Who needs up-skilling? Low-skilled and low-qualified workers in the European Union

Skills, skills, skills! This is the mantra of modern labour and social policies. Up-skilling is seen as a win-win solution and it is commonly agreed that up-skilling lies in the interests of individual employees, as well as employers and, indeed, society at large. This paper will address the situation of low-skilled workers in the EU27 Member States by analysing cross-sectional data showing the distribution of such workers in these countries and analysing their working conditions compared to those of other groups of workers. The paper is based mainly on data from Eurofound’s Fourth European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS 2005).