Brussels, 04/03/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 4 March, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso kicked off the Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs. This is a two-day conference organised in Brussels to engage common action to train additional professionals in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector - at a time when a shortage of people to fill such jobs looms on the horizon for 2015. Several commissioners (Neelie Kroes, Antonio Tajani, Laszlo Andor and Androulla Vassiliou) are participating in the event - as are representatives from businesses, organisations and other stakeholders. In Barroso's view, this is “an essential part of getting Europe's economy back on track and finding jobs for some of Europe's 26 million unemployed”.
Despite the level of unemployment that the European Union is currently experiencing, the number of jobs in the digital sector is growing by more than 100,000 every year. Without additional effort to train people, the digital sector will suffer a lack of qualified personnel due to an expected 900,000 vacancies in 2015. As a result, Europe risks experiencing further relocations from companies going to search in other countries and other continents for the qualified personnel that are lacking in Europe. The common action launched on Monday particularly aims to help young people and the unemployed obtain this type of employment. Although the Commission has a catalyst role to play, it is businesses and organisations that hold the cards for taking action such as organising training, planning aid for mobility and labour, certifying skills, improving schools' and university programmes, and implementing an environment favourable to creating innovative businesses. At the end of January, the Commission launched an appeal in Davos - through Commissioner for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes - calling on businesses, public authorities, trainers, social partners, employment service providers and civil society to join it in a massive effort “to reverse the current trend” so that young people might have the skills enabling them to embrace digital careers or to create jobs as entrepreneurs (see EUROPE 10773). Several businesses and organisations have already committed to stepping up their efforts in order to reply to the objectives that were fixed and Barroso is calling on other stakeholders to join the movement. A detailed roadmap with additional measures will be adopted at the end of the conference. (IL/transl.fl)