EC Warning Over ICT Skills And Job Surplus

The European Commission (EC) has expressed concerns that half of the European labour force does not have sufficient ICT skills and has warned that this could lead to an ICT job surplus in the future.

The findings were a result of the EC’s annual Digital Agenda scoreboard, which assessed the progress made on 78 digital agenda actions at European Union and 23 at national level.

The scoreboard also noted that there had been a “big trend” towards mobile services and technology and that European citizens, businesses and innovators were generating enough demand to put Europe into sustainable economic growth.

Progress made

Of the 101 actions of the Digital Agenda, it was found that 34 had been completed, 52 were on track and that 15 are delayed or at risk.

The EC found that 95 percent had access to a fixed broadband connection, while mobile internet uptake grew by 62 percent. Fifteen million Europeans connected for the first time in 2011, with 68 percent of Europeans going online regularly and 170 million using social networks. For the first time, the majority of disadvantaged Europeans have used the Internet, but one in four have never used it.

Greece, Portugal and Ireland have all turned to eGovernment to help maintain quality public services, something which the EC says demonstrates their value during tough economic times.

Skills shortage

However it was discovered that although 43 percent of the EU population have medium or high Internet skills, nearly half were not confident that their abilities were sufficient in the labour market and almost a quarter had none whatsoever.

The EC said that this will make it difficult to fill the 700,000 ICT vacancies expected by 20175 while it is also concerned that the EU ICT research sector is now less than half that of the  US .

“Europeans are hungry for digital technologies and more digital choices, but governments and industry are not keeping up with them,” said European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes. “This attachment to 20th century policy mindsets and business models is hurting Europe’s economy. It’s a terrible shame. We are shooting ourselves in the foot by under-investing. Europe will be flattened by its global competitors if we continue to be complacent.”

The EC has previously expressed a belief that the youth are not ‘digitally competent’, while Kroes herself has also warned of a skills shortage. However, according to a recent poll of TechWeekEurope readers, the best way out of any crisis would be more apprenticeships.

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