Everything you need to know about the Skills Portability Act: what makes a qualification “portable”?

At the September plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Executive Vice President Roxana Mînzatu presented this autumn’s most anticipated EU proposal: the Fair Labour Mobility Package, which seeks to guarantee clear social rights for everyone, regardless of where they choose to live and work in Europe. The package is composed of five distinct legislative proposals: A Regulation establishing a European Social Security Pass; A “Skills Portability Act”,a Regulation on digital and comparable qualifications; a Regulation to strengthen the European Labour Authority; an amending Directive on professional qualifications; and a Directive on qualifications of third-country nationals. Centred on seamless recognition and cross-border transfer of skills and competences, the Skills Portability Act is set to be a game-changer for workers in Europe.

A proposal to make qualifications more portable: how?

This initiative is designed to tackle a persistent challenge for the integration of the EU Single Market: restricted worker mobility caused by qualification barriers. A portable skill is a skill that can be carried across space and time: it is a skill that can be “spent” on the market of another Member State and on a different employment. Ideally, it is also a resilient skill that survives the test of time. This pioneering initiative aims to dismantle current obstacles to the recognition and portability of qualifications across Europe (and potentially further). Through this legislative initiative, the European Commission seeks to guarantee that qualifications obtained in one country gain automatic recognition in another. Digitalisation plays a pivotal role: by means of the EU Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallet, the EU aims to keep qualifications portable, secure, and verifiable.

Drawing from the findings of the Letta and Draghi reports, the proposal also aligns with existing EU tools such as Europass and the European Qualifications Framework (EQF), which already promote transparency and comparability of competences. Going a step further, the Skills Portability Act makes digital certification a living standard for newly issued qualifications while establishing a system to digitalise older credentials upon request.

A regulation? In education?

Crucially, this Act is supposed to take the form of a Regulation. A Regulation is a binding legislative act, coming into force directly and simultaneously across every Member State. We are not used to having these legislative instruments in the field of education, where the EU mostly acts through Recommendations that may (or may not) be picked up by Member States rather than legally binding acts. However, because this impacts the single market, a Regulation has strong legal ground.

The exclusive competence of Member States over their own education systems remains preserved: national governments retain complete authority over educational content, the structure of training systems, and even access criteria to professions.

What can we expect beyond easier mobility of workers?

When adult learners relocate for study, employment, or personal motives, they will no longer have to navigate complex administrative processes to prove their qualifications. This benefits equally individuals moving abroad and those returning home from abroad. Through the digital EUDI Wallet, employers in other Member States will be able to verify credentials instantly, cutting down immensely on uncertainty and administrative delays. While the specific mechanics of implementation are still being finalised, the system will rely on cross-cutting governance structures (which will hopefully include wide and meaningful stakeholder participation, as well as leverage on existing bodies).

This framework might also address skills waste, a well-known phenomenon where qualified individuals hold positions beneath their capability level, often due to unrecognised qualifications. By directly enhancing the visibility and comparability of qualifications, the Act aims to bridge this gap for as much as possible and is also said to enhance circular mobility.

Ultimately, this initiative ensures that lifelong learning opportunities become more meaningful for learners and workers. It can foster further learning by ensuring outcomes are portable, clear, and tangible - and we know that this is one of the main drivers for lifelong learning. Nevertheless, how non-formal learning outside the workplace and informal learning will be handled is still uncertain and may depend on upcoming inter-institutional negotiations.

In fact, there remain unanswered questions pertaining to the impact of the regulation. Firstly, while enforcing mutual intra-EUrecognition of qualifications, the regulation says nothing about the validation of skills and competences - let alone those acquired in non-formal or informal learning environments. Secondly, the Act heavily relies on the EUDI tool. Conceived to uphold European digital sovereignty and to rival tech giants wallets (such as Google’s or Apple’s), the wallet needs to be voluntarily taken up by any EU citizen. Yet the connection with Skills Portability increases pressures on EU citizens to provide their data to the EUDI and might raise questions related to privacy, digital rights, and even the ever-pervading digitalisation of lives. Some would argue that essential services should remain available offline, too.

What now?

The ball is now with the European Parliament and the Council of the EU. Both co-legislators will start negotiations in 2027, with approximately one year before the final text can be expected to be adopted. The Parliament tasked the EMPL Committee as responsible body; the education community will be able to count on MEP Brigitte van den Berg, co-chair of the Intergroup on the Future of Education and Skills for a Competitive Europe, as rapporteur for Renew; MEP Nela Riehl, chair of the CULT Committee and also co-chair of the Intergroup as shadow rapporteur for the Greens; and MEP Idoia Mendia as shadow rapporteur for S&D. The European Economic and Social Committee appointed Pavel Trantina, Group III, and also member of LLLP’s Working Group on Validation and Recognition, as well as Nicoletta Merlo, Group II - officially advised by LLLP.