What major changes are coming and how will they affect our labour market?
How can we respond proactively and fill our vacancies as well as possible? What are the recipes for maximizing our country's prosperity, and therefore the well-being of as many people as possible? We want to answer these ambitious questions with Be The Change.
We filled many additional jobs in the recent past. Job demand also remains high in the future.
A growing imbalance between supply and demand increases the importance of productivity growth.
The number of job seekers is falling. The focus shifts to activating people who are not currently looking for work.
Achieving the pertinent 80% ambition, is a long way off. Without labour market reforms, we will not reach this target until 2037.
Be The Change, looks can be deceiving (2023)
Since 2018, the Be The Change team has been continuously analysing the expected changes in the Belgian labour market. This provides clear insights into how many more people we need to get to work, how important our productivity and efficiency are in an international context, and how crucial continuing education is in that framework, for the individual and the collective alike.
To reach the 80% employment rate, we now need to convert these acquired figures and insights from Be The Change into concrete policies and actions. Be The Change is therefore a call to:
- the policy makers, to take courageous and effective decisions:
- the sectors, to think together, e.g. about more intersectoral mobility:
- companies, to adapt their HR strategies to the changing reality;
- all citizens who, if they manage their skills intelligently, will be able to make the most of the opportunities on our labour market.
The most recent update of the study (2023) puts past successes in perspective and, among other things, specifies the 80% ambition by region.
Download our 2023 study
Download the previous Be The Change publications
The original Be The Change publications provide an accessible outline of the major challenges and opportunities facing the Belgian labour market. The quantitative, but also the substantive development of the demand for work and the supply of workers are compared. All these data are available per region, per sector and per position and are supplemented with sharp insights from our team of experts. In this way, Be The Change has become a reference work that stimulates policymakers, other sectors, companies and the general public to take action.
Download our previous publications
Who are the faces behind this project?
Be The Change rests on the strong shoulders of a ten-strong team of experts who process numerous data sources and then analyse them in depth. Two programme managers in the team focus on spreading the story widely. They want to inform policymakers, the educational field, fellow sectors, vision setters of companies and social actors, challenge them and incite them to concrete action.
Jeroen Franssen is one of the founders of Be The Change. He succeeds like no other in explaining the complex challenges facing our labour market in a clear, simple and yet nuanced way. He provides tailor-made lectures and strategic thinking exercises for organizations and their ecosystems. You can book him via jeroen.franssen@agoria.be or 0475 85 64 11.
Saskia Van Uffelen is Digital Champion for Belgium and has – quasi-naturally - fully endorsed the Be The Change call. Saskia stands for cooperation and wants to maximize the impact of actions on the labour market through coalitions. Linking the dots' is her motto. Saskia is also available for presentations. She will be happy to listen to how your organization tackles the challenges that characterize our labour market. These initiatives can also be showcased through our partnership with Digiskills Belgium. You can contact Saskia via saskia.vanuffelen@agoria.be or 0473 21 41 78.
#BeTheChange2030
Our 'Be The Change' call has found a lot of resonance. This is clear from the more than 600 presentations that have already been organized. We are therefore pleased to present a mix of big and small stories in the broad context of Be The Change. These stories show that Be The Change is increasingly becoming a movement and is generating a wave of action within Agoria and its members, in society and at various political or other decision-making levels.
Agoria initiatives
Digital upskilling
The 'Be The Change' study has clearly shown that the way we work and the nature of work are changing. Your current job will look quite differently in 2030 and it will also require other competences and skills.
DigiSkills
Passport:
Are your digital competences future-proof?
Map how important the competences you have today are, and which ones we will need in an increasingly digital world. Create a DigiSkills Passport in less than 15 minutes. With this passport, you can then map out a personal development path for your current job or for a job you would like to do.
Digital upskilling in the
manufacturing industry:
seven profiles highlighted
Get to know seven specific profiles from the manufacturing industry. How will these evolve and what digital competences will they require by 2030?
Our coalition partners
DigiSkills Belgium
DigiSkills Belgium is a web platform intended to create an ecosystem of initiatives and training for all Belgian citizens who want to step into the digital society of today and tomorrow. Powered by the Belgian National Coalition for Digital Skills & Jobs, DigiSkills Belgium aims to reduce the digital skills gap on a national level.
Become Digital
Become Digital is an initiative of Agoria, its members Microsoft and Proximus and partners PWC and Qualify. Become Digital is an online application which enables people and organizations to map their talents and digital skills or those of their teams. Training courses are subsequently suggested for growth trajectories.