Bridging the Skills Gap
Description
Bridging the Skills Gap is a project, funded by the Swiss-Greek Cooperation Programme, managed by the Ministry of Immigration and Asylum and implemented by Odyssea, which aims to help refugees, migrants and asylum seekers to integrate into society by providing them with education, training and employment opportunities. The programme, which started on 3 June 2024, aims to provide education, vocational training and employment opportunities to enhance the employability of these vulnerable groups.
The programme also leverages Swiss expertise and artificial intelligence technology to address the high unemployment rates, especially among young people in Greece.
Duration: Sep 24 – Aug 26
Strategic Partners
1150
people trained in total
2100
received employability services
325
companies involved
Problem addressed
Refugees, migrants and asylum seekers in Greece often face multiple
barriers to labour market integration, including limited access to
targeted skills training, insufficient knowledge of local employment
pathways, language and digital gaps, lack of professional networks, and
difficulty connecting with employers. At the same time, several sectors
of the Greek economy face persistent skills shortages and need practical mechanisms to identify, prepare and recruit motivated workers.
Bridging the Skills Gap addresses this mismatch by creating a structured
pathway from skills development to employability and job placement.
The project responds both to the exclusion of vulnerable populations
from decent work opportunities and to the needs of employers for
trained, supported and job-ready candidates.
Innovative solution
Bridging the Skills Gap is innovative because it does not treat labour
market integration as a sequence of fragmented services, but as a
complete pathway from skills identification to training, employability
support, employer engagement and job placement.
The project combines vocational training, social and digital skills development, workshops, tailored career support, private sector partnerships and artificial intelligence tools into one integrated model that responds simultaneously to the needs of vulnerable people and the needs of employers.
Its distinctive added value lies in connecting inclusion with real labour
market demand. Refugees, migrants and asylum seekers are not
approached only as beneficiaries of support, but as potential workers
whose skills, aspirations and professional growth can contribute to the
Greek economy.
Services
Through mobile training missions, the project brings services closer to
communities in remote areas of the mainland and islands, including
Open Accommodation Sites, Reception and Identification Centres, and
Community Hubs. The three main locations during this initiative were Koutsochero, Drama and Thiva.
An important innovation of the project is the launch
of a unique training programme in the shipbuilding industry, offering
tailor-made courses delivered directly in shipyards across the Ship
Repair and Shipbuilding Zone, responding to the sector’s specific and
growing skills needs.
The use of artificial intelligence to strengthen employability further
enhances the model by supporting more targeted matching,
personalised guidance and scalable service delivery.
This makes the project more than a training intervention: it is a
practical, data-informed and employer-facing integration model that
can be adapted, replicated and scaled in other regions and European
contexts.
Key results and benefits
Bridging the Skills Gap is expected to generate measurable benefits for
both vulnerable communities and the Greek labour market. The project
will provide social and digital skills training to 400 participants,
European Way of Life workshops to 250 participants, introductory
vocational courses across multiple sectors to 550 participants, and
certified vocational training programmes to 350 participants in high-
demand sectors such as industrial automation, professional truck
driving, shipbuilding, hospitality and catering (HoReCa), among others.
In addition, 2,100 refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers will receive
tailored employability services to support their integration into the
labour market.
The project will also strengthen collaboration with
employers by engaging 325 companies through Odyssea’s employer
network and organising three job fairs, each expected to attract more
than 500 visitors. Beyond these quantitative targets, the project
strengthens participants’ confidence, employability profiles and access
to decent work. It also benefits employers by connecting them with
trained and motivated candidates in sectors facing skills shortages. At
system level, the project contributes to a more inclusive and protective
integration environment, supports early social and economic participation, and offers a scalable model for linking skills development,
career guidance, private sector engagement and job placement.
Potential for mainstreaming
Bridging the Skills Gap has strong potential for mainstreaming because
it translates labour market integration into a structured, replicable and
evidence-based service model. Its core components — skills assessment,
social and digital skills training, vocational training, tailored
employability support, employer engagement and job placement — can
be embedded into public employment, integration, vocational education
and local development policies.
The model is particularly suitable for wider adoption because it
responds to two policy priorities at the same time: the social and
economic inclusion of refugees, migrants and asylum seekers, and the
need to address skills shortages in the Greek labour market. Its
implementation across Athens and Thessaloniki, complemented by 17
mobile missions in remote areas of mainland Greece and the islands
and the continuous operation of Odyssea Integration Hubs within Open
Accommodation Sites, demonstrates that the approach can be
successfully applied in both urban centres and more localised labour
market ecosystems.
The project can inform mainstream practice by showing how vulnerable
groups can be supported not only through training, but through a
complete pathway that links skills development with employers,
sectoral demand and measurable employment outcomes. With the
involvement of public authorities, private sector actors and training
providers, the model can be adapted for wider use in integration
strategies, active labour market policies and EU-funded programmes
across Greece and other European contexts.
