The Digital Agenda starts to take shape
2010. May 13.
EeSA is pleased to note that in a recent communication by Commissioner Kroes "Digital Agenda: Kroes welcomes Ministerial support " (19 April 2010), there is clear attention to the importance of increased e-skills in the coming Digital Agenda. Commissioner Kroes astutely identified the exclusion of many citizens from the information society and the professional ICT skills shortage as constraints to the further contribution that ICT can make to productivity and growth.
EeSA looks forward to the Digital Agenda text being unveiled at
the end of April and to further details on how the strategy will
address social inclusion in ICT competence and concrete steps to
combat the digital literacy deficit. Measures to roll out
high-speed internet access must be combined with plans to enhance
the competence of all internet end-users if these infrastructure
investments are to have the intended impact on internet
participation.
To address ICT professional skills shortages, EeSA asserts the
need to foster synergies between educational institutes, the ICT
industry and professionals in the public and private sector to
ensure that students develop the skills needed in the labour
market. Promoting ICT professionalism is essential for Europe's
competitiveness and potential to innovate and can offer increased
mobility for ICT professionals throughout Europe.
Finally, the agenda must find ways to make ICT careers more
attractive to young people. The launch of the European e-Skills
Career Portal, which helps students to match skills to jobs, as
well as the European e-Skills Week, which took place in March 2010,
are steps in the right direction and should continue to play a key
role.
About EeSA
The European e-Skills Association was founded in June 2007 as
e-Skills Industry Leadership Board (e-Skills ILB). It cooperates
with public authorities across Europe, small and medium sized
companies, social partners and other stakeholders, building upon
the European Commission initiatives on e-Skills and lifelong
learning. With its expanded membership, the EeSA is set to lead the
contribution of ICT-embedded industries to the development and
implementation of a long term e-skills and digital literacy agenda
in Europe.
EeSA members include: Council of European Professional
Informatics Societies/CEPIS; Cisco Systems; Computing Technology
Industry Association/ CompTIA; European Grants and Subsidies
Consulting/Econet; European Information Technology
Observatory/EITO; ECDL Foundation; European Schoolnet; European
Software Association; European Network of CIOs/euroCIO; Examination
Institute for Information Science/EXIN; Hewlett Packard/HP; Intel;
Microsoft; and Oracle (see: www.eskillsassociation.eu).
For more information on the EeSA, please contact the EeSA
secretariat,
tel:
+32/2/234.78.23
e-mail: info@e-skills-ilb.org
About European Schoolnet
European Schoolnet (www.europeanschoolnet.org)
is a network of 31 Ministries of Education in Europe and beyond.
EUN was created more than 10 years ago with the aim to bring about
innovation in teaching and learning to its key stakeholders:
Ministries of Education, schools, teachers and researchers.
Source:
http://eskills.eun.org/web/guest/news_?p_p_id=56_INSTANCE_0tMl&_56_INSTANCE_0tMl_articleId=54704