News

e-Skills Match Project publishes its first article

The e-Skills Match team is proud to announce the publication of the project’s first article in a high-impact journal!

Project partners Luis Fernández-Sanz, Josefa Gómez-Pérez and Ana Castillo-Martínez published an article titled “e-Skills Match: A framework for mapping and integrating the main skills, knowledge and competence standards and models for ICT occupations”. It is part of a scientific journal named “Computer Standards & Interfaces” ranked as Q2 in the world prestigious ranking of JCR by ISI and it’s featured in the 51st volume.

The article defines the ways in which the e-Skills Match Framework will function. Specifically, it will enable the development of future support systems which may provide self-assessment functions for job candidates, recommender modules to guide their training to target occupations and the possibility of knowledge validation options aligned to the specific set of skills, knowledge and competences used as basic elements of the model.

You can read more on this topic here

or You could read the free pre-print version here

e-Skills Match - Usability workshop by eGovlab

On the 21^st of December 2016 our project partners from eGovlab successfully hosted a usability workshop with experts in the field. In total 8 people participated and provided their input.

The workshop started with an introduction to the e-Skills Match project and a presentation on the e-Skills Match demo followed. The participants had the opportunity to get familiarized with the demo website by opening it on their own laptops. Later on, three exercises were conducted on the e-Skills Match demo.

The objectives of the workshop were: a) to understand the user experience & identify shortcomings and b) to Map the user journey.

World Economic Forum - Is online learning the future of education?

In the past, if you wanted to get a qualification, or even simply learn something new, you would sign up for a course at a bricks-and-mortar institution, pay any relevant fees, and then physically attend class. That was until the online learning revolution started.

Last year, the e-learning market was worth an enormous $166.5 billion. It’s been estimated that this will grow to $255 billion by 2017. Its growing financial value is matched only by the swelling numbers of students choosing to follow an online course.

In the latest Global Shapers Survey of 25,000 young people from across the world, 77.84% of respondents reported having taken online courses in the past. So is online learning the future of education?

Read the full article

DiPP - The app economy: next driver for growth and jobs in Europe? - upcoming event

Date: 27 September 2016
Location: Brussels

The smartphone, along with its cousin, the tablet, and a fast-expanding family of “wearables” and other “smart” devices are transforming the way people live, work, play, connect, and interact around the world. In the process, they are converting the digital revolution into an increasingly mobile phenomenon. Innovation in the tech sector are unleashing invention in countless other areas as consumers adopt new behavioral patterns and businesses find ways to improve efficiency, develop new products and services, and expand their market reach. Only recently, the Progressive Policy Institute found that the European App Economy includes 1.64 million jobs as of January 2016 and already in 2013, the mobile economy generated more than 90 billion euros. In other words, Europe’s app economy is doing extremely well’.

This workshop will discuss how this impressive track-record contributes to growth and jobs. Among issues worth debating: how the app-economy enhances creativity and productivity across the board; why is Europe so successful in this respect; how can the EU support the mobile economy; what are the regulatory facing app developers; the role of platforms.

The set of distinguished experts below have accepted to lend their expertise and start a conversation, we hope you will be able to join and nurture.

Read the full article

162 Future Jobs: Preparing for Jobs that Don’t Yet Exist

An interesting article by Futurist Thomas Frey focusing on many of the future jobs within these industries that currently don’t exist.

"Last week I was speaking at an event in Istanbul. As usual, once I landed at the airport, I made my way to the customs area where I was greeted by no fewer than 1,000 people in line ahead of me.

Long lines in airport customs is not unusual. But as I waded through this 45-minute process I couldn’t help but do some mental calculations surrounding the massive waste of human capital throughout this whole process. Since there were two separate customs areas at the Istanbul airport, my rough calculations came out to well over 10 million man-hours a year wasted at this one single airport.

It’s not unusual for governments to waste people’s time over what they like to phrase as “the greater good.” However, this entire security process will eventually be automated down to a fraction of the time it takes today, eliminating the need for over 90% of all customs agents.

The same goes for TSA-like security agents on the front end of airports. Within the next decade, 90% of those jobs will be gone as well. All of them, automated out of existence."

Read the full article here

The European Vocational Skills Week

Date: 5-9 December 2016
Location: Brussels, Belgium

This first European Vocational Skills Week will take place from 5 to 9 December 2016 with events in Brussels and parallel activities in Member States, EFTA and EU candidate countries at national, regional and local levels.

What is it about?

This is to improve the attractiveness and image of vocational education and training. We want to showcase excellence and quality and raise awareness of the wide range of opportunities.

Find more

e-Skills For Jobs 2016: "What do you really need today to break into IT"

The IT sector has been changing rapidly over the past years and, as a consequence, so have the skills and experiences organisations are looking for in a candidate. More and more, employers are turning to certifications, internships and apprenticeships.

Hiring leaders are increasingly focused on identifying candidates with specific talents, regardless of where they were acquired. According to CompTIA’s 2015 study, HR Perceptions of IT Training and Certification, 98 percent of HR and hiring managers are willing to consider qualifications outside of university on an applicant’s resume. Almost half (42 percent), of HR and hiring managers will consider significant experience instead of a degree, while 38 percent view a certification from a reputable organisation as a viable alternative, and 35 percent hold internships and apprenticeships in equal regard

Even so, a majority of students and parents view a bachelor’s degree as a necessary credential within the IT industry. However, skills and experience are the new currency for budding careers in technology. This skill-focused alternative to traditional degrees is a pragmatic approach. It comes at a lower price tag than even public universities and translates directly to expertise used on the job. Showcasing these qualifications on a resume or cover letter also makes it easier for hiring managers to match their needs against applicants’ skills and experiences.

Read the full article on eSkills For Jobs 2016 website

"IT Oath" to promote ethical consciousness among IT professionals at the beginning of their career

NGI-NGN and ECDL Netherlands recently launched an initiative to promote ethical consciousness among IT professionals who are at the beginning of their career. The Oath is modelled on similar declarations used in other professions, with the famous Hippocratic Oath being a prime example.

At the launch of the initiative, Roy Osinga, Managing Director of ECDL Netherlands said, "The Oath, on one hand aims to contribute to professionalism. Perhaps even more important is, that it is a stimulus to act ethically. Many IT professionals have become the architects of how we live and live together. With this, we hope to introduce a form of reflection on socially conscious action."

Both organisations involved in this action—NGI-NGN and ECDL Netherlands—are responsible for delivering ECDL in the Netherlands.

Source

New Skills Agenda for Europe featured in the Programme of Slovak Presidency of the Council of the European Union

The New Skills Agenda for Europe has featured prominently in the programme for Slovakia’s term in the presidency of the Council of the European Union. The document calls for greater levels of adult education, with the inclusion of digital, entrepreneurial and transversal skills.

According to the programme, the Slovak Presidency will follow the priorities that are set out in the European Commission’s New Skills Agenda for Europe. The programme emphasises that the Presidency will have a focus on, “developing tools and services for skills and qualification and on improving their comparability”, continuing to state that, “it will also address the modernisation of higher education and digital skills.”

Slovakia began its term in the Presidency on 1 July, and will continue until the end of the year. More information can be found on the website of the Slovak Presidency.

Source

Report shows digital skills are fundamental for non-office jobs

The European Commission has recently published a report that looked at 12 specific types of non-office jobs. The main finding is that the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) profoundly affects the work tasks and skills requirements of all types of work, including jobs outside the traditional office.

The report "The impact of ICT on job quality: evidence from 12 job profiles" is the first part of a wide-ranging study which will provide comprehensive evidence regarding digital skills in the workplace. The results will feed into the Commission's work on digital skills and its new initiative the Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition.

The 12 non-office based job profiles presented are: dairy farmer, machine operator, industrial designer, building electrician, transport clerk, car mechanic, police detective, VET teacher, property caretaker, doctor in a hospital, animator and desktop publisher.

Read the full article in e-Skills For Jobs 2016