On April 19 this year, during a regular Employment Board meeting, the Minister of Economics Ilze Indriksone, the Minister of Welfare Evika Siliņa and the Minister of Education and Science Anda Čakša discussed the planned Recovery Fund and EU fund support programmes for human capital development of all three ministries. The Ministers expressed consensus that the planned support programmes will increase the digital skills of employees and facilitate faster adaptation of the unemployed to labour market needs, generally contributing to the digitisation of enterprises and the availability of labour force needed by the labour market, and thus increase the competitiveness and export capacity of enterprises.
Several digitisation promotion programmes are already open within the competence of the Ministry of Economics planning to organise online training and training in specialised areas. At the end of this year, it is planned to start implementing the training support programme of the Recovery Fund, within the framework of which sectoral associations will organise training of employees of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. The purpose of the programme is to provide support in the improvement of skills of employees in order to promote the implementation of technological innovations and increase productivity of labour force.
Digital transformation affects all sectors of the economy and people’s everyday lives, jobs and communication. In order to promote the digital transformation of the Latvian economy, it is important to continue raising awareness of the importance of digitisation of enterprises, using all the benefits of the introduction of digital technologies in enterprises. We therefore need to further promote digital skills training, which would promote export promotion, high-level digital management skills at company management level and skills for the use of digital technologies in different business processes,” the Minister of Economics Ilze Indriksone emphasises.
The Ministry of Education and Science is working on implementing investment programmes at all levels of education, from pre-school to adult education, which will provide opportunities for all age groups to acquire different levels of digital skills. One of the investment programmes implemented with the support of the Recovery Fund and presented today at the Employment Board meeting is the development of digital skills for the population, including young people. The programme aims to create opportunities for the acquisition of basic digital skills in the population of local governments and to promote participation of young people in digital work with young people at events in all local governments. The programme’s mission is to promote the digital self-service skills and capacity of local communities to use public and private services in digital form. This programme is planned to be implemented until mid-2026, involving at least 50 thousand inhabitants throughout Latvia. The participants of projects of the programme are the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development and the Agency for International Programs for Youth in cooperation with all local governments of Latvia to ensure that the planned support measures are available in all regions of Latvia. During the discussion, the Employment Board presented the planned structure and learning outcomes of the programme and received recommendations to improve the impact and outcomes of the programme.
Digital services are increasingly entering the daily lives of every citizen and this also makes it necessary to provide support to citizens who develop the skills to apply for and receive national, municipal or private digital services on their own. Therefore, we pay special attention to enabling citizens to acquire digital self-service skills using which they can easily access the services they need. On the other hand, for young people, for whom it is important not only to acquire digital skills, but also to use them, a project is expected to be implemented in cooperation with all local governments to involve young people in activities of digital work with youth,” the Minister of Education Anda Čakša indicates.
Representatives of the Ministry of Welfare indicated that special support is needed for the less skilled people and those whose current education or qualifications do not meet changing labour market requirements, as automation and digitalisation of processes lead to risks of narrowing opportunities for the less skilled people in the labour market as the role of digital skills increases. Therefore, the Ministry of Welfare is preparing an investment project to promote the involvement of unemployed persons, job seekers and people at risk of unemployment in the labour market. The purpose of the project is to promote reskilling of unemployed persons and job seekers and acquisition of additional skills to strengthen competitiveness in the labour market, including motivation to acquire digital skills. Within the framework of the programme, by 2026 it is planned to involve 20,450 unemployed persons, job seekers and persons at risk of unemployment in the labour market in current reskilling programmes and programmes for acquisition of skills demanded in the labour market.
We have to look at every citizen of Latvia as a potential employee. In part, we will address the lack of working hands by preparing the necessary specialists for the labour market, working more actively with the unemployed and job seekers. Profiling them will make it possible to understand the person’s motivation and needs in order to offer mastering of appropriate skills and make him or her return to the labour market or get a better paid and more skilled job. We see that special support is needed for the less skilled people and those whose current education or qualifications do not meet labour market requirements. Let us look for the most effective path for early identification of the population at risk of unemployment in the group of people over 40 and offer re-profiling to the occupations needed for the labour market. Digital and linguistic skills are undeniably the ones that open doors to better paid work, but there is also an acute need for carers, assistants, social workers and the demand is growing as society ages. Let us also launch a support programme for young people – unemployed below the age 29 who have been released from prison, to integrate them into the labour market, supporting employers with a wage grant of 50% of wage costs. We will also continue subsidies for employers and mentor services for employing unemployed persons with disabilities,” the Minister of Welfare Evika Siliņa emphasises.