XiA (Xpanding Innovative Alliance) recently took part in a joint interactive workshop with the BeWell project, focused on the consultation of BeWell’s European Skills Strategy for the health and care workforce.
BeWell is a four-year EU funded project (2022–2026) that promotes the upskilling and reskilling of the European health and care workforce to meet future societal and system challenges. The project brings together a large, multi-stakeholder consortium of health organisations, education providers, public authorities, industry, research institutions, and professional bodies across Europe to address persistent skill gaps in health systems, specifically in digital and green skills.
BeWell responds to the pressures facing European health systems, which are lagging in both digital transformation and the adoption of sustainable practices. Through a co-creation process with stakeholders, BeWell aims to develop training programmes and strategic frameworks that are relevant across local, regional, national, and European levels, and aligned with the EU’s Pact for Skills under the European Skills Agenda.
The BeWell Skills Strategy is the central strategic output of the BeWell project. It is a co-created, multi-stakeholder roadmap for the digital and green upskilling and reskilling of the health and care workforce in Europe. The strategy addresses the current pressures on European health systems, including gaps in digital technology adoption and the need for sustainability literacy, by identifying skill needs and recommending actions for workforce development across all levels of governance. It is developed collaboratively with stakeholders and the health and care workforce, and is being validated through broad consultation, including an online public consultation that was open in multiple EU languages.
By building skills intelligence, forming a large-scale Pact for Skills, and piloting training programmes, the BeWell Skills Strategy supports the twin green and digital transitions of the healthcare workforce and aims to enhance preparedness for future health challenges across Europe.
The workshop provided a valuable space for dialogue between two complementary EU initiatives, both working to support Europe’s health workforce through upskilling, reskilling, and long-term skills sustainability.
A dialogue between depth and scale
The exchange highlighted the complementarity between the two projects:
- XiA brings in-depth expertise on digital health interoperability skills, EHDS readiness, and role-based technical competencies across the healthcare ecosystem.
- BeWell adopts a system-level and policy-anchored approach to workforce transformation, integrating green and digital skills under the Pact for Skills framework.
By bringing these perspectives together, the workshop enabled a richer discussion on how technical skills, workforce planning, and policy instruments can reinforce one another.
Key topics discussed during the workshop
The discussion covered several strategic dimensions relevant to both projects, including:
- Skills intelligence and evidence
How skills needs are identified, documented, and kept up to date across countries, roles, and labour-market dynamics. - Learning design and delivery formats
The role of micro-learning, modular training pathways, and adaptable formats to address heterogeneous digital maturity levels. - Trainers and capacity-building networks
How trainers can act as multipliers and change agents, and what incentives and support structures are needed to sustain their engagement. - Certification and recognition of skills
The potential of micro-credentials, stackable learning pathways, and alignment with formal qualification systems and continuing professional development. - Policy uptake and ecosystem engagement
Translating technical skills needs into policy-relevant narratives that resonate with public authorities, employers, and decision-makers. - Barriers to skills training participation
Time constraints, lack of incentives, limited expertise, and low willingness among healthcare professionals to engage in digital and green skills training, driven by workload pressures, workforce shortages, and insufficient training capacity. - Motivation of health professionals
The importance of accreditation and formal recognition, user-friendly digital training tools, and a clear understanding of the relevance and impact of skills enhancement for professional practice and health system sustainability
Exploring synergies for future collaboration
Beyond knowledge exchange, the workshop opened concrete perspectives for future synergies between XiA and BeWell. These include potential alignment on skills frameworks, learning approaches, and stakeholder engagement mechanisms, while respecting the distinct missions and scopes of each project.
At a time when the European Health Data Space (EHDS) places increasing demands on interoperability skills, such cross-project collaboration helps ensure that technical depth, workforce scale, and policy coherence evolve together.
Looking ahead
XiA welcomes this opportunity to engage with the BeWell consortium and contribute its experience to broader European skills initiatives. Continued dialogue between projects working at different levels of the skills ecosystem will be essential to support a resilient, digitally capable, and future-ready health workforce in Europe.