ABOUT THE PROJECT

• Shortages of skills and skill mismatches in 5 EU countries:
  Lithuania France Italy Germany Poland
  and 6 non-EU countries:
  North Macedonia Turkiye Ukraine UK Norway Ethiopia
  important for the development of sustainable workforce migration.
• The need to strengthen the regularity and labour market relevance of current migration pathways to cope with irregular migration and its negative implications for migrant workers and societies of origin and destination countries.
• The need for know-how on skill matching and skill formation for the integration of migrant workers to design policy solutions and skill formation practices.
• The need for capacity building of policy makers and social partners in skill matching and formation, essential for developing sustainable partnerships between origin and destination countries.

• Research-based factual and methodical knowledge on skill shortages and mismatches in destination and origin countries, alongside insights on the potential of skill formation and qualification systems to tackle these issues.
• Research-based know-how on migration alternatives in solving skill shortages within destination countries (EU).
• Knowledge on migrant worker perspectives regarding approaches to skill formation, migration patterns, and participation.
• Toolkit for policy makers and stakeholders of skill formation and migration policies to develop sustainable and fair pathways.

• Policy makers in employment, skill formation, and migration fields will utilize research findings to inform policy decisions.
• Education, training, and skill formation institutions will use research findings for process improvements.
• Policy makers, training institutions, and social partners will use the toolkit to establish mutually beneficial partnerships, invest in skill formation, match supply with labour market needs, build safe migration pathways, and enhance re-emigration and reintegration.

• Active multidisciplinary discussions among international researchers on relationships between skill matching, formation, and migration.
• More active engagement of social partners in policy initiatives and activities related to skill matching and migration.
• Development, adjustment, and application of concrete tools in skill matching, education, qualifications, and employment for safe, sustainable integration of migrant workers and re-emigrants.

• Improved matching of skills in the labour markets of both origin and destination countries.
• Effective and better-informed policy solutions across skill matching, employment, and migration domains.
• Spread of mutually beneficial, safe, and sustainable migration patterns without significant damage to economic, social, and cultural development.
• Positive impact on reconstruction and development in partner countries afflicted by wars, conflicts, and disasters (Ukraine, Ethiopia, Turkiye).
• Reducing negative implications of EU integration for sustaining a skilled workforce in new member states.

• What is the work package briefly about?
  WP4 of the Skills for Justice project aims at surveying skilled migrant workers in the destination and origin countries. The previous work packages were mainly on the sectoral and educational perspectives related to supply and demand of the labour market and on developing a skill shortage model. On the other hand, WP4 addresses these issues from the viewpoints of migrant workers who are the main actors in meeting these skill shortages. The work package is implemented through qualitative and quantitative surveys.
• When is the work package implemented?
  This work package is implemented between January and December 2025 within 12 months.
• Who leads the work package?
  This work package is led by the project partner Ankara University from Türkiye. The project team leader is Mustafa Cem Babadoğan, and the team members are Kıymet Selvi, Ayşe Dilek Keser, Meryem Hamsi Imrol, Halil Ecer, Durmuş Ziya Görür, Berk Babadoğan and Umut Selvi. To include the perspectives of skilled migrant workers in the project, the duty of the leading partner is to design the methodology and instruments and supervise the execution of surveys.
• What are the main themes in the work package?
  The first theme is the skill formation and employment processes of the migrant workforce in the origin and destination countries. Which origin countries the migrant workers come from? The destination countries they work in. Their general and vocational education profiles, their skill formation processes, work experiences and matching their skills to jobs are the main objectives of research in this theme. We also aim to investigate skill matching; the difficulties encountered regarding finding jobs and the trainings offered to match skills with work. The second field of interest is work package four in work package four is the migration patterns of the labour migrants and the relationship between these patterns. The motivations for migration, the migration paths and choices of destination countries and the relation of these to their skills and employment are the subjects of interest of the second key theme. The third key theme is the participation of migrants in the employment market and social dialogue. Their involvement in vocational education and continuous training, their economic participation including self-employment, socio-cultural and local participation such as taking part in activities of migrant communities are researched within this theme. Other themes are justice and gender in relationship with skills development, employment and social lives of migrant workers. Social justice, justice at work, occupational health and safety and family issues are discussed within the justice aspect. There is also particular emphasis on women at work and their education with gender within the gender theme of Work Package 4. Researching the status of migrant women in terms of their occupation and educational pathways in the origin and destination countries would provide some valuable insights about their participation in the labour market.
• What methodology is used in Work Package 4?
  This Work Package contains a survey with two data collection methods. The first is the quantitative survey with a questionnaire aimed at collecting data from migrant workers. The questionnaire is designed considering the key themes of this Work Package and is developed in several rounds by gathering opinions of internal and external experts. The questionnaire is planned to be delivered in both online and paper based formats. The second part of the survey consists of the qualitative part which is to be implemented in the form of interviews by regarding ethical principles to protect the participants.
• What are the dissemination activities of the work package?
  By the end of Work Package 4, the findings by all partner countries will be synthesized as a working paper and an open access journal article will be written. Other publications with collaborations among the consortium members will also be encouraged. Each partner country of the project is also going to organize at least two seminars or workshops to share the results with stakeholders.

• Babadoğan, M. C., Selvi, K., Keser, A. D., Hamsi-İmrol, M., Görür, D. Z., Ecer, H., Babadoğan, B., Selvi, U. (2025). Ortaöğretim ve Yükseköğretimde Mesleki Eğitimin Türkiye ’de Nitelikli İşgücü Yetiştirmeye Katkısı. [The Contribution of Vocational Education in Secondary and Higher Education to the Development of a Qualified Workforce in Türkiye]. Oral presantation. ICCI EPOK 2025. Eastern Mediterranean University. (25-28 October), Famagusta/TRNC
• Cvetkoska, V., Trpeski, P., Ivanovski, I., Peovski, F., İmrol, M. H., Babadoğan, B., Ecer, H., Görür, D. Z., Selvi, U., Hunde, A. B., Gemeda, F. T., Dubi, Y. B., Melnyk, S., Lytvynchuk, A., Tereshchenko, H. (2025). Comparative analysis of skill shortages, skill mismatches, and the threats of migration in labor markets: A sectoral approach in North Macedonia, Türkiye, Ethiopia, and Ukraine. MDPI Social Sciences, 14(5), 294.
• Kühn, I. K., Saniter, A., Selvi, K., & Keser, A. D. (2025). Access to and accessibility of the Initial Vocational Education and Training (IVET) system in Türkiye and Germany. In E. Quintana-Murci, F. Salvà-Mut, B. E. Stalder, & C. Nägele (Eds.), Towards inclusive and egalitarian vocational education and training: Key challenges and strategies from a holistic and multi-contextual approach. Proceedings of the 6th Crossing Boundaries Conference in Vocational Education and Training, Palma, Mallorca, Spain, 21 to 23 May 2025 (pp. 329–344). VETNET. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15373978
• Selvi, K., Saniter, A., Kühn, I. K., & Keser, A. D. (2025). Model proposal for a joint IVET curriculum: Examples of Türkiye and Germany with main justifications for the TR-DE JOINT IVET curriculum. In E. Quintana-Murci, F. Salvà-Mut, B. E. Stalder, & C. Nägele (Eds.), Towards inclusive and egalitarian vocational education and training: Key challenges and strategies from a holistic and multi-contextual approach. Proceedings of the 6th Crossing Boundaries Conference in Vocational Education and Training, Palma, Mallorca, Spain, 21 to 23 May 2025 (pp. 515–530). VETNET. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15367262
• Cvetkoska V., Trpeski P., Ivanovski I., Peovski F., Kozheski K., Merdzan G., Babadoğan M. C., Hamsi-İmrol M,. Görür D. Z., Ecer H., Melnyk S., Lytvynchuk A., Tereshchenko H,. Anisimova O., Hunde A. B., Gemeda F.T., Dubi Y. B., Yacob E. T. (2026) Stakeholder perceptions of migration policies and investment in human capital development: expert interview evidence from policymakers, labor market organizations and social partners in North Macedonia, Türkiye, Ukraine, and Ethiopia. Frontiers in Education. (Vol: 10 p. 1714973). https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2025.1714973 Frontiers Media SA.
• Babadoğan, M. C., Ecer, H., Hamsi-İmrol, M., Görür, D. Z., Selvi, K., Keser, A. D., Babadoğan, B., Selvi, U. (2026). Challenges of skill shortage and skill mismatch in Türkiye under the shadow of migration: evidence from official statistics and sector representatives. Frontiers in Education (Vol. 11, p. 1738364). | https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2026.1738364 Frontiers Media SA.

• The fourth project partners meeting of SKILLS4JUSTICE in Ankara, Türkiye, 4-5th September 2025
  In this meeting hosted by Ankara University, the partners discussed the planning, progress, preliminary findings, and data analysis processes of work package 4, which aims to study migrant workers through surveys and interview protocols. Partners exchanged the interim findings of the quantitative and qualitative surveys of the migrant workers conducted in their countries concerning the links between migration pathways, skill formation and employment opportunities, and perspectives on justice in the areas of skill formation, employment, and social participation. The partners also introduced and discussed the idea of publishing a book focused on the dialoguing discourses of the migrants and other stakeholders of migration and skill formation processes. In addition, the upcoming research work package 5, dealing with the exploration of conditions and factors of effective and fair skills partnerships, was presented by the Institut Technik und Bildung of Bremen University (ITB). The next joint meeting is planned to be held in Poland from March 11 to 13, 2026. You can watch a short video about the S4J Ankara Meeting via this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c7nRhIDg3M