The pace of technological advancement means workers who lack basic skills are at a huge disadvantage. By developing a strategy and training methodology to help low-qualified Slovakians improve their literacy, numeracy and digital skills, an EU-funded project helped to give disadvantaged jobseekers the skills they need to thrive.

With funding from the EU Programme for Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI) – and in partnership with several institutes, NGOs and national authorities – the ‘Basic Skills Development in Slovakia’ (BLUESS) project supported the development of a national strategy to equip low-skilled adults with basic skills. The project also developed techniques to assess people’s basic skills, and ‘trained the trainers' to deliver these tools and methodologies through group sessions and study visits.

Katarína Sochorová, from Slovakia’s Centre for Labour, Social Issues and Family, outlined how plans for an assessment tool for basic skills are key to supporting adults with low skills in the country: ‘During the BLUEES implementation we were responsible for development of the assessment tool for basic skills. However, this is just the first step. We have now opened the discussion on basic skills topic in Slovakia. It is really important to continue in this effort and to implement further steps to support adults without qualifications and help them to build the skills they need to enter the labour market.’

The next step is to test the tool and deploy it, so that Slovakians’ skills needs can be accurately assessed.

The needs of Slovakian people were central to the BLUESS project. Marek Kmeť, CEO and lecturer at EDUCON, helps people to develop the skills they need for the workplace. He described what he sees as fundamental to the Bluess training methodology: practical activities that workers can use on a daily basis or when problem solving.

‘The moment when you can help them solve a real problem that they can't move on [without solving] is a motivating moment. It is the one that can kickstart further learning.’

BLUESS has helped to transform basic skills development in Slovakia, securing higher-skilled and better paying jobs for people across the country.