Creative Skills
Since 2021 the Creative FED has led the Creative Pact for Skills, the large-scale skills partnership for Europe’s cultural and creative industries under the EU Pact for Skills.
We wrote the Skills Manifesto, started Creative Skills Week, and turned European skills agendas into Regional Skills Partnerships on the ground — from Matera to Skåne.
This page documents what the Creative FED has delivered for creative skills, and how organisations can join.
Leading the AI Skills Working Group
Within the large-scale partnership of the Creative Pact for Skills, the Creative FED leads the working group on AI skills: what creative professionals need to work with, shape and negotiate AI.
Consortium lead — the origin of Regional Skills Partnerships
The Creative FED wrote the proposal and led the SACCORD consortium. SACCORD developed the initiative of Regional Skills Partnerships, which led to RSPs in Matera, Skåne and Amsterdam.
From a Manifesto action point to Europe’s skills meeting point
The first idea of a Creative Skills Week came out of the Manifesto: a recurring place where the partnership meets, tests and decides. Four editions later — Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Brussels and online — it has brought together 1,500 participants from education, industry and policy.
Proposal writing and Regional Skills Agendas
The Creative FED made a substantial contribution to writing the CYANOTYPES proposal, the EU blueprint for sectoral cooperation on skills in the CCIs, and helped develop its Regional Skills Agendas.
Our contributions:
- Skills intelligence gathering
- Developing Regional Skills Alliances
- Long-term planning and the exploitation plan
Lead author of the Skills Manifesto
The Creative FED led the writing of the C-P4S Manifesto in a bottom-up process with the sector. It sets out skills needs, objectives, action points and KPIs — and every organisation that endorses it joins the partnership. Updated 2025.
Leading the Creative Pact for Skills
The Creative FED leads the large-scale skills partnership for the Cultural and Creative Industries ecosystem — one of 14 industrial ecosystems under the EU Pact for Skills. The partnership has grown from 93 members in 2022 to 224 organisations in 2025: networks, VET providers, universities, regions and businesses who commit to concrete re- and upskilling actions.
Sustainable business model for DeuS 2.0
DeuS – the European Open Design School for Sustainable Regional Development – grew out of the Open Design School of Matera, European Capital of Culture 2019, into an Erasmus+ project with ten partners in nine countries: training creative professionals in design, critical thinking and entrepreneurship by solving real local challenges.
The Creative FED (then ECBN) was responsible for business modelling: workshops on a disruptive business model, the value proposition, the business model canvas and partnering, leading to the DeuS 2.0 Playbook for a Sustainable Business Model (November 2021) – trainings, living labs and the DeuS knowledge platform beyond the funding period.
Leading European Creative Skills Projects
Each of these projects was developed and run with the Creative FED in a leading role. Their shared aim: to build a cross-European skills ecosystem that connects universities, vocational education and training, research, networks, creative professionals and businesses. Together they form a creative innovation network that drives innovation in skills and the creative economy.
Regional Creative Skills Partnerships
Each Regional Skills Partnership brings together education, creative businesses and regional authorities to translate the European skills agenda into local training, recognition and funding.
Would you like to start a Regional Skills Partnership in your region? Get in touch — we are happy to share what we have learned and connect you with the existing partnerships.