Webinar introducing the SMARCO Skills Partnership

"Building Skills for Future Smart Communities" - SMARCO Skills Partnership Official Launch event took place on 7th July 2026 with the objective to enable partners to become part of this growing network by joining the Partnership.

SMARt COmmunities Skills Development in Europe (SMARCO) strives to become a unique one-stop-shop for smart community skills focusing on the three main aims:

• To ensure the development of resilient and sustainable smart communities by addressing the skills gaps of smart city engineers and planners/procurers through the development of urgent upskilling courses and forward-looking training programmes;

• to grant flexible and user-centric learning, trans-national dimension and learning mobility, as well as a wide recognition of trainings through the development of micro-credentials, training certificates and wider certification scheme;

• to create a sustainable community of stakeholders to discuss, share and scale training, upskilling and reskilling linked to smart communities’ skills and relevant best practices via participation in the Pact for Skills (and its Digital Large-scale Partnership) and the organization of roundtables with decision-makers.

SMARCO community bringing together stakeholders from education, industry, the public sector, research, and civil society to strengthen skills development for smart communities and support the priorities of the Digital Large-Scale Partnership within the Pact for Skills.

The Partnership welcomes higher education institutions, vocational education and training (VET) providers, research centres, innovation hubs, SMEs, start-ups, large enterprises, industry associations, clusters, chambers of commerce, public authorities, municipalities, NGOs and civil society organisations that contribute to the development of Smart Communities.

The Partnership is open to organisations established in the 27 EU Member States and other European countries participating in relevant EU programmes, including EFTA countries (e.g. Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland), EU candidate countries (e.g. Ukraine, Moldova, Türkiye, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Kosovo), and EU neighbouring countries (e.g. Georgia, Armenia, etc.).