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17/02/2014

Press Release: e-Skills for Jobs 2014: major new campaign launches (en version)

Brussels, 17 February 2014. The European Commission has selected DIGITALEUROPE and European Schoolnet to deliver the e-Skills for Jobs 2014 campaign. It aims to raise awareness of the need for citizens to improve their command of information and communication technology (ICT) skills for work. The campaign is a response to the growing demand for ICT-skilled professionals which is currently not met, despite high level of unemployment in Europe.

The campaign comes under the umbrella of the European Commission’s Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs, an EU-wide multi-stakeholder partnership helping to address a shortfall in the number of European citizens with ICT professional skills, and to exploit the employment creation potential of ICT.

The main focus of the campaign will be to raise awareness of the education, training, jobs, and other opportunities that are available to people with e-Skills – those who know how to effectively use digital technologies.

Together, industry, education bodies and public authorities will deliver a large and diverse programme of events and activities throughout the year for people at all levels of education and skills. The campaign is coordinated by DIGITALEUROPE and European Schoolnet in conjunction with hundreds of national and pan-European partners including European Centre for Women and Technology, JA-YE, Telecentre Europe and many major IT industry partners.

e-Skills are essential for professionals working in small to medium size enterprises, for young people and the unemployed looking to enter the workforce. They are also vital for corporations who need a highly-skilled workforce.  While Europe struggles with a prolonged economic downturn, e-Skills are more essential than ever to help get Europe’s economy back on its feet. People with strong e-Skills will play a central role in making Europe an innovative and competitive environment.

During the course of 2014, the e-Skills for jobs campaign will run in 30 EU countries*. It will inform students, unemployed people, ICT professionals and SMEs about the vast range of opportunities that ICT-related jobs present. One of the first key activities is Get Online Week, a pan-European event organised by Telecentre Europe on 24-30 March, to get new users online and improve their digital skills for working life. Two major events are also foreseen during the campaign linked to the Greek and Italian EU Presidencies.

*Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, UK.

For up to date information please contact:
Jonathan Murray, Project Director, DIGITALEUROPE, jonathan.murray@digitaleurope.org Τel: + 3226095328
Alexa Joyce, Project Director, European Schoolnet, alexa.joyce@eun.org Τel: +3227907554

DIGITALEUROPE (www.digitaleurope.org), is the voice of the European digital technology industry. Our membership includes large and small companies in the Information and Communications Technology and Consumer Electronics Industry sectors. DIGITALEUROPE membership is composed of 61 major multinational companies and 41 national associations from 29 European countries. In all, DIGITALEUROPE represents more than 10,000 companies all over Europe with more than 2 million employees.

European Schoolnet (www.europeanschoolnet.org) is the network of 30 European Ministries of Education, based in Brussels. As a not-for-profit organisation, we aim to bring innovation in teaching and learning to our key stakeholders: Ministries of Education, schools, teachers, researchers, and industry partners.

The Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs is a multi-stakeholder partnership, led by the European Commission to tackle the lack of ICT skills and the several hundred of thousands of unfilled ICT-related vacancies.  For more information see https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/grand-coalition-digital-jobs-0 and follow the Twitter hashtag #gc_eu

Get Online Week (http://www.getonlineweek.eu/) was started by Telecentre Europe as an annual Europe wide campaign to get new computer users online by helping them to get through the doors of their local ICT learning centres, enabling the staff to build people’s confidence to move on into more structured learning.