June, City of Borås

Lenita Oderfält - Development strategist, Nordiska Textilakademin

“A creative growth industry.”

When asked to summarise the future of the TCLF sector in just a few words, her answer is immediate:
“Innovation happens when people meet,” she says.
“That is where creativity develops and where new ideas and future businesses emerge.”

For Oderfält, the key to attracting future talent lies in creating more meeting places where education, entrepreneurship and industry can interact.
“Young people are already building businesses around redesign, reuse and creativity,” she explains. “That entrepreneurial spirit creates tremendous attraction for the sector.”

She points particularly to the growing entrepreneurial movement among younger generations, where social media platforms and remake culture are creating entirely new business opportunities.
“Textile is truly a growth sector,” she says. “The industry today is innovative, creative and deeply connected to sustainability and circular transformation.

At the same time, she also sees enormous opportunities for the TCLF industries themselves. Looking ahead five years, Oderfält believes Europe will have achieved significantly stronger cooperation and a more harmonised understanding of micro-credentials, both within sectors and across countries.
“I honestly do not see micro-credentials as a risk,” she says. “There are many challenges, absolutely, but this is ultimately a step forward for Europe and for competence development.”

Despite the challenges, she sees enormous opportunities ahead.
“Many companies want production to remain in Europe and partly return to Europe,” Oderfält says. “That means we also need more comparable competence systems.”

Within the TCLF industries specifically, compatibility between different countries becomes increasingly important as European production networks grow stronger and companies seek more resilient supply chains closer to home.
“Ireland is one of the countries furthest ahead regarding the implementation of micro-credentials,” she notes. “Italy has also made significant progress, particularly by using the automotive sector as a testing ground.”

Sweden is currently positioned relatively well in this development, partly thanks to work carried out by the Swedish National Agency for Higher Vocational Education (MYH). At the same time, several other European countries are moving quickly.
“If we want competences to become transferable across Europe, we need systems that are understandable and comparable internationally”, Oderfält explains.

International cooperation therefore becomes essential. Within the validation and lifelong learning community, the concept of speaking a “common language” is often used to describe the importance of shared frameworks.
“We are not yet fully aligned on what micro-credentials actually are,” she says. “There is still a lot of work needed to create common understanding and compatibility across Europe.”

However, despite growing interest, Europe is still in the early stages of establishing common standards for micro-credentials. According to Oderfält, one of the biggest current challenges is that many countries and sectors still interpret the concept differently.
“We already work with shorter courses and micro-learning solutions,” Oderfält explains. “Employees can quickly gain understanding about circularity, sustainability requirements and new legislation without lea-ving the workplace for long periods.”

For companies, shorter modular learning formats can significantly improve the ability to adapt quickly to new EU regulations and sustainability demands. This flexibility is particularly important within the TCLF sectors, where practical knowledge and workplace experience remain essential.
“A micro-credential is essentially a description of measurable competences,” she says. “It defines what a person should know and be able to do. The education or training connected to that competence can happen in many different ways — in schools, in workplaces or through practical learning.”

At the same time, she stresses the importance of distinguishing between micro-credentials themselves and the actual training connected to them.
“People receive recognition more often,” Oderfält explains. “You complete a module, receive a badge or cer-tificate, and clearly see your progression. That can be very motivating.”

Young people today increasingly demand shorter, more flexible educational pathways with a stronger con-nection to working life. In this regard, micro-credentials can also play an important motivational role.
“When qualifications are modular and transferable, people can move more easily between different roles, sectors and workplaces,” she says. “That creates attractiveness — especially for younger generations.”

According to Oderfält, micro-credentials can help create both mobility and flexibility within the labour market. This approach is closely linked to the broader European discussion around lifelong learning and reskilling. As the TCLF industries become more circular, digital and data-driven, completely new professional roles are emerging. At the same time, traditional professions are also changing rapidly.
“We need systems where individuals can build competences progressively,” she explains. “You can identify which micro-credentials someone already has, what they still need, and then create a clear pathway forward.”

Oderfält particularly highlights the importance of “stackable” micro-credentials — small competence mo-dules that can gradually be combined into larger professional qualifications. One of the major strengths of micro-credentials is their flexibility. Instead of requiring employees or stu-dents to commit to long traditional education programmes, competences can be developed step-by-step through smaller modules that are easier to combine with work and everyday life.
“Micro-credentials and micro-learning will absolutely become more important in Europe,” she says. “Many countries and sectors are already exploring them as a tool to solve the growing competence challenge.”

In this context, micro-credentials are increasingly attracting attention across Europe as a practical and flexible solution. According to Oderfält, the challenge exists on multiple levels simultaneously. Companies are struggling both to recruit the right competences and to upskill existing employees fast enough to meet the transition.
“The entire TCLF sector is currently undergoing a major transformation,” she explains.
“This is strongly connected to EU legislation and sustainability requirements. Companies want to comply with these new demands, but the need for competence development is enormous.”

Oderfält works as a business developer and strategist at Nordiska Textilakademin, where she has long been involved in validation systems, competence frameworks and skills development for the Swedish textile sec-tor. Through projects connected to lifelong learning, vocational qualifications and the METASKILLS4TCLF initiative, she sees first-hand how rapidly the competence needs of the industry are evolving.

As Europe’s textile, clothing, leather and footwear (TCLF) industries face accelerating transformation driven by sustainability, digitalisation and new EU legislation, the discussion around future skills has beco-me increasingly urgent. According to Lenita Oderfält at Nordiska Textilakademin in Sweden, one of the most important tools for supporting this transition may be the growing development of micro-credentials and flexible learning pathways.