ICT Skills – it is never too late - CSR in Europe, Middle East and Africa -
CSR in Europe, Middle East and Africa » ICT Skills – it is never too late
ICT Skills – it is never too late
Did you know that over one third of Europeans have no basic ICT skills And that there is an ongoing decline in the number of students starting ICT courses across the European member nations? Not to forget about the gender issue as less than 20 percent of ICT practitioners in the EU are women!

We have talked about these facts for some time already. For some reason the required changes didn’t happen over the past couple of years. This is why the situation is increasingly alarming as the consequences of such skills-shortages do not only have an impact on the European economy and competitiveness but also lead to social exclusion.

Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for the Information Society and Media has summarized the situation in the following way:

"Shortfalls of qualified ICT practitioners slow down new ICT applications in the economy and draw away billions of euros of investment funds to more dynamic emerging economies where hundreds of thousands of new engineers are qualifying each year. We can no longer afford to waste the talents of millions of Europeans by leaving them out of the information society. Member states and industry must commit to a substantial e-skills strategy."

This clearly states how burning the requirements are to turn around the negative trend and to join forces between government, industry, educational institutions and any other stakeholders who can make a positive contribution to strengthen the European position in information society.

The European Commission has proposed a long-term e-skills agenda including a set of actions at an EU level in June this year. In addition a number of IT companies including HP launched the e-Skills Industry Leadership Board in June this year with clear objectives and the mission to lead the ICT sectors contribution to the development and implementation of a long-term e-skills and digital literacy agenda in Europe. 

The agenda for change is pretty complex and there are required significant resources, a most pragmatic approach with clear actions which leads to fulfillment in the foreseeable future.

After attending the last e-skills leadership board meeting this week in Brussels I have been impressed by the great working spirit of the team and the pretty open dialogue between EU and industry representatives. There are strong commitments to make the required changes happen with clearly defined action items. You are going to see and hear much more about this shortly.

In the end it is up to each one of us to catch-up on IT skills and make sure to participate in any opportunities of Europe’s information society. What did you do yourself to be on track and contribute to European leadership position in IT? It’s never too late to get actively involved!

Jeannette Weisschuh, Head of Corporate Affairs , HP EMEA
Posted 09-27-2007 9:31 AM by BlogArchive
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Comments

910202145156 wrote what is ICT???
on 01-05-2008 3:45 PM
actually what is ICT...because i'm form4 now...at my school got a new lesson...call ICT...but,i dun very unterstand what is ICT...pls tell me...thx...
jeannette.weisschuh wrote Re: ICT Skills – it is never too late
on 01-07-2008 3:52 AM
Hallo, thank you for your comment. I apologize for not explaining the meaning of the abbreviation. ICT stands for: Information and Communications Technology. Best regards, Jeannette
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