With the evolving situation of the 2020 humanitarian crisis, BUSINESSMED noticed that BSOs are grappling with how to ensure their business continuity, to continue serving their members and to better comply with the new working conditions. Taking that and the travel restrictions into consideration, BUSINESSMED redesigned its academies planned in the framework of the EBSOMED project.

To address these challenges, the academies were redesigned to debate the agility and resilience of the BSOs to ensure business continuity in different area of work. To do so, BUSINESSMED conceived a cycle of webinars and mobilized international organizations with regional expertise and conducted their recovery plan to give share their knowledge   and formulate recommendations to respond to the Covid-19 crisis. The   cycle was called “Building back resilience: the role of Employers’ and Business Association in shaping the new normal” and was divided into 4 online events.

The four webinars organized with the implication of the UFM; called representatives of the private sector to get involved in the debates on how organisations and SMEs can take full advantage of the crisis and improve their services using the opportunities offered by technologies.  

The emergence of new business models and alternative forms of work organisation sped up changes in the skills required by the labour market. These changes have been intensified by the challenges imposed by the Covid-19 with further evidence in the Southern Neighbourhood region.

For this reason, BUSINESSMED focused on this particular subject for the third webinar and organized on December 7th, 2020 the event “The upskilling imperative: vocational training and the new offer of BSOs’ services”. Through different interventions and testimonials, the webinar focused on how SMEs should reconsider the skills to remain competitive. Formulated recommendations on providing access to additional up-skilling opportunities for economic operators across the Mediterranean were expressed by the panellists.

The debates highlighted the way covid19 accentuated the need of digital skills in many aspects for business continuity and how gaining new skills is key for sustainable competitiveness and resilience for Businesses as they need workers with the right skills to master the challenges defined by the current transition.

The conclusion was that today’s context makes it more urgent than ever for SMEs to get the right education and training to thrive and keep maintaining their position in the market and continue growing. This requires providing access to additional up-skilling opportunities for economic operators across the Mediterranean.

The debates and consultations led to the elaboration of a “main outcomes” paper available through this link.