The Pact for Skills announces a new ‘Regional-Scale Skills Partnerships for an Iberian-Based Ecosystem towards Upskilling/Reskilling in Aerospace and Defence’ (RISE-ASD) for the Iberian Peninsula.
In the Iberian Peninsula (Portugal and Spain), the Aerospace and Defence’s sector is experiencing a renewed growth yet struggles to attract and retain talent. Layoffs during COVID-19 caused many professionals to leave the sector, and many have nor returned. Meanwhile, competition for highly skilled workers is intensifying across Europe, particularly in areas like artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and electronics.
The ambitions
The Partnership aims to boost the visibility and attractiveness of ASD careers by working closely with regional clusters, universities, vocational education providers and businesses. Its long-term ambition is to ensure that reskilling and upskilling efforts are strategic, inclusive, and aligned with the real needs of the labour market.
By raising awareness, creating strong links between sectors, and supporting cross-border cooperation, RISE-ASD will help position the Iberian Peninsula as a competitive player in Europe’s Aerospace and Defence ecosystem.
The commitments
To tackle these challenges, RISE-ASD has committed to take a holistic approach to upskilling and reskilling actions in the region through the following actions:
- Create a diverse reskilling/upskilling community for the ASD ecosystem.
- Share opportunities across the ASD ecosystem.
- Conduct joint reskilling/upskilling training.
- Create an ‘HR Barometer’ to harmonise job profiles at regional level, sharing good practices and working as an observatory for transferable skills to-and-from neighbouring sectors to increase competitiveness.
- Create common events/missions about skills and reskilling/upskilling to deepen members’ knowledge of opportunities.
In recognition of a need to improve regional reskilling/upskilling processes, RISE-ASD also commits to the following actions:
- Involve a large and diverse stakeholder network to create reskilling/upskilling concepts and processes to develop common solutions.
- Provide useful information to help inform reskilling/upskilling processes (as in the HR Barometer or RSP publications).
- Enable contact between workers and organisations, helping the uptake of talent by the ASD sector, useful for students and those working in complementary sectors.
- In line with the overall ambition of the ASD ecosystem in the Pact for skills, contribute to the objective of up/reskilling 6% of the total ASD workforce and 30% by 2030 in the Iberian Peninsula.
Read the partnership declaration:
- General publications
- 9 April 2025
Regional Skills Partnership for Upskilling the Iberian Peninsula’s aerospace and defence sector
