Today marks a major step forward in closing the digital skills gap in Europe. Together with stakeholders and national partners, we are bringing the Digital Skills and Jobs Platform to life. After months of preparations and fine-tuning, we invite the community to use it, benefit from it and enhance it. Together we want to turn this online tool into a one-stop-shop that serves students, enterprises, job seekers, employees, digital experts, policy-makers and anyone who wants to improve their digital skills.
42% of Europeans don’t have even basic digital skills. Millions of experts in cybersecurity, AI, cloud, HPC and other digital domains are missing on the job market. Although significant, European and national efforts to close the digital skills gap have remained so far fragmented. Too often, a successful initiative from one country remained undiscovered in the rest of the EU. Too many policy actions and strategies did not reach their full potential because important players did not get involved. Visions did not materialise for lack of collaboration. The Platform aims to change this.
With this virtual home, we are bringing all digital skills actions and initiatives in the EU under one roof, as requested by EU Member States. The Platform should bring best available online resources at your fingertips – whether you search for a training opportunity, good practice, news, latest data or policy strategies.
The Platform hosts an active community: a secure space for sharing ideas and discussing projects; for networking and finding likeminded partners to scale up your current initiative or start from scratch as a team.
With the Recovery and Resilience Facility and the Digital Europe Programme, we want the Platform to become the tool that transforms digital upskilling into a shared, collaborative effort. We act together to reach the objectives described in the Digital Decade strategy by 2030:
- 80% of Europeans with at least basic digital skills
- 20 million employed digital technology experts
We are not starting from scratch. The Shaping Europe’s Digital Future strategy, the European Skills Agenda and the Digital Education Action Plan provide the important strategic vision. The Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition gathers over 560 companies, organisations and institutions that act to improve the digital skills of their employees, suppliers or in their community. National Coalitions work together to tackle the digital skills gap in 25 EU countries.
The Platform brings these National Coalitions together to exchange and promote opportunities and inspirational stories from their countries. Replicating and scaling up successful initiatives anywhere in the EU will become much easier and will help us reach the Digital Decade targets.
Millions of Europeans need digital upskilling. Millions of companies are looking for digital experts. This joint effort across borders and technological fields propelled by our experience, know-how and enthusiasm will help people and businesses in Europe to make the most of the digital transformation.
We are opening a new chapter in our effort to boost digital skills in Europe. Do join us on this exciting journey.
