Connecting Skills, Learning and Blue Growth

From Skills Evidence to Cross-Border Opportunities

How can evidence about skills gaps lead to better learning opportunities, stronger qualifications and lasting cooperation?

This was the thread connecting four SA SKILLS contributions presented at AdriBioPro2026 in Kotor. Across two posters and two oral presentations, we explored different parts of a shared pathway for developing blue economy skills in the South Adriatic.

Translating skills needs into learning

The poster “From Skills Gaps to Cross-Border Learning” presented the SKILLS educational pathway: connecting labour-market evidence with curriculum development, practical learning, digital support and the continued use of project results.

It highlighted demand for technical, digital, sustainability, project-management and regulatory competences, alongside a need for stronger practical experience. The challenge is to translate these needs into learning opportunities that education providers can deliver and professionals can use.

A common framework for blue competences

The poster “Regionalising BlueComp for the South Adriatic” introduced the draft SA BlueComp framework, developed as a regional application of European BlueComp for Albania, Montenegro, Puglia and Molise.

The framework organises 15 competences into four dimensions, supported by five mastery levels and sector profiles. It is designed to help education providers, employers and public institutions describe and compare competences more consistently, supporting qualifications that respond to labour-market needs.

Evidence from across the South Adriatic

The oral presentation “Bridging Blue Economy Skills Gaps in the South Adriatic” brought together comparative evidence from Montenegro, Albania and Italy.

Drawing on eight Skills Definition Labs and a harmonised multilingual survey, it identified strong demand for additional training and reskilling. The findings also highlighted persistent gaps between formal education, practical experience, emerging technologies and industry requirements.

This evidence provides a basis for deciding where new learning opportunities and closer cooperation are most needed.

Digital cooperation beyond the classroom

The oral presentation “From Blue Skills to Blue Growth” explored the Adriatic Blue Growth Cluster Digital Platform as a shared environment for learning, networking, knowledge exchange and market visibility.

Its four modules—eCommunication, eDocuments, eLearning and eCommerce—connect different forms of participation and cooperation. The platform has already supported SKILLS educational activities, including HELM Kotor, linking digital resources with practical learning.

Connecting the results

For me, the most important message was the relationship between these contributions:

Skills evidence → qualification framework → learning solutions → practical competences → digital cooperation → cross-border opportunities

Each result supports the next. Labour-market evidence informs competence descriptions. Those descriptions help shape learning. Practical experience develops the ability to apply knowledge, while digital cooperation helps people and organisations continue working together.

This is the wider value of SA SKILLS: building stronger connections between education, employment, qualifications and cooperation across the South Adriatic.

My thanks to all co-authors, colleagues and partners who contributed to these results, and to AdriBioPro2026 for providing the space to present and discuss them.