e-Skills - Supporting information
Initiatives in the e-Skills domain started in several Member States at the end of the 1990s in response to severe shortages of ICT practitioners. With the burst of the Internet bubble a reaction set in, but the Commission kept a strong interest on this issue. The Commission supported industry efforts and established several expert groups, in particular the European e-Skills Forum. These efforts led in 2007 to the adoption by the Commission of the Communication on "e-Skills for the 21st Century: Fostering Competitiveness Growth and Jobs".
e-Skills Steering Committee
The e-Skills Steering Committee was set up at the end of 2009 with representatives of all CIP/EIP participating countries to help the European Commission to organise the European e-Skills Week 2010 and to organise the external evaluation of the implementation of the European Commission's on "e-Skills for the 21st Century" over the period 2007-2010.
Presentations – eSSC meeting of 17 June 2011
DTI e-Skills and cloud computing 
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e-Skills [5 MB]
European e-Competence Framework [2 MB]
ICT Professionalism [878 KB]
Evaluation of the implementation of the European Commission's Communication on e-Skills for the 21st Century
Final Report on the Evaluation of the Implementation of the Communication
The external evaluation of the implementation of the Communication was completed in October 2010. It concluded positively on the relevance and the achievements of the EU activities in this field. It recommended the continuation of the EU long term e-skills agenda and support to the development of Member States' e-skills strategies, the increase of the resources devoted to e-skills activities and closer co-ordination and synchronisation of the actions at the European and the national level. It also recommended to focus on identified gaps taking account of the disparities between Member States and to strengthen the monitoring of progress in order to further increase effectiveness, added-value, visibility and sustainability.
Evaluation of the European e-Skills Week 2010
Final report on the evaluation
The external evaluation of the 2010 European e-Skills Week was completed in August 2010. It concluded on the global relevance, efficiency and effectiveness of the campaign. It recommended to maintain the measure for several years in order to ensure effective impacts and suggested further improvements to the Commission and to the other stakeholders. The organisation of the future edition of the European e-Skills Week in 2012 will take due account of these recommendations.
Dialogue and Consultation (2001-2007)
ICT Skills Monitoring Group (2001-2002).
I was established as a follow-up of the conference on the e-Economy organised in Brussels on 1-2 March 2001. A benchmarking report of national policies was discussed at the European e-Skills Summit organised in co-operation with the Danish Presidency on 17-18 October 2002 in Copenhagen. Council Conclusions were adopted on 5 December 2002.
European e-Skills Forum (2003-2004).
The setting up of the Forum corresponded to the implementation of a recommendation formulated at the European e-Skills Summit). It was composed of representatives of Member States, Cedefop, the OECD and stakeholders. The Forum released its report "e-Skills in Europe: Towards 2010 and Beyond" in September 2004. Subsequently, several studies were launched in 2005 based on the recommendations of the Forum to prepare for the development of a long-term e-skills agenda.
ICT Task Force (2006) on competitiveness of the ICT sector and ICT uptake in Europe.
The Task Force set up six working groups, including one on skills and employability. The Task Force released its final report in November 2006 including recommendations on e-Skills.
Expert Group on e-Skills to help design the long-term e-skills agenda.
The group was composed on representatives of Member States, relevant Commission's services, Cedefop, OECD and stakeholders. A Declaration was adopted at the European e-Skills 2006 Conference which was organised in Thessaloniki on 5-6 October 2006. It was an important milestone towards the preparation of a long term e-Skills agenda.
The European e-Skills Forum, the Thessaloniki Declaration of 2006 and the report of the ICT Task Force include detailed and concrete proposals for a long-term e-Skills agenda.
Supporting Standardisation Actions
CEN (European Committee for Standardisation) and its Workshop on ICT Skills is actively developing and promoting a European e-Competence Framework and related projects and initiatives.
See: http://www.cen.eu/CEN/sectors/sectors/isss/activity/Pages/wsict-skills.aspx
