Brussels, 07/09/2007 (Agence Europe) - Recent reports and surveys indicate that Europe may face severe e-skills shortages and mismatches in the coming years, yet e-skills are becoming central to boost innovation, productivity and employability and to respond to global challenges. To this end, the European Commission has decided to plan ahead and has unveiled a long-term e-skills agenda and a set of action lines at EU level, following extensive expert group and stakeholder consultations.
The Commission says that most actions contributing to the implementation of a long term e-skills agenda are within the responsibility of member states, industry, academia, trade unions, etc. EU action will therefore aim to ensure better coordination of national initiatives and encourage member states to further their policies and initiatives. The EU will also facilitate the exchange of good practice, and will focus its own efforts on actions bringing added value at EU level by:
- Raising awareness: exchanging information and good practice for the promotion of science, maths, ICT, teacher training and gender issues; encouraging awareness campaigns to provide parents, teachers and pupils with an accurate understanding of opportunities arising from ICT education and careers, and reinforcing the links between ICT, learning and innovation.
- Developing supporting actions and tools: supporting the development of a European e-competence framework, of a European e-skills and career portal, and the Europass initiative; promoting multi-stakeholder partnerships, quality criteria for industry-based training, new curriculum guidelines including services sciences, and appropriate incentives, especially for SMEs.
- Fostering employability and social inclusion: launching an initiative on e-Inclusion in 2008 with a view to halving the digital divide by 2010; encouraging corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives such as the European Alliance on Skills for Employability under the umbrella of the Business CSR Alliance; and promoting how public and private funding instruments can support such initiatives.
- Promoting better and greater use of e-learning: promoting the development of courses and mechanisms facilitating the exchange of e-skills training resources; supporting the networking of e-learning and training centres with the European Network of Living Labs and promoting successful e-learning strategies.
- Promoting long-term cooperation and monitoring progress: maintaining a regular dialogue with member states and stakeholders; releasing an annual report presenting a synthesis of supply and demand and assessing the impact of global sourcing on ICT jobs and occupations.
The Commission explains that the way forward to the widening and deepening of e-skills within the EU is through multi-stakeholder dialogue and partnerships for action, and it will be organising a major conference in co-operation with stakeholders at the end of 2008 to report on progress, present the results of the actions and discuss the way forward. (il)
