Background information

Austria has set the goal to achieve climate neutrality by 2040. Thus, the transformation required in order to achieve that goal has a large impact on the labour market. New skills and qualifications, training and further education measures as well as retraining measures are necessary. The Just Transition Action Plan for Training and Further Education was developed by the Federal Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology in cooperation with several other actors as a stand-alone plan accompanying Austria's Just Transition Plan.

Content of measure

The action plan sets steps to support the transformation in the energy and heating sector and identifies concrete measures that will make the changes that are to be implemented fair for all those affected. Both companies and workers are addressed: Companies which are (heavily) dependent on fossil fuels will have to reorganise and rethink their business models in order to remain competitive. This change will have a major impact on the labour market, i.e. on the skills and competences requirements of employees and jobseekers. New occupational fields and retraining programmes will be created. Skilled workers are thus needed to achieve climate goals. Especially in the field of renewable energy and the construction sector, specialists are needed for the installation of photovoltaic systems or for thermal building renovations. Due to the change of energy sources for heating (away from heating with oil and gas, towards district heating and heat pumps), workers have to be retrained as they will be needed to work on sustainable heating systems in the future. The plan lists concrete measures in the fields “education”, “companies, workers, jobseekers”, “framework conditions and reconciliation” and “communication”, several of which have already been implemented, e.g. the work foundation in the environmental field (case AT-2022-14/3128).

Use of measure

not applicable

Contents

• Training and employability

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Applies to all workers	Applies to all businesses	Applies to all citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government Trade unions Employers' organisations Other social actors (e.g. NGOs) Public employment service	No special funding required

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Agreed (outcome) incl. social partner initiative	Agreed (outcome) incl. social partner initiative
Form	Any other form of consultation, institutionalised (as stable working groups or committees) or informal	Any other form of consultation, institutionalised (as stable working groups or committees) or informal

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• Social partners jointly
• Main level of involvement: Peak or cross-sectoral level

Involvement

The Federal Climate Ministry (BMK) developed the action plan together with stakeholders from the social partners, the PES, other ministries and further players. The four major social partner organisations, i.e. the Chamber of Labour (AK), the Austrian Trade Union Federation (ÖGB), the Federal Economic Chamber (WKO) and the Federation of Austrian Industry (IV) were all involved in the design of the measure and will be partially responsible for the implementation of individual measures detailed in the action plan.

Views and reactions

The social partners were involved in the development of the action plan, so they are supportive of it.

Sources

• 01 January 2023: Just Transition Action Plan for Training and Further Education (www.bmk.gv.at)