The Fourth Industrial Revolution is accelerating the digital transformation of Europe.
In order for the European digital single market to become a reality, we need to improve the digital skills of European youth and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs)
According to the European Commission, the creation of the EU’s digital single market will contribute an additional €415 billion per year to the European economy and create hundreds of thousands of new jobs.
In view of these new opportunities, the European Commission opens its Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition Conference in Brussels on December 7, 2017. Claire Bury, Deputy Director General (DG Connect) of the European Commission will open the day-long session with Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for the Digital Economy and Society, sharing their vision for future digital skills policy in Europe.
A central part the digital revolution is to create real opportunities for the next generation of workers, Europe needs to tackle its growing digital skills deficit by preparing for the emergence of new occupational profiles. Currently, about two in every five Europeans do not have sufficient digital skills and many of them are unemployed.
The EU has agreed that technological innovation and digitization are powerful drivers altering its labour markets,creating new opportunities and challenges. What’s more, digital skills, such as information literacy, videoconferencing or the sharing of digital content are required in almost all in-demand jobs, and they have become transversal skills.
In the European Commission’s May 2017’s A Concept Paper on Digitalization, Employability and Inclusion states that,
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“Waiting for the problem to occur and then to react is not optimal. Ideally, [EU member states] should take advantage of the fact that even in a fast-moving digital environment there is still a time lapse which allows to prepare for a sustainable transition” (p.4). |
You can view plenary sessions via webcast on “Digital Skills” at 15h00 Brussels time by clicking on this webstream
Conference programme:
Additional Resources:
- European Commission (2017): A Concept Paper on Digitalization, Employability and Inclusion
- European Commission (2017): DigComp 2.1: The Digital Competence Framework for Citizens
- ITC-ILO Tech@Work Blog (2017): Leveraging Our Comparative Advantages Over Robots: The Bottlenecks of Automation
- ITC-ILO Tech@Work Blog (2017): Guy Ryder announces “Digital Skills for Decent Jobs for Youth” Campaign
- ITC-ILO Tech@Work Blog (2017): Digital Skills in the EU Labour Market
- ITC-ILO Tech@Work Blog (2017): Social Dialogue for the Future of Manufacturing