata (IT) in the group. The meeting lead by the working group leader Trnava Region, together with co-leader Stuttgart region has been focused firstly on providing updates on ASA projects, cooperation and activities of the ASA. Regions were informed about the Flamenco project, which is a forward-looking project of the Erasmus+ program in support of the sustainable collaboration on the skills intelligence in the Automotive-Mobility Ecosystem. Secondly, collaboration with the batteries sector was presented, especially the opportunity of launching pilot actions in the regions with the European Battery Alliance Academy. Finally, regional representatives learned about the ASA tools available for promoting or advertising training courses for the automotive-mobility stakeholders, the ASA Skills framework and the ASA learning Platform.
All in all, regions agreed on the importance of education and training for cultivating the right skills in the workforce, for the green and digital transition of the regions to be just. Regions expressed an interest to step up their cross-regional partnerships on skills and cooperate on designing concrete regional approaches in the automotive sector. The visibility for regions, best practices exchange, access to the newest skills intelligence and jointly developed tools were agreed to be the major benefits of the cooperation within the ASA. Therefore, regions are keen to carry on with the mutual learning, presenting ongoing successful projects in their territories and look further for ways of collecting the necessary data to streamline the cooperation and synergies among them.
Regarding future work and events during the European Year of Skills, regional representatives approved the proposed work plan for 2023 and discussed organisation of the joint events, including the regional workshop during the European Week of Regions and Cities brought by the European Committee of the Regions and the European Commission.
The next informal meeting of the ASA Regional Implementation working group is planned to take place in the second half of April 2023. The idea will be to bring more information about the planned ASA Study Visit, the ASA Annual conference and the EURegionsWeek workshop.