Articles
Commission Leads Efforts to Close Europe’s Digital Gap!
While the unemployment lines are growing in numbers, there’s one profession facing a 700,000 job gap in Europe! ICT specialists are in demand but the number of graduates entering the workforce is shrinking.
Statistics show that even during the crisis, Europe is showing an annual 3% job increase in this field, but youth seems to be looking elsewhere.
To face the possibility of major telecom and IT companies picking up and taking their business outside Europe, the Commission steps up and calls for action to perk up the digital skills and job market.
From the World Economic Forum in Davos, European Commission Vice-President Neelie Kroes says that “The ICT sector is the new backbone of Europe's economy, and together we can prevent a lost generation and an uncompetitive Europe. So I am expecting concrete pledges by companies, everyone I meet will be getting the same request. The Commission will do its bit but we can't do it alone – companies, social partners and education players – including at national and regional level - have to stand with us."
Major IT companies are committing to act in this dir
ection by pledging jobs, internships, free on-line university courses and more. And to make it official, the Commission will kick-off a Grand Coalition for Digital Skills and Jobs at a major pledging conference on March 3rd and 4th of this year.
Another strategic move the Commission is making, is the job creation potential of web start-ups, by launching Startup Europe, a single platform for tools and programmes supporting people wanting to set up and grow web start-ups in Europe.
Read more on this….