The INTEL project will play an important role in delivering on priorities related to “Education and Training” of the European Sectoral Social Dialogue Work Programme 2020-2021 for Private Security, and will be a direct follow-up to the “Anticipating, Preparing and Managing Employment Change in the Private Security Industry” study – an EU-funded Social Dialogue project, which CoESS and UNI Europa jointly concluded in October 2018. By delivering skills intelligence, INTEL will tie in with the study’s recommendations for actions in Social Dialogue to address current and future skills needs in the sector.

CoESS and UNI Europa have jointly launched the INTEL project in March 2021. The overall objective of INTEL is to support Social Partners to adapt to changes in employment, skills requirements, job creation and training through the provision of skills intelligence and joint actions. In the context of digitalisation and the expected widening of tasks of private security, including as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, INTEL shall support Sectoral Social Partners, both on European and national level, to better understand, anticipate and jointly manage labour and skills shortages in the sector.

To achieve this objective, INTEL will first launch a survey and research on the current extent of labour and skills shortages in the private security sector across EU Member States. To that end, a wide range of stakeholders will be interviewed, including Social Partners, private security companies, public authorities and client stakeholders. Results of this ground-breaking research are expected in autumn 2021.

Furthermore, CoESS and UNI Europa established as part of the project a Social Partner Specialist Group on Skills Intelligence, consisting of the following experts:

• Rene Hiemstra, Director, G4S Netherlands
• Alicia Gómez De Hinojosa Guerrero, National Head of Talent Management, Securitas Spain
• Siegfried Hüsgen, Head of the Securitas Academy and Lead auditor for BDSW-certified security schools, Germany
• Jelena Milos, UNI Europa and Policy expert
• David Gigg, GMB and chairperson of G4S EWC
• L. Miguel Pereira Fernandes, UGT-SITESE union in Portugal and Securitas EWC

The Specialist Group will meet with leading private security experts from across Europe, but also public authorities, EU institutions, training experts and agencies, as well as technology providers and client stakeholders, in order to discuss key drivers of employment change in the private security sector; a widened spectrum of private security tasks and client expectations; respective new skills requirements for private security workers; and, most importantly, solutions for both businesses and workers in terms of re- and upskilling, new job profiles and career pathways, the strengthening of Social Partners, and the need for the support of public authorities for more inclusive vocational education and training systems.

In the second year of the project, INTEL will finance national best practice workshops of Sectoral Social Partners in Croatia, Germany and Sweden – organised by CoESS’ members HCZ-SZK (Croatia), BDSW (Germany), Säkerhetsföretagen (Sweden). These workshops will also involve a large range of external stakeholders that are relevant for the training and skills ecosystem, and present not only the first project findings, but, most importantly, identify national best practices and required capacity building for vocational education and training systems, including re- and upskilling solutions, approaches for high workforce participation, better involvement of social partners in the design and delivery of training curricula, regulatory frameworks, and the promotion of best value procurement that recognizes qualification of workers.

A final project study will be launched online and during an EU stakeholder event in Spring 2023.

To receive further information on the project activities, please get in touch with Alexander Frank, Head of EU Affairs at CoESS (alexander@coess.eu) and Dr. Mark Bergfeld, Director of Property Services at UNI Europa (mark.bergfeld@uniglobalunion.org).