European Skills & VET Week is a timely reminder that lifelong learning can help Europe respond to demographic change. For the health industry, the challenge is to build the skills behind solutions that work for older people.
Imagine a digital health company developing a tool to support people managing their long-term conditions at home. This company’s teams need to consider more than technical performance. Can people with different needs use it confidently? Does it fit into daily routines? Are the data reliable and secure? Answering these questions requires different skills across product development, data, quality and regulatory affairs.
Europe’s population is ageing. On 1 January 2025, 22% of the EU’s 450.6 million residents were aged 65 or over, according to Eurostat. For companies working in pharmaceuticals & biomanufacturing, MedTech, digital health and medical supplies, this creates a growing need to understand older people’s needs and develop products that support health, independence and quality of life.
The European Commission describes the silver economy as economic activity connected to the needs and opportunities of older people. For the health industry, it raises a practical question: which skills will help teams turn those needs into safe, accessible and useful solutions?
Older people do not share a single set of needs or preferences. Involving them in research, design and testing can help health-industry teams understand how a product might be used, identify barriers and make more informed development decisions.
Specialist expertise must also come together. A digital health solution may involve AI, sensitive data, medical technology and evolving regulatory requirements. Professionals need to connect these areas with quality, safety and the experiences of the people who will use the product. That calls for collaboration across disciplines as well as up-to-date technical knowledge.
The health-industry workforce is changing too. Experienced professionals need opportunities to develop new skills as technologies and roles evolve. This is why European Skills & VET Week, with its focus on adult learning, vocational education and training, and upskilling, speaks directly to the BRIGHTskills audience.
BRIGHTskills is working across Europe's health industries to connect evidence on workforce needs with practical learning opportunities. The project has gathered insights from employers and workers in pharmaceuticals and biomanufacturing, medical technology, digital health and medical supplies. At its June 2026 co-creation workshop, participants explored emerging needs and proposed giving human-centredness greater visibility in the project's competency framework.
That approach is taking shape in the project's learning offer. The course From Needs to Impact: Embedding Lived Experience in Industry-Led Innovation explored how patient and healthcare needs can inform product development and research. The upcoming Digitalisation and Big Data in Healthcare course addresses AI, health data governance, privacy and regulatory questions. These are broad health-industry skills with clear applications for teams developing services for an ageing population.
The BRIGHTskills Skills Self-Assessment Tool is already available to help learners identify development priorities and explore relevant training. In parallel, the project is developing an EU Health Industry Skills Strategy to translate evidence and good practices into a longer-term approach to upskilling and reskilling.
European Skills & VET Week invites us to think about the value of learning throughout life. For the silver economy, that means equipping people across the health industry to listen, adapt and build with older adults in mind, while making continued learning possible for workers of every age.
Explore the BRIGHTskills courses or start with the Skills Self-Assessment Tool to find your next learning step.
