E-Skills for a more innovative and competitive Europe
In a modern knowledge-based economy, excellence in information and communication technologies (ICT) is a crucial factor in individual and collective success. The EU's drive to promote ICT skills, or e-Skills, has made some impressive progress. Further developing these skills throughout Europe can play an important role in meeting several objectives, from fostering innovation, competitiveness, growth and jobs to combating social exclusion. The first European e-Skills Week is due to take place in March 2010.
In today's connected and increasingly networked economy and society, information and communication technologies have gone from being the preserve of the technically minded to becoming an essential skill for everyone. Everything from reading the newspaper, through shopping and banking, to dealing with the government can now be done online. In fact, high-level ICT skills (e-Skills) are becoming ever-more crucial components for business value creation and innovative products and services.
Unlocking the full potential of ICT in Europe as catalysts of economic growth, social well-being and prosperity requires a pervasive culture of excellence and quality. It is also widely recognised that e-Skills and ICT professionalism foster quality, innovation and universal benefits for the economy and society.
More generally, ICT are of vital importance not only for ICT practitioners but also to European citizens in all walks of life. For that reason, digital literacy - i.e. a person's ability to locate, organise, understand, evaluate, and create information using digital technology - has become an increasingly recognised and important concept. And, with the rapid rate of technological change, remaining digitally literate is a lifelong pursuit, underlining the importance of lifelong learning.
Strategic focus
In order to help the EU upgrade its digital skills, make better use of ICT and integrate them into the entire spectrum of the Union's economic and social activities, the European Commission launched, in 2007, a strategy entitled 'e-Skills for the 21st century: fostering competitiveness, growth and jobs 
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"For the European Union and its Member States to remain successful in a global economy characterised by rapid technological change, more efforts will be needed to raise and widen the level of e-Skills of our workforce and our citizens," emphasises the strategic document. "This will require major, sustained efforts by both Member States and stakeholders applied to a range of policy issues."
Building on the EU's drive to create a knowledge-based economy and the recognition of the socio-economic importance of ICT in the landmark Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs, 'e-Skills for the 21st century' seeks not only to fill Europe's e-Skills shortage but also to bridge the so-called 'digital divide', i.e. the gap between those with access to ICT and the skills to make the most of them, and those who lack these skills, which can lead to social exclusion.
This is an objective of the 2010 European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion which has identified as one of its priority areas: "eradicating disadvantages in education and training, including digital literacy training and promoting equal access for all to ICT, with particular focus on the specific needs of disabled people".
Truly digital economy
In August, the European Commission released its 'Digital competitiveness report' which gauged progress made since 2005 towards transforming Europe into a digital economy. On the continent where the GSM standard was invented, there are now more mobile phones than people (the take-up rate is 119%).
In addition, the report found that, by 2008, nearly three-fifths of Europeans had become regular internet users, which represents a leap of one-third within four years. Some 80% of these had high-speed internet connections, up from only a third in 2004. With half of all households and more than 80% of businesses linked up to the web with a high-speed connection, Europe has become the global leader in broadband access.
Still, there is no room for complacency. Despite this impressive progress, a third of EU citizens have never used the internet and fewer than one-tenth of consumers have shopped online outside of their home country, undermining the benefits of the single market for both consumers and businesses. In addition, Europe still lags behind the United States and Japan in terms of its R&D investment in ICT.
"Europe's digital economy has tremendous potential to generate huge revenues across all sectors, but to turn this advantage into sustainable growth and new jobs, governments must show leadership by adopting coordinated policies that dismantle existing barriers to new services," urged the EU's Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding.
Here come the digital natives
And the importance of the digital and knowledge-based economy has grown more with the current economic crisis. Globally, the EU is most competitive in the higher-tech, high value-added sectors - and global competition is becoming fiercer in these areas.
One promising avenue for the future is the nurturing of the younger, more digitally savvy generation. People aged 16 to 24, the so-called 'digital natives', are the most active internet users. Not only do they possess high-level internet skills, but some three-quarters of them regularly use advanced services to create and share online content, while two-thirds of all Europeans under 24 use the internet every day.
"We should seize the opportunity of a new generation of Europeans who will soon be calling the shots in the European market place," notes Reding. "To release the economic potential of these 'digital natives', we must make access to digital content an easy and fair game."
The importance of excellence
Organised jointly by the European Commission and the European Economic and Social Committee, in partnership with stakeholders, the European e-Skills 2009 Conference, which took place on 20 November 2009 in Brussels, focused on ICT professionalism.
Participants agreed that further work on developing, validating and certifying ICT professionalism is needed and suggested new initiatives to develop a European framework for the definition and the promotion of ICT professionalism and professions based on the European e-Competence Framework.
In addition to issues of professionalism, the gathering focused on the progress registered so far in the implementation of the e-Skills strategy and charting a course towards a coordinated strategy to foster ICT professionalism, e-Skills and innovation for economic recovery.
Changing e-Skills landscape
The assembled stakeholders agreed that all the major action lines identified by the 2007 e-Skills strategy have been addressed. However, the demands being placed on e-Skills are changing quite radically, participants noted. Collaboration, critical thinking, problem-solving, creativity and entrepreneurship are becoming increasingly important and ICT can help facilitate these by providing powerful tools for knowledge and value creation and sharing.
To build on these successes and address emerging issues, such as the new challenges thrown up by the global economic crisis, requires the development of a longer-term e-Skills strategy that focuses more specifically on higher-level e-Skills.
Moreover, future economic success will increasingly depend on the competitive application of technologies. In this light, the conference concluded that a European agenda for economic recovery and growth cannot disregard the important role of e-Skills and professionalism for innovative capacity, the future Internet, green technologies and social inclusion.
Raising the profile of e-Skills
In the context of the 'e-Skills for the 21st century' strategy, the EU is organising a dedicated e-Skills Week from 1 to 5 March 2010. With a wide range of entertaining and educational events - such as training sessions, school visits and competitions - planned across Europe, the Week seeks to raise citizen awareness of the growing demand for highly skilled ICT practitioners and the importance of e-Skills in today's society. This high-profile occasion is expected to bring together more than 300 000 participants who will take part in more than 100 activities.
Stakeholders - including public authorities, the ICT industry and educational establishment - will join forces to organise these events.
Details of activities and events will soon be published on the e-Skills Week website.
The text only of the articles can be republished as long as the source of the article is quoted: Enterprise & Industry magazine (http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/magazine/index_en.htm), © European Union, 2008 - 2012
