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Searching for I.T. Talent: Proven Advice from CIOs and leaders

Talent is now recognized globally as the single major issue standing in the way of technology companies achieving their objectives. The shift to digital and technology-led economy is creating a talent void which is putting many companies' survival at risk. In a research report published in June, Harvard Business Review and Red Hat pair up to review some of the best practices CIOs can share in the war for talent across the globe.

The nature of skills that organisations need are changing at a dramatic pace. With cloud computing and mobile-first services, skills that were important a few years ago are becoming fast irrelevant. At the same time, the higher-level skills now in demand are scarce. In 2015 big data and analytics top the list of hard-to-fill positions in a global survey of 4,000 IT leaders by Harvey Nash, a global recruitment company headquartered in London.

Read more on e-Skills for Jobs 2016

EPALE: A practical training programme for migrants in Malta

The Foundation for Shelter and Support to Migrants (FSM) and the Third Country National Support Network (TSN Malta) are inviting interested migrants to participate in a training programme on mentoring, peacebuilding, and community methods for supporting people to improve their basic skills in communication, language and literacy for employment.

The aim of this project is to train migrants and their communities to develop their own mentoring and support skills and programmes for helping vulnerable persons integrate in society through the provision of mentoring and support. The project will provide learning and support tools, based on community methods, that participants can use to start their own mentoring programmes to provide employment and social support, to promote literacy, and to help people to improve their language, IT and communication skills, as well as acquire cultural knowledge.

The project will also train migrants in peacebuilding, and on how one can analyse and resolve cultural conflicts. Participants will find space to organise their own cultural events during the project, based on these principles. They will also have the chance to work with migrants from other cultures, and to develop cross-cultural activities.

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New "Entrepreneurship Competence Framework" published by Commission to raise awareness of entrepreneurial skills

As part of the Skills Agenda for Europe, the Commission has published an "Entrepreneurship Competence Framework" to raise consensus about what entrepreneurship skills are.

The development of the entrepreneurial capacity of European citizens and organisations is one of the key policy objectives for the EU and Member States.

The Entrepreneurship Competence Framework (EntreComp) proposes a shared definition of entrepreneurship as a competence and aims to establish a bridge between education and work.

The framework develops 15 competences along an 8-level progression model and proposes a comprehensive list of 442 learning outcomes.

The framework can be used as a basis for the development of curricula and learning activities fostering entrepreneurship as a competence. Also, it can be used for the definition of parameters to assess learners’ and citizens’ entrepreneurial competences.

Source

World Economic Forum: "8 digital skills we must teach our children"

The social and economic impact of technology is widespread and accelerating. The speed and volume of information have increased exponentially. Experts are predicting that 90% of the entire population will be connected to the internet within 10 years. With the internet of things, the digital and physical worlds will soon be merged. These changes herald exciting possibilities. But they also create uncertainty. And our kids are at the centre of this dynamic change.

Children are using digital technologies and media at increasingly younger ages and for longer periods of time. They spend an average of seven hours a day in front of screens – from televisions and computers, to mobile phones and various digital devices. This is more than the time children spend with their parents or in school. As such, it can have a significant impact on their health and well-being. What digital content they consume, who they meet online and how much time they spend onscreen – all these factors will greatly influence children’s overall development.

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UK Parliament, Science and Technology Committee warns about digital skills crisis

The Science and Technology Committee publishes a report warning that the UK risks being left behind if the Government does not take more action to address the digital skills crisis.

Report findings

12.6 million adults in the UK lack basic digital skills; 5.8 million people have never used the internet; only 35% of computer teachers in schools have a relevant degree and 30% of the required number of computer science teachers have not been recruited; and 13% of computer graduates are still unemployed 6 months after leaving university. This digital skills gap is costing the UK economy £63 billion a year in lost GDP.

The gap between digital skills possessed and digital skills needed demonstrates a long-running weakness in the UK’s approach to this crisis. The Committee is calling for:

  • Digital skills to be made one of the core components in all apprenticeships, not just "digital apprenticeships"
  • Industry led vocationally-focused digital careers advice in universities.
  • Universities to provide ‘code conversion courses’ to help graduates from non-computer science backgrounds enter the tech sector
  • After introducing the much needed computer curriculum in schools, the Government to establish a forum for employers to feedback on the continuing development of the curriculum, and Ofsted to include it in its school inspections
  • A review of the qualifying requirements for ‘shortage occupation’ IT jobs under ‘Tier 2 visas’, to allow SMEs to get critical digital skills from abroad
  • Apprenticeship scheme processes to be simplified to allow SMEs to participate more easily.

Source

Telecentre Europe Annual Conference 2016 (TEAC16) - upcoming event!

For the ninth year Telecentre Europe will organise its annual conference under the theme of Digital Skills for Future Work on 06-08th of October, 2016. This year the event will be hosted by Belgian member Digipolis Ghent at the NH Gent Belfort Hotel in Ghent.

Day 1 (Thursday 7th October) will be focused on policy and practice around digital skills for future technologies and modes of employment. Delegates will then consider the future needs of citizens and plan for interventions that will support them. Day 2 (Friday, 8th October) will provide further in-depth discussion on future skills for learning and recruitment, how industry and government can help organisations to adapt, with some practical ‘how to’ sessions. It will also provide a forum to discover the learning from specific transferable projects of the member organisations.

The culmination of the conference on Friday evening will be the Telecentre Awards 2016 ceremony to recognise the best individuals and organisations in digital inclusion across Europe.

Delegates will also be able to preview the Ghent Digital Interactive Fair on Saturday 8th October.

To learn more about the upcoming event, please check the TEAC16 Programme

Digital Skills at the core of the new Skills Agenda for Europe

The European Commission has set out steps to improve digital skills in Europe, which are the cornerstone of a truly functioning digital society and Digital Single Market. These steps were outlined in the New Skills Agenda for Europe: working together for human capital, employability and competitiveness, adopted recently by the European Commission.

Its purpose is to improve the quality of skills development, make skills and qualifications more visible and comparable and improve skills intelligence for better career choices.

In the future all jobs will require digital skills, and despite continued high levels of unemployment there could be 756 000 unfilled jobs for ICT professional by 2020.

Andrus Ansip, Vice-President for the Digital Single Market, said: "There is a clear and urgent need to boost digital skills. Our Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition is not only about filling existing jobs. It is also about the many new jobs that a truly functioning Digital Single Market will create."

Read more

Report shows digital skills are required across all types of work, also for jobs outside the office

On June 15th, 2016 the European Commission published a report on the impact of information and communication technologies (ICT) on job quality. Looking at the evidence from 12 specific types of non-office jobs, the report found that the use of digital technologies is beginning to have a profound effect on the tasks carried out and the skills required for many jobs outside the traditional office.

The report 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.

Find more

Euractiv: Cities demand central role in digital skills revolution

A network of major European cities has called on the EU to place its members at the heart of efforts to boost digital skills, tackle unemployment and prepare citizens for the high value jobs of the future.

The number of EU citizens not in education, employment or training (NEETs) is growing, and many lack the basic skills they need to be a part of the modern economy. This lack of skills has a negative impact on long-term unemployment and inequality.

More than 40% of EU citizens lack basic digital skills, according to the European Commission. The executive also predicts that the skills gap will lead to 756,000 unfilled jobs in the EU’s high tech industries by 2020.

To address this issue, the Commission has launched its New Skills Agenda for Europe. This scheme is designed to equip Europeans with more, and more relevant skills by connecting education and businesses and recognising skills learned outside of school.

Read the full article on Euractiv

Joinup - European colleges share SMEs open source training

Tertiary education institutes (hochschule and university college) and ICT training specialists from across Europe are creating a course to train students to help small and medium-sized enterprises select and use open source cloud services. The course will be tested on Spanish and British exchange students working for SMEs in the two countries.

Having completed the course successfully, students must know how to determine the ICT needs of SMEs, select the best open source tools or cloud services that meet those needs, and be able to implement and configure the solutions. Examples of services include creating and hosting company websites, reducing the costs of management, and improving customer relations.

The trainings are developed by tertiary education institutes in Remmen (Norway), Skovde (Sweden) and Berlin (Germany), working with ICT training organisations and public administrations in Madrid (Spain) and Sheffield (UK). The two-year project received a EUR 200,000 grant from the European Union’s Erasmus+ programme. Cisoss started in September, and the project will end in August 2017.

Read the full article on Joinup

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