What craft-makers know, and what they need: mapping skills and learning preferences across European craft-ecosystems

This article investigates which skills contemporary craft-makers consider most relevant, which they prefer to develop or outsource, and how these preferences reflect different educational contexts. We conducted fieldwork in four European craft ecosystems (Bassano del Grappa, Venice, Dals Långed, Bornholm) through interviews, an online questionnaire, and three co-creation workshops. We develop a framework comprising five skill areas: craft-making and technical, technological, business, communication and selling, and transversal skills. Our findings reveal how craft-making is shaped by a complex interplay between the primacy of craft-making skills, the uneasy yet unavoidable role of managerial and communication skills, and persistent tensions around technology and sustainability. Craft-makers generally prefer to develop making and transversal skills while outsourcing business and administrative activities. Learning is also constrained by limited time, and economic precarity, while national educational systems shape distinct career pathways and skill needs, requiring context-sensitive policy support.