Cyprus needs to strengthen skills renewal as working lives grow longer and more varied, Labour Minister Marinos Mousiouttas said on Friday.

Speaking at the human resource development authority’s (Anad) annual meeting with vocational training centres, Mousiouttas stressed that “as working life becomes more diverse and longer, the more critical it becomes for each employee to renew their skills, so that they can remain in the labour market on decent terms until retirement”.

He commended Anad as “a key partner of the state” in boosting productivity and employment prospects, saying vocational training has become essential as the labour market undergoes “radical transition.”

He said artificial intelligence and new technologies must be adopted “with a focus on people, with respect for labour rights and with investment in appropriate skills.”

Mousiouttas said the authority’s training programmes had reached a target of more than 25,600 participations with a budget of €14 million, focused on digital, and entrepreneurial skills.

He said digital upgrades and simplified procedures had already reduced administrative burdens for businesses and applicants, with attention now turning to the quality of training structures and measuring their real impact on employment and productivity.

His comments follow Eurostat figures showing adult participation in vocational training in Cyprus rose to 12 per cent last year, up from 7.5 per cent in 2015, though still below the EU average of 13.7 per cent.

A recently published European Commission report also found that only one in four Cypriots seeks education at the workplace, significantly behind the EU target of 60 per-cent.