– Jelena Jovičić (IfL) in conversation with Martin Hollinetz (Otelo eGen) –
European industrial regions are undergoing profound transformations driven by digitalisation, automation and artificial intelligence, decarbonisation and climate adaptation, aging populations and more. These intertwined processes, often referred to as multi-transformations, are reshaping labour markets, production systems, and regional development pathways. Regional development often focusses on the economy and specifically how technological innovation can be fostered to secure the future economic base. However, the role of human and institutional capacities tends to stay in the shadow. This is why soft skills and their role in regional development have been at the core of our work in the x-Inno Radar project for the past year.
Rare empirical findings on the role of soft skills in regional transformations
The recently published x-Inno Radar report synthesises findings from a study of eight non-metropolitan industrial regions in Europe in relation to their current regional challenges, transformational potentials, and – importantly – the role that soft skills play in these processes. The regions in comparison are: Chemnitz Region, Province Limburg, Western Slovenia, Eastern Slovakia, Veneto, Upper Austria, Silesia, and Northwest Czechia. The study is based on data from relevant Eurostat socio-economic and labour market indicators, empirical results from an online survey with regional experts, and the rich inputs from the regional expert focus group meetings. By bringing this data together, we explore the current soft skill landscapes and the major roles soft skills play in navigating multi-transformations. The findings are aimed at a wide range of relevant actors including the regional policymakers, RIS3 actors, researchers, education providers, and industry actors.
As the representative of our Upper Austrian partner Otelo eGen – Martin Hollinetz – illustrates:
“The realization that soft skills play an important role in coping with diverse transformations is already widespread among education providers and in the business world. However, there are still few regionally linked and strategically coordinated processes that have a targeted effect and are tailored to regional needs. Hard skills have long been given preference here, especially in vocational training. Against the backdrop of current global developments, we must quickly establish new networks, initiatives, and processes in order to involve people of all generations in the development process.”
Linked to this practice-based reflection, our report highlights the role soft skills play, not only as personal “add-ons” which help meet the rapidly changing labour market needs, but as strategic regional capacities for navigating digital, green and demographic (multi) transformations. As Martin describes:
“…In our view, there is still a lack of sufficiently positive, regionally transferable and scalable examples of soft skill-focused efforts, particularly in the area of children and young people. However, with projects such as Futurespace and Kinder erleben Technik (Children Experience Technology), Otelo eGen is demonstrating that the long-term, cross-generational promotion of such initiatives can make a concrete contribution to regional transformation processes. In the area of soft skills, similarly designed, impact-oriented projects with a time horizon of more than five years are needed, as the funding logic of short-term project cycles hardly does justice to the actual effects. Only when we understand the development of soft skills as a strategic regional necessity – not as a nice extra module – can ecosystems emerge that sustainably strengthen adaptability, cooperation and a culture of innovation.”
Shared pressures, uneven capacities
Across the eight regions examined challenges such as population aging, skills mismatch, labour shortages, outmigration, and youth disengagement (e.g. rising NEET rates) are linked to multi- transformation processes. Report findings show evidence that the ability to respond to these challenges and therefore successfully meet the regional transformation demands may vary substantially across regions. For example, experts report high outmigration rates as one of the top challenges in regions of Western Slovenia and Northwest Czechia. However, with regard to research and education, Western Slovenia scores second highest among the eight partner regions in respect to Gross Domestic Expenditure on Research and Development (Eurostat GERD score). Further, it shows the highest rate of tertiary educational attainment and participation in education and training. In contrast, Northwest Czechia scores lowest in first two and second lowest in the third field. It is also the only region in this sample without a higher education institution.
These insights point to the possibility of shared regional challenges, yet uneven capacities to tackle them, and therefore strong need for place-based assessment of the role of soft skills in aiding successful regional transformations.
High demand for ‘transformation-enabling’ soft skills
When looking at the regional soft skill ecosystems, we discovered several important findings. Firstly, the experts report that the most needed outcomes of soft skill development across regions should be better adaptability to change, improved wellbeing in the workplace, and increased levels of collaboration. In some regions, specific outcomes are more desirable than in other regions, like in the example of Upper Austria and Belgium where experts rate improved inclusion of diverse workforces relatively high. The demand for better adaptability to change through soft skills development aligns with existing expectations towards the workers to adapt to a rapidly changing nature of jobs, to show flexibility in switching between industries, and to back up transformation processes (CEDEFOP, 2018; Corradini et al., 2023).
Secondly, the findings help us understand which soft skills are considered already well established and present across partner regions, and where we can identify the gaps and potential room for improvement. Despite the regional nuances there is an overall pattern of relatively strong presence of interpersonal soft skills like communication and collaboration, but weaker presence of skills like creativity, risk-taking, sustainability awareness, and iterative problem-solving.
Source: Soft Skills for Regional Transformation Report, 2026.
Important mentioning is that reliable and comparable regional-level data on soft skill capacities and needs is missing. While some existing data is certainly relevant in the context of soft skill development, such as Eurostat indicators on educational attainment, Life Long Learning, GERD score, and general participation in education and training, these alone are not reliable indicators of regional soft skill capacities and gaps. Here lies the great importance of the x-Inno Soft Skills survey results analyzed in the report – as they provide a limited, yet essential insight into soft skill landscapes, and importantly – a great learning exercise on how we can successfully study the role of soft skills in the future.
Ecosystems exist but cooperation and visibility are bottlenecks
Another important finding related to the role of soft skills in regional development is that experts identify various soft skill providers operating in their regions (e.g. educational institutions, chambers of commerce, NGOs, and makerspace), however they also report that these are in a way isolated attempts and that there is a lack of reliable ecosystem in this context. An exemplary insight from the project partners Otelo eGen illustrates this finding well – and Martin explains:
“In our region, we have often seen that many stakeholders – schools, businesses, youth centers, social service providers, innovation initiatives – are very committed to working on soft skills, but they work alongside each other rather than with each other. Cooperation has always been truly effective when it has been possible to create a reliable shared space in which trust could grow: with clearly moderated processes, regular routines and an attitude that replaces competition with co-creation. Continuous impetus, transparent moderation and the involvement of intermediary organisations as bridge builders were crucial. This made it clear that regional soft skills ecosystems do not arise from individual projects, but from connecting networks, activities and initiatives – such as Otelos – that establish long-term processes, educational opportunities and cooperation formats, thereby systematically linking companies, educational providers and organisations.”
Fragmented soft-skill ecosystems relate to another report finding – that soft skills do not function only at individual level, but must also be understood as regionally embedded capacities that enable coordination, learning, innovation, institutional adaptability and more. While soft skills are often not explicitly mentioned, or dealt with, policy makers and practitioners increasingly place high priority on such tasks in the near future.
You can access the full report via the following link. For more information about the project and our ongoing work, check our webpage and x-Inno Toolbase via the following link.
Dr Jelena Jovičić is a research assistant in the Department of Regional Geography of Europe at the IfL and a member of the x-Inno Radar project team.
Martin Hollinetz is the founder of the OTELO network and the Otelo Cooperative. He developed pioneering models for collaborative work, innovation spaces, and community workshops, especially in rural areas.